They trail the Rockets in their first-round playoff series 0-2, but their predicament is more than just numerical.

It's athletical.

And philosophical.

The problem starts with the guarding of Tracy McGrady, but does not end there.

McGrady is difficult for anyone on any team to cover, let alone a Jazz bunch that isn't exactly filled with quick-and-long greyhounds easily at the ready to slow down one of the NBA's most unique talents.

When Sloan puts 6-foot-1 Derek Fisher on McGrady, he gives up too much size, allowing the 6-8 Rocket to shoot over him, almost at will.

When Matt Harpring draws the assignment, his lack of foot speed makes it impossible for him to keep up with McGrady, allowing him to find his spots on the floor and his shots.

When Gordan Giricek guards McGrady, nobody's quite sure what to expect. Giricek has hung in there pretty well at times, and not so well at others. After watching him through the first two games of this series, the one certainty is this: At key junctures, he cannot be counted on to put the shackles on an offensive talent as immense as this one.

There are other options, but that's where philosophy stands in the way - Sloan's philosophy.

He must change it for the Jazz to have any chance to seriously fight back against the Rockets. It was John Madden who said coaches sometimes have to "watch for what they don't want to see and listen to what they don't want to hear."

Sloan doesn't want to see or hear this.

The two most athletic Jazz defenders, the players best suited, at least physically, to drop in front of McGrady are Andrei Kirilenko and Ronnie Brewer.

Kirilenko is in a funk. His performance in Game 2 was jumpy and, ultimately, abysmal. But there are reasons, whether or not they make complete sense to all of us, for his state of mind. Even though Sloan says he's a basketball coach who is "not equipped" and "not enough of a psychologist" to deal with what's bothering Andrei, that's too easy of an out for him.

Part of being a coach is to get inside his players' heads in a positive sense, find out what's there or what's not there, and, then, find a combination for disengaging the negatives and, thereafter, motivating in an effective manner. Sloan has not accomplished that with Kirilenko and it's plain to see. He should have done so long before now. A little more attention and a little less machismo might have encouraged Kirilenko to get his act together.

Think about it.

How useful and handy would the former version of Kirilenko be, specifically at the defensive end, against McGrady now? AK is, or at least once was, a great weakside defender, but he's also the best on-the-ball guy the Jazz have. He's long, relatively quick, and athletic.

Who else does that description fit on the Jazz?

Brewer.

He's the only other option within shouting distance.

He's a rookie, but one that should have gotten more playing time during the regular season in preparation for challenges precisely like this. Even with the limited minutes Brewer got, he's potentially a better solution than the incomplete answers Sloan has tried in the first two games.

The coach's stubborn attitude toward rookies and their opportunity to play is well known and hasn't changed all that much.

Now, out of desperation or common sense, or some mix of both, it's time for him to transform his way of thinking. Brewer hasn't gotten off the bench thus far in this series, but his time has come.

Either that, or Sloan had best study up on his psychology and get Kirilenko properly analyzed, diagnosed, and healed in time for Game 3.

The Kirilenko and Brewer options are the best avenues - certainly better than what's already been attempted - for the Jazz to slow McGrady. After watching his lumbering defenders send the Rockets' star to the foul line again and again on Monday night, Sloan has to see what he doesn't want to see, and listen to what he doesn't want to hear:

Adjust now, and put better athletes, whatever their status or condition, in the line of fire. How much worse could it be?

And, then, hope against hard hope that the other Rockets keep missing their threes, and that Yao Ming kills you and your gutty, little troupe later, rather than sooner.

gmonson@sltrib.com