Live from Salt Lake City Thursday night, it's the...

NBA?

In something of a startling development, the Utah Jazz get a home game, for the first time since Feb. 2, and return to the Delta Center in better shape than when it left. Speaking of startling developments.

The Jazz went away because of the Olympics, but didn't go away. It won six in a row on the road, the end of a run of nine victories in 11 games. The young guys continued to contribute, making this the first Utah season since the Eisenhower Administration that is about the future.

One of the old guys, Karl Malone, starred and had coach Jerry Sloan talking about best stretches ever for the Mailman, which is only totally noteworthy considering the standards that had already been established on the route. And, as if just to make sure there was some normalcy during a crazy time in the schedule, the Greg Ostertag issue remained as constant ever, which is to say he remained a constant pain for Sloan.

So what that most of those five straight victories were against the East. And so what that one of them that should have stood for an important benchmark against a contender from the other conference instead turned out to be a game against the Raptors. Nine in a row away from the Delta Center is still a major challenge, even with the All-Star break in there for rest and only three back-to-backs in the space of nearly a month. There were victories at Indiana, Philadelphia and Toronto, and all in a row. Only two of the opponents broke triple digits in scoring, the Rockets at the start and the Kings at the end.

In what was supposed to be the spring of their disconnect, the Jazz hung together.