OKLAHOMA CITY — For all practical purposes, they're on their deathbed.
In a worst-case scenario, in fact, the Jazz's playoff hopes could take a last-gasp breath as early as Saturday night.
Combine a Utah loss to New Orleans/Oklahoma City tonight with a Los Angeles Lakers home win over Portland this evening and a Sacramento victory at Denver on Saturday, and the Jazz indeed are done.
That's one way to look at what little remains of Utah's regular season — a three-game trip that begins with tonight's visit with the Hornets followed by stops in Dallas on Sunday and San Antonio on Monday, then a home finale against Golden State on Wednesday.
Yet even with the reality in mind, franchise-icon forward Andrei Kirilenko has chosen now — the worst possible time, some might suggest — to complain about how few quality touches of the ball he's been getting lately.
It started after Wednesday's win over Denver, when Kirilenko voiced displeasure with his recent role in the Jazz offense.
"For the third game," he said, "I didn't have any plays."
That changed a bit in Wednesday's second half. Kirilenko acknowledged as much. On Thursday, though, he did not back down — saying he doesn't mean to sound selfish, but just wants his fair share of legit scoring opportunities.
"Not just touch the ball," he said, "but feeling like you're in the game.
"I don't feel like I'm valuable on the floor," added Kirilenko, who got just four shots (he missed each) in Wednesday's first half and only three total in Monday's win over Houston. "I want to have fun on the floor. I don't want to be a robot."
Kirilenko, whose call to score diminished somewhat after back-from-injury forward Carlos Boozer joined season scoring leader Mehmet Okur in the frontcourt, even lobbied for coach Jerry Sloan's support.
"I feel like if the coach believes in you," he said, "you will make shots."
All this as the Jazz try to deal with the fact that the magic number for both the Lakers and Kings — owners of the Western Conference's final two playoff positions — to eliminate them from postseason contention is just two for both.
In other words: Any combination of Jazz losses and Lakers wins adding to two, and Utah can no longer overtake L.A.; ditto for the Jazz and Sacramento.
So Sloan was understandably livid Thursday, right?
Not really.
He may have been a bit perturbed, but — quite uncharacteristically, one can argue — Sloan chose to embrace Kirilenko's needs rather than rip him for terrifically ill timing.
(The 39-39 Jazz have, after all, won four straight and seven of their last nine.)
"Whatever he wants, we try to do it for him," Sloan said with the straightest of faces. "He's a guy that needs the basketball. We've got to get it to him."
In fact, Sloan made a concerted effort to do just that in Wednesday's second half, when Kirilenko shot 5-of-9.
"He seemed to be a little bit depressed with the way he's playing; I mean, I think you saw his demeanor (in the first half)," the Jazz coach said. "So we just started giving him the basketball. That became more magnified because I didn't do that maybe enough prior to that."
Sloan does admit such catering is somewhat counterintuitive to his normal coaching practices. But, he said, "I can't tell a guy what to do. He's a star player. And, as you've noticed in this league, guys can pretty much do what they want."
No sarcasm.
Face still straight as can be.
Such treatment from Sloan really is quite a departure from his usual philosophy — but, apparently, critical to a delicate balancing act that involves also trying to keep fellow starters Boozer, Okur, Matt Harpring and rookie point guard Deron Williams in line.
It's an evolution in thinking by Sloan that may have taken a turn when Kirilenko, now in his fifth NBA season, went public earlier this year with his desires to be much more involved in the offense.
"I've learned more about him," the Jazz coach said, "as time goes on.
"I guess it went back to the first time (he said) he was not getting the basketball. We made a conscious effort to try to let him handle the ball, get into the offense.
"My job," Sloan added, "is to get him to play well — whatever it takes. That's always been my responsibility. And I guarantee you I don't always do that, but I don't have any desire to see the guy fail."
Nor does Sloan want the Jazz to miss the playoffs. And while that could happen, Utah is not flat-line just yet.
Clear the Kirilenko cloud, and optimists might see a scenario in which the Jazz finish 4-0 and get in because they hold off the Hornets, and both the Lakers and Kings go no better than 1-2 in their final three.
It could happen.
"I'm confident," Kirilenko said.
He was talking about his own game. Or was it the team's?
E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com