Utah Jazz: Not much bench production in loss

SALT LAKE CITY — If you didn't know better, you might have guessed the Utah Jazz were participating in some standings shenanigans on Wednesday night...

Two starters sat. Rarely used big men Kyrylo Fesenko and Kosta Koufos both played in the first quarter, and even more rarely used rookie Othyus Jeffers got mid-fourth quarter playing time.

Despite appearances in the 100-86 loss to Phoenix, there was no funny business on Jazz coach Jerry Sloan's part. The Jazz didn't want to start the playoffs on the road against Denver, a team that edged them out for the Northwest Division championship because of their 3-1 advantage over Utah this season.

It was less sinister and simpler than that.

The Jazz just didn't get enough bench production, especially compared to the Suns' output from their subs.

"We had to play really well tonight to win," Jazz backup guard Kyle Korver said, "and we just didn't really get into a flow of any kind, and they played really well."

A point, of course, that brings us back to that part about two Jazz starters sitting.

With usual starting forwards Carlos Boozer out with a strained oblique muscle and Andrei Kirilenko again sidelined with his strained calf, Sloan was forced to pluck players off of a normally deep bench to fill in the starting lineup.

Utah's starters more than held their own against Phoenix's first five. The Jazz starting five, which included Paul Millsap at the power forward spot and C.J. Miles again at small forward, outscored the Suns' starters 73-50.

That might have to be the moral victory for Utah, which fell to the No. 5 seed out West with the blowout loss.

The problem, though, for the Jazz is that their depleted reserves struggled big-time on a night when the opponents' bench exploded.

Through the first three quarters — when the Suns' lead was already at 21 and the game all but over — Phoenix's subs had outscored Utah's backups by a whopping 35-2. Up to that point, Koufos and Kyle Korver were 0-for-3 (and ended a combined 1-for-8), and Ronnie Price was 0-for-2 a night after giving Utah a big spark off the bench.

Only Fesenko had scored through the first 36 minutes, a fact that screamed off the stat sheet seeing as Phoenix reserve Channing Frye had 15 points by himself.