Oklahoma City » As much as he wished the outcome would have gone differently, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan didn't have much to complain about after Friday's 95-87 loss to Milwaukee in the third stop of his team's four-game trip.

"I like the kind of games we had [Friday]," Sloan said. "There's not any give or take out there. You try to do the best you can. If you like to play, those are the kind of games you like to play in. You compete like the devil and go home."

To keep that same perspective, however, the Jazz will need to regroup tonight against Oklahoma City in what could be a potential first-round playoff preview for the Jazz, currently fourth in the Western Conference by 11/2 games over the No. 5 Thunder.

Not only can they ill afford a loss as they bid for home-court advantage in the first round, but the Jazz already have dropped two games this season to the Thunder, giving Oklahoma City the chance to claim the potential tiebreaker with a victory tonight.

Back on Dec. 31, the Jazz suffered a bitter defeat to Oklahoma City, falling 87-86 as Paul Millsap was called for a loose-ball foul with 4.5 seconds left by a rookie referee, sending Nick Collison to the foul line for what proved to be the winning free throws.

The Jazz also haven't lost consecutive games in more than two months, since losing three straight from Dec. 31 to Jan. 4. The Thunder are riding a four-game winning streak, with victories over the Clippers, Sacramento, New Orleans and New Jersey.

Oklahoma City has won 7 of 8 as well as 16 of 19. The 23-59 team from a season ago is projected to finish 50-32, a 27-win improvement. Most remarkably, the Thunder enjoy the distinction of the NBA's youngest team, with nine players age 23 or younger.

Kevin Durant leads the league with 36 games in which he's scored 30 or more points and is chasing LeBron James for the scoring title. Russell Westbrook's stature as a second-year point guard continues to grow, as he is averaging 16.6 points and 7.9 assists.

As for Friday's loss, Sloan didn't want to take anything away from Milwaukee, which has won 11 of 12 games, climbed to fifth place in the Eastern Conference and beaten Cleveland, Boston and Utah in succession at home.

"Give them credit," Sloan said. "They played well, they've got a nice team and they came out after us. You'd like to win, but they were better than we were."

The Jazz could be down to just 10 players tonight, with Ronnie Price missing Friday's game with a sprained right wrist and Andrei Kirilenko exiting in the third quarter with a strained left calf. Kirilenko is questionable to play tonight while Price will be a game-time decision.

As much as they had struggled on multi-game trips in recent seasons, the Jazz enjoyed a breakthrough of sorts with their 4-0 trip back from the All-Star break. With a victory tonight, the Jazz would come from this trip with an almost-as-impressive 3-1 mark.

"We've been tested on the road before," Carlos Boozer said after Friday's loss. "We fought back, we lost a good game. It was a good game. Sometimes you win good games, sometimes you don't. [Friday] we didn't come out on the top side of it."

rsiler@sltrib.com