SALT LAKE CITY -- The Utah Jazz have appeared ready for the
All-Star break for a few weeks now.
A surprising start has been overshadowed lately by a
disappointing run, culminating in Wednesday night's 77-66 loss to
Minnesota. It was the fourth straight game the Jazz have lost at
home and dropped them below .500 for the third time this season.
Utah enters the break having lost five of seven overall.
"I'm ready for a break and for some rest. My body needs it,"
Jazz point guard Carlos Arroyo said. "I think everybody needs it
here on our team -- to get away a little bit from basketball."
All but one member of the Jazz will have a few days off. Forward
Andrei Kirilenko is the only Utah player selected to the Western
Conference All-Stars and will represent the team in Los Angeles
this weekend.
The others can relax for a little while. The Jazz resume play on
Tuesday at Miami and hope to come out refreshed.
At 26-27, Utah has already exceeded some preseason predictions
for wins, but nobody is celebrating it as an accomplishment.
"We're not satisfied. Coach said from the get-go, we think we
can make it to playoffs," guard DeShawn Stevenson said.
The Jazz are in ninth place in the Western Conference at the
break, still several games behind Denver and the eighth and final
playoff spot. And passing the Nuggets, Grizzlies, Rockets or any
other team within a reasonable distance will be difficult.
Six of the Jazz's first seven games off the break are on the
road, where the Jazz are just 7-17. And 18 of Utah's 29 remaining
games are against teams from the Western Conference, where only six
teams have losing records entering the break.
"It's going to be tough because we're a young team. But if
everybody gets the mentality to work hard and do the things we're
supposed to do on the court, I think we'll be fine," Stevenson
said.
Coach Jerry Sloan left how the players plan to use the time off
up to them. He planned to return for a few days to his southern
Illinois farm with his wife, Bobbye, who is being treated for
pancreatic cancer.
Arroyo is headed to Miami to spend time with family, Kirilenko
is bound for his first All-Star game and the rest of the Jazz are
scattering to various parts of the country for some quiet time.
The break will also provide a few days of rest for players who
are hurting, although Sloan wants the players to continue to work
out in some form.
"Take a couple of days off and relax and try to regroup a
little bit," he said. "There's nothing mandatory they have to do.
It's just a personal thing. Hopefully they have the pride in
themselves to try to do that."
Sloan refuses to blame the Jazz's recent struggles on injuries,
but they definitely have been a problem. Matt Harpring, the leading
scorer returning from last season's team, was done for the season
in mid-January with a knee injury that required surgery.
Kirilenko, who leads the team in scoring at 16.2 points per
game, missed four straight games with an ankle sprain. Kirilenko's
absence coincided with a season-long five-game losing streak.
In addition to Harpring, backup center Ben Handlogten is out for
the season as he recovers from knee surgery. Center Curtis
Borchardt (broken wrist) and Keon Clark (ankle surgery) have played
in just two games. Both Borchardt and Clark are expected to return
this season and the Jazz can use the depth.
"We still have to play. Coach talks about that all the time. We
go out there and we play with whoever we have on the court that
day," said forward Michael Ruffin, who missed the first 33 games
of the season with an abdominal strain. "If we come out there and
play hard, then we can stay close in the games and at the end try
to find ways to win."