• "Hopefully we can play the same on the road (as at home)," Boozer added.

• Or, as Kirilenko put it, "We need to start playing good on the road."

Ideas on just how the Jazz should go about doing that, however, aren't so simplistic.

Jazz players seem to have been programmed the past few outings to believe it all starts with defense.

"We've got to take that same intensity on the defensive side to the road," Boozer said after a particularly impressive defensive effort during the fourth quarter of the Jazz's Monday home win over Milwaukee.

"I think it's just a mind-set," Williams added Wednesday. "I think we've got to pull our energy level up, and our defense has to be a lot better on the road."

Suggest the same to Sloan, however, and the Jazz coach responds with a curve.

"The key to us is ... to execute our offense," he said Wednesday. "Because if we don't execute our offense, they'll run a lot easier. ... If we take a lot of bad shots, that's gonna play into their hands. ... We have to try to make them guard us."

Reality to that facet of Sloan's idealism is that it all goes hand-in-hand.

No wonder even he, when pressed, actually admitted tonight's meeting is not completely akin to all the rest.

"It's an important game," Sloan conceded in what was perhaps a moment of weakness. "Anytime you play a team in your division, it's always very important."

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com