In Game 3 vs. Lakers, Jazz in a familiar place: in Utah, down 0-2

SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah Jazz have unwillingly been in this situation before, survived and lived to tell about it.

Historically, NBA teams down 0-2 in best-of-seven playoff series, as the Jazz are to the Lakers, have won the series only 13 times.

But these Jazz performed the Houdini act last year, recoiling from that deficit to beat the Houston Rockets with the capper coming in a Game 7 victory on the road.

Of course, they also fell 0-2 behind the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference Finals last season and lost that series in five games.

“We’ve been here before,” forward Carlos Boozer said today at practice. “We’ve been down 0-2 before. What we have to do is come out and focus on Game 3.”

The series shifts here for Games 3 and 4, where the Jazz went a league best 37-4 at home during the regular season, although the Lakers thrashed them in one of those defeats.

“I think it will be a little different, just because we’re at home, No. 1,” guard Deron Williams said. “We’ll have the energy, the crowd on our side this time. We just have to make a conscious effort to get off to a better start because that’s basically what cost us both games. It was the second quarter in the first game and the first quarter in the last game.”

But, oh where to where to start on what the Jazz need to improve upon to make this a series.

Utah can start by getting Williams and Boozer involved early in the game.

The two combined for only three points in Wednesday’s game during the first half. Boozer has been plagued by foul trouble during the series and Wednesday was the 16th straight game he did not match his season average of 21.1 points.

Boozer said he stayed up until 6 this morning, watching game tape before the Jazz practiced, looking for any way to stay out of foul trouble.

“If I can stay out of foul trouble, I think I’ll be all right,” he said. “That’s the biggest key for me in this series. Both games I’ve had foul trouble in the first half and it’s hurt me, hurt my team.”

Meanwhile, Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan continued to lambaste his team’s starts to games in this series.

“We’ve got to have production out of everybody. When you look at the way we started the game, we didn’t have the kind of production you’ve got to have to win.

“That’s two games in a row we’ve come out very soft on both ends of the floor and that’s when you get yourself in trouble. We ended up taking bad shots where there’s nobody there to rebound and if you’re not there, then they come out of there in the open court and beat you with fast-break basketball.”

Jazz Owner Larry H. Miller told the Salt Lake Tribune that he will not attend Sunday’s playoff game for religious reasons. Sunday will be the Jazz’s first home game on that day in more than seven years.

Sloan on what was bothering him when he picked up a technical foul on Wednesday:

“The heat. I didn’t like the hot weather.”

jonathan.abrams@latimes.com