Logically, legendary trumpeter Miles Davis should love the Utah Jazz.

There is nothing smooth about these Jazz battling for their third consecutive Northwest Division title despite an odd convergence that has them with a two-game lead at 6-1 in the infancy of the 2008-09 season.

Look at Tuesday night's 90-83 victory at Philadelphia, for example. They blew a big lead by getting outscored 30-13 in the third quarter, and then won going away with a 30-13 burst in the final period. Third-year shooting guard Ronnie Brewer was scoreless and 0-for-9 from the field in the first three quarters, and finished 6-of-7 with 16 points in the fourth.

That's what this team is all about. They are in the image of their 66-year-old coach Jerry Sloan, who played the game only one way in the 1960s — full blast. He wasn't and isn't pretty or stylish or smooth; rather a defensive dervish, who would fight, bite, scratch, dive and crash his way through every game. So are his guys.

They began the season without their All-Star point guard Deron Williams until Tuesday night, sidelined with a sprained left ankle. They still don't have their sixth man, Matt Harpring — built in the unadulterated image of Sloan from a family of football stars — because of an infection he suffered during ankle surgery in the offseason. And Tuesday, they didn't have center Mehmet Okur, who went home to Turkey to help with an illness in his family.

So Sloan has coerced multi-talented Andrei Kirilenko into being the sixth man in Harpring's role. He starts young C.J. Miles and let rookie stringbean Kosta Koufos open the game Tuesday at center in the absence of Okur. Burly and intimidating reserve Paul Millsap continued his role to crash and take no prisoners with 16 points and eight rebounds once Koufos ceased to take up space.

Sure, you can look at the 19 points and 16 rebounds from Carlos Boozer, who tends to resemble a linebacker as opposed to a wide receiver. Williams was an awkward 1-for-8 from the field in his debut Tuesday, along with 9 assists and just 7 points. Heck sweet-shooting Kyle Korver was lost in his first appearance in Philly since they traded him to the Jazz last winter — also an unlikely 1-for-7 from the field.

And yet, Utah still won going away because there is a method to the madness in this form of Jazz. It is the Sloan way. It is relentless and purposeful, and not some cliche version of just playing the right way. It is the reason he is the only coach in NBA history to win more than 1,000 games with the same organization and carries a 1,092-718 record overall into the next adventure on this road trip.

That's because any season could be the season he finally gets the NBA title and coach of the year award that has eluded him throughout his career. The wise guys differ on the Jazz for conflicting reasons every year. Sloan is beloved and ignored for the same reason. They aren't sexy like the Lakers, the Suns or the upstart Trail Blazers. Even though they've won more games and for a longer period of time than the Spurs, these Jazz don't have the four titles that Gregg Popovich has wrought.

Actually, they're not even the same kind of Jazz as the John Stockton/Karl Malone era that did get to the Finals twice for Sloan only to have Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls turn them away.

They just play. They'll give Sloan the rugged defense, while Williams and Boozer will incessantly run that pick-and-roll to perfection, as if it was just invented. But they are different now, partially because Williams is so special, and Kirilenko can do so many things with the ball, and well, this is old school with new technology built in.

Sure, Sloan will still provide the same coarse description of what he expects and what he's seen on a given night. He's weathering storms of watching Brewer's continual, but erratic development. He's struggling through young Miles as his starting small forward so he can learn the game, even though it's only 15 minutes a night that Sloan will throw him into the pool and watch him struggle for air.

And he has grown enough to withstand Kirilenko's nonsensical threats that he'll walk away from his ridiculous $80 million contract to go home to Russia because he can't take Sloan's verbal abuse anymore. Somehow, he's made it through and even has Kirilenko coming off the bench now.

All the while, it's still the same Jerry Sloan you'd want on your side in a street fight, whether he's 66, 26 or 96. He has been at the core of this franchise ever since Frank Layden suddenly retired as coach a month into the 1988-89 season. They have finished a season below .500 just once during his reign, and that came right after the end of Stockton and Malone. Conversely, they have won 50 or more games 13 times and it would have been 14 were it not for the lockout season.

They may again fall short of their drive to the title and Sloan may again be ignored by the media in the coach of the year balloting. But they won't back down because Sloan has imbued them with his character, and it's a tough one — based on its own pitch, but steeped in an old-school freedom of expression with its own relentless approach.

We're talking about this season's form of Jazz. They'll win plenty, and maybe this time around. they'll win often enough that everyone else will see the light.