Jerry Sloan gives the buzz on how Utah needs to play the Lakers

“Lord of the Flies” meets the NBA playoffs?

Well, not exactly.

The Utah Jazz may have lost the opening game to the Lakers, but it has hardly landed on an island, and as for self-governing, there’s really only one man in charge: Coach Jerry Sloan.

Sloan brought up a new image Monday morning at practice when attempting to define his remarks from the previous day about his team’s lack of nastiness, and the need for the Jazz to incorporate that concept into its playbook.

This isn’t about classy nastiness. Or nasty-nasty, as in committing flagrant fouls.

How about just plain old down-home nastiness?

“You want to be like an old nasty fly,” Sloan said. “Be a pain in the butt to somebody, but you can’t be a pain in the butt if you’re not on ‘em. That’s all I was talking about. It wasn’t anything bad. Maybe it kind of sounded that way, like we’re trying to do something crazy.”

So will this mean Kobe Bryant turns into a human fly-swatter? He sure looked like one when he all but smothered Eric Gordon in a Clippers-Lakers game near the end of the season, refusing to let Gordon get open in the final seconds.

The Jazz has to bring it on, early rather than later, after losing Game 1 to the Lakers on Sunday. Sloan felt Utah’s approach was almost too casual, and it certainly seemed that way with the Lakers racking up 62 points in the first half.

“You’ve got to get up and guard people,” he said. “It’s not regular season. We’re playing, to some extent, like it’s a regular-season game. They’re too good a team to play that way. They’ve got a lot of things they can hurt you with. Their bench is very good. They pass the ball pretty well and they defend you. . . . They make it tough.”

Jazz forward Carlos Boozer, who had 27 points in Game 1, happened to agree with Sloan on the issue of nastiness.

“We’ve got to get nasty,” he said. “We’ve got to play with an attitude, that’s what he means. Some of us have it, but not collectively. We have to have it. The whole team, from one to 15. We have to be nasty as a group. . . . He’s right.”

Said point guard Deron Williams: “We have to compete. We can let them run over us. They’re the type of team, if you let them run over you, they’re going to run over you. They’re a great team. We have a tough task trying to beat them here, but it can be done.”

Okur update

Monday’s weird symmetry: The Jazz was practicing at the Clippers’ training facility in Playa Vista. And the Clippers happened to be the opponent when center Mehmet Okur suffered a right hamstring strain in the second-to-last game of the regular season.

He worked out on the sideline during Utah’s practice and was able to increase his activity. Still, it seems doubtful Okur will be ready for tonight’s Game 2, though the Jazz is calling it a game-time decision.

Okur said before practice that his leg still felt tight and that there was a little bit of pain.

“This is the kind of injury if you’re not really feeling good, if you go out and try to run, it could be worse,” he said. “I look forward to just loosening up a little bit, try to stretch, try to run a little bit. And we’ll see what happens.”

The leg is about 65% to 70%, Okur said.

“I’m looking for close to 100%,” he said. “Maybe I’m not going to be 100% if I feel like my motion, like jumping, running and pushing. If I feel good, I’m going to be out there.

“If not, hopefully, it’s going to be OK. If not, I’m going to miss” the game.

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lisa.dillman@latimes.com