The Jazz returned home after dropping Sunday's series opener intending to take full advantage of the two-day break before Wednesday's Game 2 for advanced study of the Lakers and the chance to get a little rest.

At the same time, the Jazz branded Game 1 a missed opportunity, even if the 38-hour turnaround after finishing off Houston in the first round undoubtedly was a contributing factor as they fell behind by 17 in the first half and shot 37.9 percent against the Lakers.

"We want to try to steal the next one," Deron Williams said. "We feel disappointed in the way we performed in the first game, regardless of turnaround or whatever. We're not going to make excuses. They just played better than us."

Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said that though "you could always have a little more" time to prepare, "when you talk about the things that we did [wrong], those are just common sense things that you have to be able to do."

Sloan said his greatest emphasis was the defensive end, citing a breakdown that led to an open three-pointer for Lakers guard Sasha Vujacic in the second quarter and the fouls that left the Lakers shooting 46 free throws for the game.

"We got lost so many times running back down the floor, leaving guys open, two guys ran to the same guy," Sloan said. "The other thing is we can't hold and grab them as much. We got four or five fouls holding, trying to pull guys' uniforms off. That shouldn't happen in a ballgame."

Sloan said he accepted that Kobe Bryant would shoot 15 to 18 free throws a game, simply by his nature as a player, but that the Jazz could not afford another afternoon in which Bryant went 21-for-23 from the foul line, as he did Sunday.

"The biggest thing is we've got to do a better job as a team to try to contain him so we don't get the fouls that we got," Sloan said. "I thought we did a poor job in some cases trying to help each other be aware of what we're doing on the defensive end of the floor."

In the first round, Houston's Tracy McGrady only averaged 8.8 free throw attempts a game, though he shot 18 in Game 6. Bryant presents a greater challenge and possibly the need for a new approach.

"I think we have to send more people at him," Carlos Boozer said. "Try to make some of the other people score as opposed to having Kobe shoot the ball. We know he's a great player. We all know that. But him shooting 23 free throws hurts us."

That said, the Jazz struggled to rotate defensively as Bryant and Pau Gasol worked the pick-and-roll for a series of layups in the fourth quarter.

"The problem with Lamar [Odom] and with Pau isn't guarding them one-on-one," Boozer said. "It's helping out on Kobe. That's when they get all their stuff at, because he draws so much attention."

The Jazz could look to hammer the Lakers inside, which they set out to do in Game 1. Boozer had seven points and six rebounds in the first quarter against Gasol and said Monday he thought a breakthrough game was coming if he could just stay out of foul trouble.

"We need to play inside-out," Boozer said, calling it a key to the series, "I think we have an advantage there and we need to continue to go inside and make them work inside."

The Lakers succeeded at taking the Jazz out of their offense in the second quarter. The Jazz went 7-for-25, missing six of seven three-pointers, and committed seven turnovers. They went into the quarter down by a point but wound up trailing by as many as 17.

"They started putting a little more pressure on us on the wings," Sloan said. "We couldn't get the ball where we wanted to go and we started standing around. It took us a while to try to adjust to that. I thought the second half we were a little bit more assertive in what we wanted to do, both ends of the floor."

Although they overcame a 2-0 series deficit to beat Houston in the first round of last year's playoffs, the Jazz would like to avoid having to do the same against the Lakers, who are 5-0 in the playoffs and have won 13 of their last 14 games overall.

To do so, they would have to spoil the celebration Wednesday, when Bryant is expected to be presented with his first MVP award by commissioner David Stern.

"If we can go out there and ruin their party a little bit by getting a victory, that helps us a lot," Boozer said. "I'm going to tell you, Kobe is the MVP. He deserves the trophy. We just want to win the game."

rsiler@sltrib.com