The Utah Jazz has a sports psychologist.

He doesn't make road trips.

Maybe the team ought to change that. After all, the Jazz this season on the road usually has had as much of a chance as an armadillo on a Texas highway.

"We've been horrible on the road," said Utah forward Carlos Bozer. "It's no secret."

Just take a look at the NBA standings. The Jazz (47-30) is 32-7 at home and 15-23 on the road, the biggest discrepancy in the NBA.

Utah last week had a chance to really do something about it, but the Jazz had a rougher time away from home than Napoleon in Russia. Utah was blown out in key Northwest Division games at Portland (125-104) and at Denver (114-104), and since has been eliminated from the division race.

Alas, the Jazz finally broke though Sunday. Utah won 108-94 at New Orleans, breaking a 16-game losing streak to teams that currently have winning records and making it 2-16 this season in such games.

"If we play like that every night, we can beat anybody," said guard Deron Williams.

The mystery is why the Jazz almost never play like that on the road.

"If I knew what the problem was, if this team knew and if the coach (Jerry Sloan) knew, our record would be a whole lot better," said guard Ronnie Brewer. "We have a different energy level (than at home)... We kind of fold (on the road)."

Utah usually folds like Origami away from the comfort of the EnergySolutions Arena, where the Jazz has so much energy the building's name isn't surprising.

But what's the solution on the road? Sloan might be heading for a Hall of Fame induction, but even he can't figure out this gang.

"We go out on the road, and teams play us a lot differently," Sloan said. "We don't play the same way, with the same intensity. I can't make the change. It's something that the players have got to learn to do. We've got a lot of young guys, and hopefully they can learn how to do that as time goes on."

Nuggets coach George Karl has a simple reason about the disparity between the Jazz at home and on the road. Karl, whose Nuggets went 0-2 against Utah on the road this season and 2-0 at home, rarely misses a chance to say the Jazz get more favorable calls at home than any NBA team.

"The whistle seems to be more of an advantage of how they play on their home court," Karl said. "I wonder if they have the biggest disparity in home and road fouls."

One thing is for sure. Utah better figure out its road woes soon to have any chance of doing anything in the playoffs.

The Jazz is currently the No. 7 seed in the West, one game ahead of the No. 8 Mavericks (46-31) heading into Wednesday's game at Dallas. Considering Utah has the tiebreaker in hand, a win likely would enable it to avoid the top-seeded Lakers in the first round.

But if it's another road kill for Utah, it could be hello Lakers. Then it would figure to be goodbye Jazz.

"For us to really have championship hopes, we got to figure it out," Boozer said.

Maybe it's not too late to buy a ticket to Dallas for Keith Henschen, the team's sports psychologist.

Players say Henschen works with them individually, so there's been no speech to the team about trying to get Utah to be less psycho on the road. But perhaps it's worth an attempt.

"Maybe," said forward Matt Harpring. "Who knows?"

But what everybody knows now is the Jazz regularly is out of tune on the road.

Chris Tomasson has covered the NBA for the bulk of the past 23 seasons, most recently the Denver Nuggets for the late, great Rocky Mountain News. He is a regular contributor to Pro Basketball News and can be reached at christomasson@hotmail.com.