The Jazz tonight will retire the No. 12 worn for 19 seasons in Utah by NBA all-time steals and assists leader John Stockton.

To this day, they miss the point guard who performed so long with such precision.

Last season, the first after Stockton retired, Carlos Arroyo and Raul Lopez stepped up when no one was sure if they could.

The undrafted Arroyo proved his worth as an NBA starter and was rewarded last summer with a four-year, $16 million contract. Lopez played all 82 games in a mostly backup role, despite a right knee that twice has been surgically reconstructed.

This season, however, the Jazz have had anything but stability at the point.

Arroyo sprained his left ankle in the final game of the preseason and missed the first six games of the regular season. Lopez missed all of the exhibition season because of problems with the knee, eventually underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair cartilage damage and still is out. Free agent Keith McLeod struggled in training camp, then started the season and surprised most everyone with strong play.

Finally, on the same day its season opened, Utah reacquired one of Stockton's former backups. Because Arroyo was hurt and Lopez was out and McLeod was a question mark, the Jazz signed Howard Eisley and committed to keeping him for the rest of the season.

No wonder Jazz coach Jerry Sloan — accustomed to certainty from the Stockton days — has stressed so much on how to use his points.

One night, he allowed McLeod to close. Another, Eisley. Then came Tuesday in Charlotte, when Arroyo returned to the active roster. McLeod got the first call behind him, not Eisley, and afterward Sloan wondered if he had done right.

"There were thoughts of going to Howard," the Jazz coach said then. "I thought a great deal about it. But I thought Carlos played pretty well, I thought Keith had played pretty well.

"I'll have those thoughts going through my mind every minute. It's not an easy situation to try to deal with — but I'll do the best I can," Sloan added. "I can second-guess myself all day long on those situations, and I probably will."

The Jazz won that night but lost the next, at Orlando.

After falling to the Magic, a game that got away in the fourth quarter, Sloan suggested he was not sure if he was comfortable juggling minutes for the trio. He even wondered if he had done right by allowing Arroyo to close in just his second game of the season.

"Keith's played awfully well for enough," Sloan said that night. "He's put us in a great situation — he and Howard both. And Carlos, I'm trying to get him back — because I know he's played well for us.