Six other times this season, the Jazz have tried to do what they again attempted Friday night: post a second straight victory.
     
Utah finally did it this time, beating the Los Angeles Clippers 102-86 at the Staples Center to push their current winning steak to a season-high two.
     
By doing so, the Jazz answered, at least for one night, a question that has been weighing heavily on the mind of Jazz coach Jerry Sloan.
     
"That's part of this business: Finding out, when things get tough, if you can fight back, or do you just lay back and die?" Sloan asked after the win.
     
The Jazz didn't lay back this time.
     
That accomplishment was tempered, however, by this fact: Karl Malone, who scored 29 points, watched the end of the game with ice on his hyperextended right knee.
     
Malone sustained the injury midway through the fourth quarter, and did not return. His status for tonight's Delta Center game against Golden State was uncertain immediately after Friday's game.
     
As for the win, it was one Utah dearly needed.