Still, his hyper-even-beyond-usual approach — perhaps designed to draw by transference some energy from a team that looked quite lethargic in San Antonio — did not go without notice.

"He broke a sweat just as much as we did," Miles said.

"Coach gets up and down that sideline faster than any coach I've ever seen," the Jazz forward added. "For somebody that don't really run, he gets up and down. ... He's not really running, but he'll get from in front of the scorer's table to the end of the sideline in a second."

After notching his 1,004th victory as head coach of the Jazz, Sloan acknowledged it isn't always that way nowadays.

But it's not as if he's never coached with such combined passion and animation previously.

For years, in fact, it was his trademark.

"Well, I used to," Sloan said. "I can't do it anymore. I'm 66 years old. I don't have the same energy. But it wasn't that. I was energized to try to win a game, that's all. It wasn't me. It's all about the players."

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com