SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz is still not quite ready to reconquer the West.
Coach Jerry Sloan feels the team is getting closer, though.
Utah was knocked out of the playoffs by the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals Friday night, one round earlier than last spring but considerably ahead of where the team was just a few years ago.
“You’d like to take that giant step, but this is who we are and you kind of have to do it in stages,” Sloan said Saturday. “This basketball team here has a good future if they work at it and put their heart into it. And they’ve done a lot of that.”
Sloan’s 20th season coaching the Jazz ended with a 108-105 loss to the Lakers in Game 6. Utah trailed badly through the first three quarters, then pushed the Lakers until the final seconds. That’s kind of how the season was — inconsistent.
The Jazz had the best home record in the NBA at 37-4 in the regular season but was 17-24 on the road. Utah won road games at Boston and Detroit — which had the top two records in the NBA — but lost at Miami, New York and Charlotte.
Forward Matt Harpring said playing consistently is really all the Jazz is missing.
“It’s tough to do it for 82 games and then the playoffs, but if we can ever get to the point where we do that we have the talent to go far,” Harpring said.
Harpring, who turns 32 at the end of the month, is the only Utah player in his 30s, and everybody but reserve guard C.J. Miles is under contract for next season.
Point guard Deron Williams followed up his breakout second season with an even better third year and established himself as the team’s leader at age 23. He was the only member of the Jazz to average more than 20 points in the 12 playoff games and also had 10 assists per game in the postseason.
Williams played every game of the regular season and averaged 18.8 points and 10.5 assists. He had 862 assists in the regular season, the most for a Utah player since John Stockton had 860 in 1996-97.
He also had 50 assists over a three-game span in March, an accomplishment Stockton — the NBA’s career leader in assists — never accomplished. Five years after Stockton’s retirement, Utah has finally found a replacement.
Williams is eligible for a contract extension this summer and the Jazz will be trying to reach a deal that keeps him in Utah for the next several years.
