Utah Jazz: Change in order?

Jerry Sloan is ready for change.

Whether or not he makes one tonight, however, is as uncertain as the prospect of a spiraling economy suddenly reversing course.

That's because the impetus behind Sloan's temptation to twist — rooted not in plummeting market numbers, but instead a rapidly declining win-loss record — is compromised by a dearth of appealing alternatives.

In any event, though, Sloan senses something, anything, different needs to be done.

Heading into tonight's home game against Tony Parker, Tim Duncan and the always-tough-to-beat San Antonio Spurs, the 25-20 Jazz have lost three straight games and five of their last seven overall.

An early season theme of occasional slow starts has become virtual commonplace lately, prompting Sloan to respond accordingly when asked after Sunday night's loss at Denver if he'd considering removing shooting guard C.J. Miles from the starting lineup:

"The first and start of the third quarters — we're not getting anything," the Jazz coach said. "It's not totally (Miles') fault.

But we probably have to take a look at changing something, because we're not getting very much efficiency out of anything we do.

"You know, you try to be patient. But sometimes you've got to step up. If you're gonna play, and you want to play in the league, you've got to be able to jump out there and get after people. You can't let people bring it to you all the time. Young guys have a tendency to not realize that. They think, 'Give me some shots, and worry about the other stuff later.'

"But," Sloan added, "you're down 10 points if you're not gonna guard anybody, and it's a tough hole to fight out of — especially on the road. Sometimes you'll get by with it at home, but we're struggling a little bit, and everybody's got to carry their own as much as possible."

Established Jazz players queried about the notion of potential need for a starting-lineup switch did not exactly object.

"Something," point guard Deron Williams said. "I mean, something's wrong with the first group, obviously. We can't come out with a lot of energy game after game. We do at home most of the time, because we're at home. But even lately we haven't had the same energy at home."