The Utah Jazz were down 31-23 Saturday night to the Seattle Sonics, a team with only 16 wins for the season. The boos started to come out at EnergySolutions Arena, a place where the home team is not often out of favor.

But it was the third night that week that the Jazz had started slowly, which also doesn't happen often at ESA. Utah won two of those games, against Toronto and Seattle, but never came close against the Los Angeles Lakers in a loss on Thursday.

"You definitely have to be concerned because that's not how we've been playing all year, and we've had so much success at home," said Jazz point guard Deron Williams before Monday's practice. "We've relied on coming out and having great starts and getting hot at the right time, and I think we've got to try to get back to that."

The Jazz get their next chance tonight at 7 when the Charlotte Bobcats enter ESA.

Yes, those Bobcats, who are 25-44 and 12th in the Eastern Conference of the NBA but who slapped the Jazz with a 98-92 loss during their dreadful December on the road — a game that started with Charlotte leading 21-19 after the first quarter and got ugly enough that Jazz coach Jerry Sloan pulled guard Gordan Giricek off the floor during a timeout and sent him to the locker room. Giricek was traded to Philadelphia (and since picked up by Phoenix) for Kyle Korver about 10 days later.

While Williams — who said Monday the right hand he bruised Saturday night is fine — had some uncomfortable thoughts about being down by more than 20 points after the first quarters in those three games last week, his favorite target for assists, Carlos Boozer, had kind of an opposite take.

"Nope. That's very few and far between for us," he said. "That doesn't happen much. It did happen, of course, but it doesn't happen very often for us, so I'm not concerned about it."

Utah's five-game homestand continues with the Los Angeles Clippers in town Friday night.

Sloan, who can rain on any silver lining, was kind of with Boozer on this one.

It's OK to start slow, Sloan said, "if you win."

His point is that it's how the team finishes that's more important, and fast starts can even sometimes lead to trouble.

"Sometimes you start off, and you look up and see the score is 15-2 (for your team) or something and say, 'Oh, wow,"' Sloan said.

"You know the other team is going to come back, and the players are playing like, 'We're going to finish them off right here.'