Jazz's Bell gets the boot for giving ball the boot

For the second time in three games, an early ejection proved costly to the Jazz.

Last time, it was Greg Ostertag who prematurely exited an overtime loss to Cleveland.

This time, it was Raja Bell who got the boot. For an inappropriate boot, as it turned out.

Bell was tossed from Utah's 96-75 loss to the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday night for what officials called "unsportsmanlike kicking of the ball."

The Jazz's oft-used reserve swingman punted the basketball a good 40 yards or so high into the Delta Center's upper deck after his late layup came just after the buzzer indicating the end of the opening quarter.

Referee Violet Palmer immediately hit Bell with a technical foul, and moments later — after a conference among the game's three officials — lead ref Steve Javie informed Jazz coach Jerry Sloan that Bell had been ejected, essentially for conduct detrimental to the game.

"They were doing what they were supposed to do — that's what the officials said," Sloan said. "I can live with that. He shouldn't have done it, anyway."

Ostertag returned Tuesday, after sitting out a one-game NBA suspension Monday night at Golden State for his Saturday-night fight with Cleveland center Zydrunas Ilgauskas — an incident Sloan said was "dumb" on Ostertag's part, in part because of how shorthanded it left the already injury-decimated Jazz.

On a night Jazz scoring leader Andrei Kirilenko sat out his second straight game with an ankle sprain — joining Matt Harpring, Keon Clark, Curtis Borchardt and Ben Handlogten, each of whom has a long-term injury, on the sidelines — losing Bell early did not exactly help, either.

"We need everybody out there," Sloan said.

Bell — who faces a possible fine from the NBA, though a suspension seems unlikely — left the Delta Center without comment.

TRADE TALK: Phoenix Suns veteran forward Tom Gugliotta reacted this week to speculation that he may be dealt before the league's Feb. 19 trade deadline to the Jazz, a team so far under the NBA salary cap that it could absorb his exorbitant contract that expires after this season.

"I've heard it, but I don't know anything about it," Gugliotta told the Arizona Republic. "If it happens, it will be for financial reasons."