Out the door, up the block, across the street, past the house with the crotchety old lady who doesn't like anyone on her lawn. Hang a right, a left, and one more right. Five short streets straight ahead, stop at the corner store to pitch some pennies or buy some trading cards, and then the crossing guard is there to usher him into the door -- as if, after walking the first mile, he couldn't make it that last 100 yards on his own.

Ever since the second grade, through rain and snow and mornings he'd really rather not go, the wee one walked that very same route virtually every weekday from September until summer recess.And then there was that day in the fourth grade -- the one he tromped over Mrs. Mean's grass, just because he could, then forgot which way to turn.

Is it right, left, right, or left, right, left?

Which way do I go? Which way do I go?

Jerry Sloan saw that confused kid in his Jazz last Saturday, and he can only hope they remember their route before Wednesday's Game 4 in Utah's opening-round Western Conference playoff series with Seattle.

"Sometimes you forget which way it is to school, and you have somebody to meet you down there the next time to see if you get to the right school the next day," Sloan said. "We had that problem."

The Sonics trapped Utah's pick-and-roll like so many other teams have tried before, and, typically, failed. This time, though, the Jazz acted as if they had never seen such pressure. They couldn't figure out which way to go.

Sloan, for the life of him, can't figure out why.

"I didn't see anybody do any cartwheels, or anything like that -- something I haven't seen," Sloan said Monday, one day after a Sunday film session to figure out what went wrong in the Jazz's 78-89 loss at Seattle on Saturday.

"They played more aggressive than we did," he added, making it sound as simple as that. "They deserved to win because of it."

By doing so the Sonics prevented the Jazz from sweeping the best-of-five series, which now stands at 2-1 in Utah's favor.

Moreover, they forced the Jazz to reassess what it is they should know by heart -- like how to handle the double-team, even when it might be point guard John Stockton who is forced toward the baseline and power forward Karl Malone who is tied up, too.

"A lot of times," Sloan said, the film still fresh in his mind, "John's hanging out there, with two guys double-teaming him, (and) our other guys are standing (as if saying), 'Oh well, what's going on?' "

For that, Malone -- who has carried the Jazz in the first two games of the series and for most of his 15 seasons of the NBA -- shoulders some of the blame.

"Yeah, they did something different," Malone said of the Sonics pressure that was not present in Games 1 and 2. "But, you know, it's no big secret: We really don't care what you do.

"But we didn't do things to counter it," Malone added. "You know, we have different plays to counter it. If I roll, certain players do something, if I step back . . . we didn't do any of that. Maybe I didn't roll sometimes, (and) I had my teammates all (thrown) out of whack."

The result was too much hanging out, too little helping. And too much standing around can steer even good people to bad things, which may have been the Jazz's biggest woe in Game 3.

"When teams trap, something's got to be open, whether it's a 20-foot jump shot or something in the lane," Jazz guard Jeff Hornacek said. "We're better off if we try to get it back in the lane. We had the opportunity a few times but just couldn't complete passes.

"John (Stockton) can handle the traps. It's the other guys off their team who are rotating better," Hornacek added. "You know, the first couple of games (which Utah won handily), they weren't rotating, and when John threw a pass down there, it was like a wide open layup.

"They did a much better job (Saturday) of not allowing us to get layups like that, then that forced us into shooting outside shots. We kept shooting them but weren't making them."

With only 59.5 percent of their shots from the field failing to fall, it's no wonder the Jazz went down. Sloan just hopes they can get back up Wednesday and avoid having to take this series to Game 5 on Friday at the Delta Center.

"If they take one thing away, well, there has to be something else," Sloan said. "We've had that (concept taught) since training camp, and sometimes, for some reason or another . . . we forget to go where we're supposed to."

Which way do I go?

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The little guy in Grade 4 just needs someone to make it known that right, left, right gets him to school on time. Likewise, the Jazz just need someone to refresh them on which way they must go.

"We have to go back over it again," Sloan said before Monday's practice, "and remind them."

Sometimes you forget.

You can reach Tim Buckley by e-mail at tbuckley@desnews.com

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