Former Jazzman Derek Fisher told the Los Angeles Times, "We seem to fail to utilize our home court and our fans, which we were able to do through most of the season. We don't seem to come out with the focus and commitment we need to have on our home court."

Houston, the current No. 2 seed, has 10 games left, like the Jazz and fifth-seeded San Antonio, but it only has two at home, where it is 28-10. Then again, the Rockets only play four teams currently ticketed for the playoffs.

Utah and San Antonio both play six teams that are likely to be playoff-bound, and the Hornets have a high of seven of them.

Nobody seems to have any real advantage in scheduling down the stretch in the West, so, says Jazz center Mehmet Okur, "We just want to go out there and win all 10 games. We want to finish the season strong. We just want to play hard because every game is a playoff game right now."

Sophomore guard Ronnie Brewer is a little more cautious. "We want to win every game, but we play some tough teams," he said. Still, "I think 10-0 (is realistic) if we play our best basketball, and we have our confidence going into every game."

"Anything's realistic," said Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, who related how when he was a young player and his team lost the first game of its season of about 78 games, the general manager told the club it had another 77 or so to go. "I was disappointed we'd already lost," Sloan said.

"I think that's the way you try to approach it, that you're going to try to win every single game.

"Otherwise, you start giving yourself leeway to fail when you say you've got to win four out of six or five out of seven or something like that. I think the idea is to go win and see where you are."

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E-mail: lham@desnews.com