Whatever the Jazz players did over the All-Star break, it must have worked.

Karl Malone and John Stockton carried torches in the Olympic relay, Andrei Kirilenko participated in All-Star weekend, and the whole team came back refreshed and renewed.

Even Greg Ostertag, who was faced with a one-game, team-imposed suspension, and Bryon Russell, who heard his name swirling in unfounded trade rumors, have played well in recent games.

As a team, their three impressive road victories last week against top Eastern Conference teams were a sharp turnaround from the way they fizzled just before the break, losing in embarrassing fashion at Houston and Memphis.

""We are trying to stay focused on the game at hand and the guys are playing a little better," Stockton said after Friday"s victory at Toronto, which put them at four games above .500 for only the second time all season.

""We played some good defense and executed our offense."

The Jazz vacated the Delta Center on Feb. 3 to accommodate the Winter Olympics and won"t play at home again until Feb. 28, but thanks to victories last week at Indiana, Philadelphia and Toronto, the end is in sight.

The Jazz play at New York tonight, Cleveland on Monday and Denver on Wednesday, then get a five-day break before playing at Sacramento on Feb. 26.