5 Jazz priorities: What the team needs to do for the NBA's stretch run News Utah Jazz

For a team that had high expectations coming into the 2008-09 season, the Utah Jazz quickly turned into a collection of walking wounded, limping leapers and hobbled hoopsters. To call it a painful season ? on multiple levels ? so far for the Jazz might be an understatement. But heading into the stretch run, the Jazz have high hopes now that health woes that strained players, and the team's record are obstacles that are finally about to be overcome.

Just, maybe, in the nick of time for a final playoff push. Carlos Boozer, for one, believes the next two months could be a whole lot more productive and successful for Utah than the past 31/2 tumultuous, injury-ridden, up-and-down, surgery-filled months. And he and the Jazz are anxious to play the rest of the season out ? emphasis on the play part, not the rest part, by the way. They're optimistic, too. "You can't look backwards," Boozer said. "All you can do is look forward and look ahead. So for us to know that we're going to be healthy soon is exciting." Jazz coach Jerry Sloan credits the team for limiting the damage during what's been a hectic season injury-wise. Utah has missed 134 man-games to injuries already, and it's yet to put the lineup that was supposed to start the season on the floor at the same time. "The guys have done a good job trying to hang in there," Sloan said. The Jazz, however, know that just hanging in there might not be enough to earn them one of eight postseason spots in the uber-competitive Western Conference. "There's a lot more to be done to try to get to the playoffs," Sloan said. "I'm anxious to see who we are in this last part of the season." Here are five keys that might determine whether the Jazz will be looking at the lottery draft or doing some playoff planning come mid-April: 1.GET WELL ? AND SOON, PLEASE Since the 2004-05 season, the Jazz have gone 68-76 with Boozer out of the lineup. They're even worse without Andrei Kirilenko, having gone just 34-57 over the years without the Russian forward's services. Utah has managed to do a bit better without them in the lineup for extended periods this season ? 22-19 sans Boozer (left knee surgery), and 6-9 without Kirilenko (right ankle surgery) ? but their returns are both highly anticipated and critical to the team's success this spring. Knock on wood, Jazz fans, that could happen soon. Boozer and Kirilenko each hinted prior to the All-Star break that they could come back from injuries and surgeries as soon as this week, perhaps even in Tuesday night's home game against Memphis. When ? assuming it's not an "if" ? they return, the Jazz, who've used 14 different starting lineups, could have their regular rotation in place for a playoff run. "I think we're going to get healthy," Matt Harpring said. "You've got Boozer and Andrei combing back, so I think that expectations will be pretty high when they come back again." With them ? and the rest of a healthy squad ? before the season the Jazz were considered Western Conference contenders. Without them ? and with a bunch of other banged-up players this year ? the currently eighth-place Jazz have been scraping to remain in the playoff hunt. "When me and A.K. get back healthy, and if we can keep everybody else currently healthy, we'll be at full strength and have a chance to continue what we've wanted to see the whole year," said Boozer, who was in Miami for rehab over the All-Star break. "Finally, at the last stretch of the season," Boozer added, "(we'll) hopefully get a chance to make some noise and then see what our playoff run will be like." 2. KEEP EVERYBODY HEALTHY Sloan was asked last week how he'll incorporate Boozer back into the lineup and how it will affect Paul Millsap. Sloan snapped back that he'll "worry about that when he gets here." The attitude Sloan has consistently kept this season is that he can only deal with the healthy players on his bench. He can't worry about who's not here until they're actually here. The Jazz are hoping that is finally about to change and that they'll finally get to worry about what to do with their depth on the bench instead of their depth on the injury report. "Nobody's gonna come in on a white horse and save the day," said Jazz general manager Kevin O' Connor. "We've got to continue to play, and continue to compete. But it would be nice to play with a full roster." There's no guarantee that once Boozer and Kirilenko get back that they'll be here for the long haul, either. Or maybe somebody else will go down. "Who's to say they come back and don't get hurt again?" Sloan said. "I can't control that. They can't control that, but it's always a possibility." Finally getting healthy and staying there would certainly seem to boost Utah's playoff chances. Especially when it comes to multiple players at the same time. After all, it hasn't just been one injury that's hurt the Jazz, it's been the bulk variety they seem to get at Costco. Along those lines, consider this telling stat: The Jazz are 18-9 