Utah Jazz Notes

Two days after Dirk Nowitzki torched the Jazz for 29 points in the fourth quarter of the Mavericks' 96-85 win, coach Jerry Sloan was still being questioned about the team's defensive strategy in that game.

After Thursday morning's shootaround, Sloan was asked if he considered switching Memo Okur off Nowitzki in favor of Andrei Kirilenko.

"We talked about it," Sloan said. "I just didn't do it. Phil [Johnson] and I talked about it on the bench. I didn't do it. All your questions are valid. If I could answer all those when the game is going on I'd be perfect. I wouldn't have anything for you guys to talk about."

At that point, TNT's Craig Sager asked Sloan if Kirilenko was the kind of player who would ask to guard the white-hot Nowitzki.

"I didn't hear anybody say they wanted to guard him," Sloan said. "[But] maybe it's my hearing."

According to Sloan, he stuck with Okur on Nowitzki because Carlos Boozer had five fouls and the Jazz needed him on the floor. He didn't run Deron Williams at Nowitzki because he wanted the Jazz point guard to stick with Jason Kidd, who "... has always shot threes well against us."

Sloan considered bringing Paul Millsap into the game to guard Nowitzki, but he probably would have replaced Okur and that would have made the Jazz extremely small. Okur is also the Jazz's best three-point threat

"Maybe we could have done something different defensively," Sloan said. "You always second-guess yourself on those things. ... I could second-guess myself to no end in this business. But give them credit, we let a game get away from us that we felt like we could win and that's like life.

"If things don't go especially well, what are you going to do about it? Hang your head and feel sorry or blame somebody else? The best thing to do about it now is just go play and try to get back on track with a win."

-- Steve Luhm