Utah Jazz stumped about hitting road bump

They're just 7-12 away from EnergySolutions Arena this season.

Dating to the start of last season, when their travel record was 17-24, they're only 24-36 when not at home.

Their road woes are so profound that, much like lost luggage and canceled flights for frequent commercial flyers, coach Jerry Sloan almost seems resigned to accepting them as a frustrating fact of life.

"Maybe that's who we are," said Sloan, whose 23-16 Jazz continue a three-game trip tonight at Memphis. "I can't change that. I can't change the personality of the player. He has to change that to make it work.

"We can beg them to do things, and ask them to do things, and give them a little direction there, but they have to do the work."

If solving their road troubles were easy as merely flashing some old-fashioned work ethic, though, the NBA's version of a quick call to AAA would have been made long ago.

Instead, Jazz players new and old seem genuinely befuddled by it all.

"It's just a mindset that just developed, I guess," said shooting guard Kyle Korver, who arrived in the middle of last season from Philadelphia. "I mean, I don't know. I don't want to say that. But it's just kind of what it feels like. We just don't have the same energy, we just don't play as well on the road."

"We get on the road, and I don't know if we feel like we can't win, or what it is," point guard Deron Williams added. "We just don't have that same intensity."

Asked if the Jazz need to change their preparation practices on the road, Williams fittingly was at a loss.

"I don't know," he said. "It's the same thing we had problems with last year. We just could never put a finger on it.

"It's not one guy," Williams added. "It's not anybody's fault. We just all have to step up."

Asked if it's a mere matter of mental toughness, Williams didn't disagree.

"It's just coming out and being determined to stop people," he said. "We come out, and we let (opponents) get into a comfort zone. That's what happens to us at home — we get into a comfort zone, and it's hard to stop us.

"You start hitting shots at home, it's pretty much going to be like that for the rest of the game," Williams added. "So we've got to make things tougher on people — find ways to get a little nasty with people, and get some wins."

Even if it doesn't lead to victories all the time, a little nastiness would at least go a long way toward making a road believer out of a certain someone.

"Very few people like you when you get on the road," Sloan said. "If you're a basketball player, the other team's got 10, 12, 15, 20,000 people that don't like you. And you've got to come with an attitude (of), 'I don't like to be disliked. I want to be respected.'

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