Utah Jazz: Fisher knows there's no quit in Jazz

Sloan's chief concern, meanwhile, seems to be not so much what his club will do differently with its own game — though, granted, smarter shooting is a priority — but instead what changes it will make when it comes to dealing with Bryant.

The Lakers' star dished seven assists and scored a game-high 38 points in Game 1, including 21-of-23 shooting from the free-throw line.

"The biggest thing is we've got to do a better job as a team to try to contain him, so we don't get the fouls that we got," the Jazz coach said. "I thought we did a poor job in some cases trying to help each other and be aware of what we're doing on the defensive end.

"I thought we had some moments we played pretty well, but we had stretches where we lost people when we should have been able to defend them.

"We got lost on the floor, made too many mistakes on the defensive end, and you can't make mistakes against a team that can pass the ball well and has a player as good as (Bryant) is," Sloan added. "You've got to try to keep him from getting to the basket, and not foul him if he does."

Or, as Jazz forward Matt Harpring said more succinctly, "We're not gonna want to have Kobe Bryant shoot 23 free throws. It's tough to win when you have anyone shoot that many times. They're just free shots."

They are, and they're oh-so-valuable — even if they do adversely alter a game's complexion.

Even Bryant acknowledges as much.

"It kind of mucked the game up a little bit," he said of his frequent trips to the foul line. "Our offensive rhythm was a little bit distorted."

That reality in itself, though, won't keep the Jazz from doing what they must as they work on ways to tweak their approach.

They'll still be physical with Bryant, foul hard when they must, and hope for fewer calls of the ticky-tack variety.

They'll keep plugging away.

They'll trust that the tide can, and will, turn.

A Sloan-coached club, Fisher suggested, would have it no other way.

"As you saw (Sunday)," he said of a series-opening game in which Utah lost only after trimming a 19-point Laker lead in the third quarter to as few as four in the final five minutes of the fourth, "there won't be any quit in the Jazz or any of their players."

"It's not what Coach (Sloan) teaches; it's not what he believes in," Fisher added. "Being a former teammate of just about everyone on their team, there aren't any quitters in that locker room. So, we'll have our work cut out for us."

And, if Fisher has any say, they'll have their boxing gloves on.

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Contributing: Linda Hamilton

E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com