Jazz dragging 5-game skid to face Portland

By Tim Buckley, Deseret News

Published: Friday, Dec. 14 2007 12:24 a.m. MST

Summary

Maybe he was being downright defensive, something his team has been not nearly enough of lately. Perhaps he was trying to be protective, hoping that his comments prompt the Jazz to bond rather than splinter in trying times. Or it could be that he really was proud, simply happy to see some honest effort and energy.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Maybe he was being downright defensive, something his team has been not nearly enough of lately. Perhaps he was trying to be protective, hoping that his comments prompt the Jazz to bond rather than splinter in trying times. Or it could be that he really was proud, simply happy to see some honest effort and energy.

Whatever the case, Jerry Sloan's uncharacteristically upbeat comments after a 103-98 loss at Phoenix on Wednesday night were reflective of a coach who clearly did not want to kick his club — losers now of five in a row — while it's down.

"That's part of basketball," Sloan, looking ahead to tonight's visit with Portland, said of yet another loss in which the 13-10 Jazz had their fair share of fourth-quarter chances.

"I just hope our players are intelligent enough to forget it and get ready to do a better job the next time they play," he added. "I'm not gonna panic."

Sloan, whose Jazz are fresh from an appearance in last season's NBA Western Conference finals, has experienced too much in his two-plus decades of coaching to be reaching for the big red button so soon.

"I've been around a long time and seen a lot of different things," he said. "These guys, they have not had any of those things in the last year or so. Everything has gone pretty smooth for them. They were kind of Cinderella guys. Now, when things don't go well, how do we fight out of that?"

That's all Sloan wants to know.

His players, for their part, seem to be sticking to a path of minimal trepidation as well.

Said leading scorer and rebounder Carlos Boozer when asked what it will take to stop the skid: "Just keep doing what we're doing, but do it a little bit better."

"We still feel like we have a good basketball team," big man Paul Millsap added after a 20-point, 13-rebound night. "We feel like we can get to where we did last year, but it starts with us. We've got to get this turned around, and once we do that, the sky's the limit for us."

In Arizona, however, the 17-6 Suns represented a ceiling Utah couldn't quite reach.

"You know, Phoenix had lost a couple games (coming in) — it sounded like they'd lost the whole season," Sloan said.