But if ever a game looked like a last stand, a launching point for one final push toward eighth place - admittedly, not exactly up there with "Win One for the Gipper" among inspirational rallying cries - this one is it.

Once the Kings leave town after tonight's Delta Center showdown (7 p.m., KJZZ), the Jazz will have no games remaining against a reachable playoff team, no more opportunities to gain a full game in the standings with a single victory.

"Kings are who we must catch, so we can't lose," summed up Andrei Kirilenko. "We can't let them climb away."

Yet the Jazz hardly could afford to drop a game in Orlando, either, or hand over a homecourt victory to the Wizards. The players say all the expected things about taking every game seriously, about putting together a winning streak and making a playoff run, but aside from a second-half comeback against Phoenix, little evidence of that determination seems to show up on the floor.

"Time keeps slipping away and we don't make much progress," said Jazz forward Matt Harpring. "We make it harder on ourselves. I think we all know we've got to play our best."

Yes, but that just doesn't seem doable very often, does it? After four straight games of aggressively attacking the basket, for example, Mehmet Okur had little positive effect on the Jazz's 109-97 loss to the Wizards on Thursday, making only two of 13 shots, nearly all of them from 18 feet or farther, for just seven points. An average game from Okur, and perhaps the Jazz would have entered tonight's game with a chance to move into a tie for a playoff spot.

"I don't know what happened," Okur said after the game. "I feel good, but can't make anything."

That's sort of the Jazz's problem in so-called big games. Every time the Jazz have a chance to claw their way above .500, or make a statement against a playoff team, or string together a winning streak . . . "well, you've seen what's happened to us when we've been in this situation, all year long," said Jazz coach Jerry Sloan.

Trouble is, the season is dwindling fast. The Jazz trail New Orleans for ninth place, and they are two games behind Sacramento, current owners of the last playoff berth. The Lakers are just ahead of the Kings in seventh, but considering eight of their final 11 games are at home, where L.A. owns a 19-13 record (before Friday), their spot seems safer by the day.

The Hornets, on the other hand, have lost nine of 10 before Friday, and have 10 road games, six against playoff teams, remaining.

That could set up a battle between old rivals Utah and Sacramento for that last spot. But without a Jazz win tonight, it might not be much of a contest. A Kings victory in the Delta Center, where Sacramento has won nine of the last 11, gives them a three-game lead, plus the tiebreaker. That's a big mountain to scale in the final four weeks.

"It's an important game, for sure. I don't know if it's our last stand, but we need to win," Harpring said. "We have to win and keep winning."

However, a Jazz victory closes the gap to one game, with plenty of time left to overtake the Kings. (They will probably need to finish with a better record, however, since Sacramento leads in both of the next two tie-breakers: Conference record, where the Kings are 20-19 and the Jazz 17-21; and record against the seven other playoff teams, where the Kings are 11-9 and the Jazz 7-12).

"I don't care about records and who beats who," Kirilenko said. "We just need to win, every night. If we do that, we'll be in."

To win every night will require an increase in intensity. Is this team capable?

Sloan says he won't know until the season ends.

"You have to focus so hard [that] you don't let things happen to you," he said. "You let [opponents] come off screens, don't help, don't block off the boards, don't run the floor properly - those are commitments you have to make to your game to make this work."

pmiller@sltrib.com

Kings

at Jazz

Tonight, 7, KJZZ

The Road Ahead

New Orleans' remaining schedule is more difficult than Utah or Sacramento's, with six games to play on the road against playoff teams. But the Jazz and Kings face virtually identical tasks the rest of the way.

Jazz Kings Hornets

Record 32-36 34-34 32-35

vs. Jazz - 2-1 1-1

Conference

record 17-21 20-19 21-20

Games vs.

.500+ (H/A) 7 (3/4) 7 (3/4) 8 (2/6)

Games vs.

-.500 (H/A) 7 (4-3) 7 (4/3) 7 (4/3)