Utah Jazz: Spurs/Jazz series hasn't exactly been competitive

SAN ANTONIO — It's a meeting of epic proportion that could go either way, another installment in a series with a history of amazing happenstances — but perhaps never any more at stake than now.

Oh, sorry.

Wrong rivalry.

The Jazz and San Antonio Spurs have been something of a lopsided matchup in recent years, especially with Utah having lost 18 in a row during the regular season here — including a 0-11 record at AT&T Center, where tonight the two face off for the first time this season.

And make that 21 straight losses here when including the playoffs, 0-14 overall at AT&T.

San Antonio, in fact, has held Utah to fewer than 100 points in 37 consecutive regular-season games — a span dating to 1999.

So just what it is that has allowed the Spurs, who've taken 10 straight season series from the Jazz, to be so dominant over coach Jerry Sloan's club?

"I don't know. I wish I did," said point guard Deron Williams, who'll be a game-time decision tonight because of the sprained left ankle that's caused him to miss all but two of the 8-4 Jazz's games this season.

"It's just somewhere we struggle," Williams added. "A lot of teams have those places where they struggle. Maybe not so much as us at San Antonio, but it's just a place we haven't been able to win."

Backup small forward Paul Millsap offered a somewhat more specific assessment.

"You know, that's a tough environment — and they also have a good team," he said. "When we get down there we just freeze up. I don't know what it is.

"I guess it's the crowd getting into our heads or whatever," Millsap added. "But we're looking to turn that around."

Helping the cause in that regard has to be the fact San Antonio is expected to be without both starting point guard Tony Parker, who's been sidelined by a sprained left ankle, and sixth man Manu Ginobili, who's yet to play this season because of ankle surgery.

Yet that's mitigated because the Jazz have been enduring a rash of injuries, including not only Williams' sprain, but now also a quadriceps strain that has fellow 2008 Olympian and two-time All-Star power forward Carlos Boozer listed as doubtful for tonight.

Sloan — whose Jazz don't have a victory in this city since Feb. 28, 1999, when they won 101-87 — can only hope his team does what Millsap says it's seeking.