Miles away: Guard plays well for Idaho

TORONTO — While the Jazz prepare to play Toronto tonight in the fourth outing of a five-game Eastern road trip, second-season Jazz shooting guard C.J. Miles remains out West making the most of his recent demotion to the minors.

On last Tuesday's second day of the D-League's annual MLK Showcase in Sioux Falls, S.D., the 19-year-old scored a game-high 22 points on 9-of-20 shooting from the field in Idaho's 88-77 win over Anaheim.

Miles is averaging 6.0 rebounds and 18.5 points on 50 percent shooting from the field while playing four games in five nights for the Stampede, who've won nine straight.

The 2005 second-round draft choice tipped in a game-winner in his Idaho debut last Friday vs. Bakersfield and followed that a day later by scoring 27 points in a win over Sioux Falls.

He is hitting 39.3 percent from 3-point range, which is almost 10 percent better than in his 21 NBA games this season.

The Jazz have not said when they plan to recall Miles, but the Texas high school product is expected to remain with the Stampede at least for weekend games tonight and Sunday in Bakersfield, Calif.

OLYMPIC DREAM: Jazz power forward Carlos Boozer said earlier this week that he'd be honored to rejoin USA Basketball's national-team program as it prepares for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

It looks like he'll get his wish.

According to the San Antonio Express-News, Jerry Colangelo, the team's managing director, "all but promised that" Boozer "will be part of the group next summer, and into the Olympic year."

Boozer, a 2004 Olympian, was left off the program's expanded roster in advance of last summer's FIBA World Championships in Japan.

Because the Americans did not place in the top two there, however, they still must qualify for the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, China. The United States can do that by placing first or second in this summer's Tournament of the Americas, whose field also includes Argentina and Brazil.

The Jazz's scoring and rebounding leader this season now is expected to at least be part of the 24-man group that trains in Las Vegas for the qualifying tournament, though USA Basketball must trim that roster to 12 for the tourney itself — and, next year, for the Olympics as well.