Jazz use Pacer loss as a measuring tool

INDIANAPOLIS — As measuring sticks go, this was a pretty good one.

The Jazz fell in their second game of the preseason, dropping a 99-92 decision to Indiana on Thursday night at Conseco Fieldhouse.

Yet for Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, the defeat was not a total loss.

Rather, with an assortment of Jazz free agents and youngsters playing down the stretch against an experienced cast of Pacer regulars, it served to help a select few determine how far they have come and, more notably, how far they have to go.

"I thought it was good for them. And I thought they did pretty well," Sloan said after watching rookie point guard Deron Williams and his young buddies face the likes of Ron Artest, Stephen Jackson, first-round pick Danny Granger and savvy European veteran Sarunas Jasikevicius throughout most of the final quarter. "You know, we committed some fouls, turned the ball over a little bit. But how else are you going to learn how to play?"

The Jazz went into the fourth up 71-65, but Indiana rallied and went up for good at 83-81 on a Jackson layup with just over four minutes to play. Nine times in the final 12 minutes, Utah committed a turnover.

Considering the circumstances, those facts alone should come as no great shock.

For starters, Sloan suggested, Indiana was no slouch opponent — which is all you're really looking for when the score doesn't really count.

"They came out and stroked us a great deal, and made it difficult for us," the Jazz coach said. "That's how you learn how to play.

"This team (the Pacers) will be a great team. They'll be very, very great," Sloan added. "They're as good a team as anybody to play against. They execute, they stay in what they're doing, they don't turn the ball over and they defend you."

The Jazz, meanwhile, are still learning to do all of those things after going 26-56 a season ago.

"It's a work in progress," forward Andrei Kirilenko said after going 3-of-11 from the field.

And there truly was at least a degree of progress for the Jazz, even they did follow Wednesday's 102-101 preseason-opening win at Toronto with a loss. After committing 33 turnovers against the Raptors, after all, the total miscue count was down to 22 against the Pacers.

"When you play harder, and you play more intelligently, you don't turn it over as much," Sloan said. "Sometimes our young guys don't realize how hard it is to play in this league. Other guys, too, based on the way we started."