After Utah's road struggles continued with a loss to one of the West's worst teams, Sloan hopes for a stronger performance from his club as it returns home to host the Washington Wizards on Monday.

Utah (48-26) leads the Northwest Division with a .649 winning percentage - its best since it went 55-27 (.671) in 1999-2000. But the Jazz haven't clinched a division title or even a playoff berth yet, and Sloan made that clear after his team's disheartening 110-103 loss at Minnesota on Sunday.

"Obviously, if you don't win, you don't get to the playoffs," said Sloan, whose club gave up 67 second-half points to the 19-53 Timberwolves. "People have us penciled in way too soon."

Sunday's defeat was all too familiar for the Jazz, who have struggled to put away weaker opponents on the road all season. Utah is 16-22 away from home, including a 4-6 mark since the All-Star break. Five of those six second-half losses have come against teams with losing records.

"It's definitely been frustrating all year," Jazz point guard Deron Williams said. "We've had some pretty bad losses on the road. Seems like we don't have the same energy, same intensity that we do at home on the road. ... We've got to win on the road in the playoffs."

However, the Jazz must first get to the playoffs. They have the sixth-best record in the loaded West, but are currently the No. 4 seed because they lead their division.

Meanwhile, the Wizards (38-35) have won eight of 11 to take over fifth place in the less-competitive East.

Washington missed an opportunity to move closer to the fourth spot and home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs on Sunday, when it lost 126-120 in overtime against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Wizards rookie and Los Angeles-area native Nick Young scored a season-high 27 points and All-Star forward Caron Butler forced overtime by making a 3-pointer with 10 seconds left in regulation, but the Lakers pulled away in the extra session to drop the Wizards to 2-2 on their five-game road trip.

"It was a heartbreaker," said Young, who played college basketball at USC for three seasons. "It would have been good to come home and get a win."

Sunday's defeat dropped Washington 2 1/2 games behind Cleveland for the fourth seed in the East. The Wizards lead Toronto and Philadelphia by one game and 1 1/2 games, respectively.

The Jazz won the first meeting between these teams 96-87 in Washington on Feb. 1, behind 27 points, 11 rebounds and five assists from Mehmet Okur. Utah might not be able to count on another such performance from its center, who has missed Utah's last two games because of a stomach virus.

Okur is day-to-day.

The Jazz could also be without starting forward Andrei Kirilenko, who missed Sunday's game because of an injured right calf. Kirilenko, averaging 11.1 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.1 assists, wore a boot on his leg for protection.

"It looks more serious than it's supposed to be," he said.