"He knows every game is important and that you can't take what you did for one game and relax any more just because you won the first one," said assistant coach Ty Corbin. "That's what he's doing now is getting us refocused all over again. "

Focusing can take on some strange forms. Many a night has found the Jazz winning, yet afterward all Sloan wanted to talk about was mental lapses and selfish play. Other times the Jazz will play poorly, lose badly, and Sloan will tell the team to forget about it — it's in the past.

In other words, the man sometimes gives his team more leeway when it loses than when it wins.

"Yeah," said guard Deron Williams, "after games we sometimes end up asking each other whether we won or lost."

That time-honored phrase about not mattering whether you win or lose, but how you played the game could also be applied to Sloan's attitude.

Except, of course, it does matter to Sloan whether they win or lose.

Hence, the Jazz take their advantage into Game 2 knowing a couple of immutable laws are in effect. First, Sloan will expect them to play like there's no tomorrow — or past, either. And second, if they do win, they'll likely want to limit their celebrating to a simple, short pat on the seat.

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E-mail: rock@desnews.com