this season when one of their big five ? Deron Williams, Boozer, Kirilenko, Millsap and Mehmet Okur ? is out. But they are just 12-14 when two or more are missing the action. "We need everybody to healthy and to try to make a run in the second half," Millsap said. "The second half of the season should be a?different story." Waiting for guys to get healthy and then staying healthy isn't enough ? Williams, who missed 13 games early on with a severe ankle sprain, knows the Jazz have to start winning consistently as well. "We can't afford to tread water at all. We've got to win. It's as simple as that," Williams said. "I mean, we've already lost enough games for the whole season, so we've got to put some wins together. "It's gonna be tough to make the playoffs in the West the way things are going now, but it's definitely attainable." 3. PLAY BETTER ON THE ROAD Only four teams have better home records than the Jazz, whose 21-6 mark at EnergySolutions Arena puts them among the league's elite on their own court. But take them out of their comfort zone, and the Jazz have done a pretty good Washington Generals imitation. Their 9-17 road record is enough to make any fan or franchise employee nervous, especially considering the majority of their remaining games (15 of 29) are out of town. Scary part, too, is that the schedule makers didn't do them many favors down the stretch. Utah embarks on a five-game Eastern swing next month. On top of that, the Jazz still have roadies left against most of the teams ahead of them in the Western Conference standings, including a rough three-game stretch in April at New Orleans, Dallas and San Antonio and a regular-season finale at the Los Angeles Lakers. Making things all the more interesting, the Jazz will play 14 of 23 games in March and April on the road. Whether they improve their draft or playoff position obviously depends on how well they fare away from The Bear, Jazz dancers and their vocally charged-up Wasatch Front fans. "We're going to have to become more consistent. We're going to have to get better," Williams said. "We're going to have to go on a win streak of more than two games, three games. And we've got to win on the road." 4. IMPROVE ON SECOND GAME OF BACK-TO-BACKS Sloan often scoffs whenever reporters ask about his team's struggles during contests on consecutive nights. He likes to talk about how the NBA isn't college and how his players only have to concentrate on playing Basketball. No homework, no tests, no chemistry classes. But the fact of the matter is, the Jazz have performed as well on the tail end of back-to-back sets as students who try to cram in a semester's worth of College Algebra homework an hour before the final. Sure, they've gotten a couple of answers right, but their 2-11 record in those situations is hardly enough to earn a spot on the dean's list. With eight more back-to-backs left on the schedule and six concluding contests on the road, that trend might also keep them out of the playoffs, too. The encouraging news for Utah is that it has a track record of performing better. Last year, in fact, the Jazz were 11-9 on the second night, so getting their full squad that helped them achieve that mark might do wonders in improving their results. 5. IMPROVE TEAM DEFENSE This might come as a shocker to some ? OK, it likely won't ? but Sloan has not exactly been impressed by the Jazz defense of late. "I just think we've done a terrible job defensively," he said, getting right to the point. That's certainly been the case more often than not in the last month. Just in the past 13 games, for instance, Utah has surrendered 100-plus points 10 different times while giving up an average of 105.5 points per contest. That's much worse than its season points-against average, which has dipped to a 13th-worst-in the-NBA 99.98 ppg. Not surprisingly, by the way, the Jazz only posted a 6-7 record during their recent defensive slump. While the Jazz seem to allow no-namers and MVP-types to light them up, that's not Sloan's biggest defensive concern. Interestingly, the 21st-year Utah coach says the woes on defense begin on the other end of the court. The Jazz, he claims, aren't looking for layups and easier, inside hoops but are relying on jumpers far too often. Great when you make it, not so great when it jump starts a fast break for your opponent. "Our shot selection is fair at best sometimes," Sloan said. "That's why we end up giving up easy baskets on the other end of the floor because of the type of shots we take." On top of that, Sloan said the Jazz lack a defensive stopper as well as overall "toughness." "Teams go after us knowing we haven't had that kind of toughness," Sloan said. "We have to try to get that back once we get everybody back." Sloan did jokingly offer one solution that O'Connor might try to work on. "If," Sloan said, "you could get Wilt Chamberlain to come in and play, that would change things pretty quick." Then again, the Jazz will settle for getting Boozer and Kirilenko back. E-MAIL: jody@desnews.com, tbuckley@desnews.com