Home, sweet home has turned more into home, defeated at home for the Utah Jazz.

Especially when it comes — and go figure — against the Eastern Conference this year so far.

During the entire 2007-08 basketball season, the Utah Jazz only suffered one loss at home in 15 games to the Eastern Conference.

Don't look now, but the number of Jazz setbacks in Salt Lake City is rising quicker for the 2008-09 season than big corporations asking for government bailouts.

The Miami Heat helped them triple their total from a season ago — coincidentally thanks in part to a superstar who happens to wear No. 3, Dwyane Wade, who scored a game-high 23.

And those three losses have happened in the past 10 days.

Chicago. Boom at the buzzer.

New Jersey. Bombs away much of the game.

Miami. Swatted and scorched in the heat of the moment.

Suddenly, the East has figured out that playing with more energy than the home team is the solution to winning at EnergySolutions Arena. The Nets and Heat combined to give Utah its first two-game losing streak at home since April 2007.

It could be, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan believes, even worse — the Jazz record, that is, not their annoying knack for getting injured. Injuries have certainly played a huge role in their recent woes at home (now 8-3) and against the East (now 2-7).

"I don't care. I don't keep track of that. I've got to keep track of our guys, try to get them to play," said Sloan, when asked about his team's record against the East. " If you're going to look at that, yeah, it's probably not a great thing. But we could be a lot further down the list than that for the guys that we've had hurt."

The list of sidelined wounded during Utah's 93-89 loss to Miami included Carlos Boozer, Andrei Kirilenko, Matt Harpring, Jarron Collins and Kyrylo Fesenko. Deron Williams played with multiple injuries, and still-recuperating Brevin Knight dressed but didn't play.

It's hard to win, Sloan admitted, with that many missing guys.

"We've had two All-Star players sitting in the locker room for six weeks. Deron was sitting in there, then Boozer was out, and Andrei's been out. Those guys are huge to what we try to do every day," Sloan said.

To that matter, the 21st-year Jazz coach is somewhat proud of his team's 12-8 record.