Utah Jazz notes: Team hoping inconsistent play was lost for good

Deron Williams has a simple wish. All of the Jazz do, really.

No offense to the team that started 3-5 and switched between looking like a contender and a lottery-bound team, but they'd rather not see that inconsistent squad ever again.

"Hopefully," Williams said, "we got rid of that team."

And they hope it stays lost somewhere between Boston and Philadelphia, where a refocused Jazz team re-emerged.

The Jazz, now 4-6, would prefer to continue duplicating the efforts that resulted in a blowout win at Philadelphia, a solid showing in a close loss at Cleveland and some positive mojo after a 2-2 road trip.

It certainly helps their cause to continue turning the season around that 11 of their next 14 games are at home, beginning with tonight's tilt against visiting Toronto at EnergySolutions Arena.

"I think we can bottle some of that team effort we had and bring it here home and hopefully get some wins," Jazz power forward Carlos Boozer said.

That team unity seems to be a theme since they returned.

The Jazz even seem to have rehearsed their quotes about playing together as a team, well, together as a team.

"We're not satisfied, but I like the way we're going and (how) we approach the game," Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko said. "We're kind of, like, playing a team game. We're sharing the ball well and we're getting better and better."

"I've said it all season," Williams added, "when we pass the ball, we're a better team. When we help each other defensively, we're a much better team."

Sloan agreed that coming together on the road trip was key to the team playing better — something that was especially impressive considering Williams wasn't with the team to attend to a medical situation with his daughter.

"When you get beat a few times, you either pull together or hide and go the opposite direction," Sloan said. "I thought our guys tried to pull together to win a couple of games when we were (on the road). The last two games we played, I thought we played hard. I thought we tried to help each other. Our defensive statistics were a little bit better, so that tells you a little bit right there."