Jazz ready to play pair of struggling NBA foes

SEATTLE — One glance at what's on the table, and the Jazz drool.

Understandably so, too.

Their opponent tonight here is 0-5 Seattle. On Saturday night at EnergySolutions Arena, it's 1-2 Memphis — which is not also winless only because the Grizzlies beat the Sonics on Wednesday night.

Sometimes, though, that sizzling steak on the plate isn't all it appears to be. Sometimes, marble trumps meat — and makes what should be a delicious dinner one awful evening of lousy chew.

Or, as point guard Deron Williams put it ...

"I hate playing an '0-fer' team," he said. "It's tough, because they want to get that win so bad. They'll be playing hard, and you might tend to overlook them."

Jerry Sloan, too, refuses to be influenced by outside appearance.

"I don't look at (Seattle's record), because those are the toughest games you have to play," the Jazz coach said. "People, they already have it written down as a win. There's no such thing."

Reality, however, is that this is the time in the 3-2 Jazz's early season schedule when temptation is to start penciling in some W's.

New coach P.J. Carlesimo's Sonics — now that Rashard Lewis used free agency to bolt Seattle after nine seasons for Orlando, and now that Ray Allen is in Boston via trade — are a young and rebuilding lot.

Memphis, which follows in the back end of a back-to-back set, is a project under construction as well for new coach Marc Iavaroni, the former Jazz big man.

Beyond that awaits next week's slate of Sacramento, Toronto, Cleveland and Indiana — two of whom, the Kings and Pacers, like the Sonics and Grizzlies, were sub-.500 teams in the 2006-07 NBA season.

This comes on the heels of having opened this season with five straight games against teams that took part in last season's playoffs, including the Eastern Conference-champion Cavaliers.

No wonder the Jazz, who have not yet won two straight in 2007-08, are salivating just a bit over the notion of starting their first win streak of the season — one that could be a long one at that.

"This is a huge stretch for us," said starting power forward Carlos Boozer, who has five double-doubles in as many games so far this season. "You know, we have some teams that on paper we should beat."