"I'd be disappointed if I had our team together, but you've got to be realistic a little bit and fair. I mean, I don't have my best team out there," Sloan said. "Some of these guys haven't played a lot, and they're trying to figure out what's going on, and they get against 29 different philosophies and sometimes the wheels start spinning, and that's too late."

Sloan sees plenty of losses but plenty of effort, too.

"We're fighting our butts off, I think for the most part," he said. "We just make some mistakes because we're young and don't know what hustle is. But I think that could be good for us later on if we keep a good attitude and work on it."

Kyle Korver echoed his boss' thoughts. It matters less who they're playing or where they're playing than how and with whom they're playing.

"I think we're obviously accustomed to just thinking that we're at home so it's a win. I think everyone's accustomed to that just because of what happened last year," Korver said, referring to Utah's 37-4 home mark in 2007-08. "We haven't played that good. We're missing some guys, but that's not an excuse. We're missing guys on the road, too."

Korver also believes the competition is stiffer all-around from his former conference.

"I think the East is a little better than it was last year," he said. " I think we break it down too much and start analyzing all that stuff. We've just got to get healthy and play better."

No matter where they play.

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E-mail: jody@desnews.com