Utah Jazz: C.J. Miles shines for Jazz off bench

SALT LAKE CITY — Rookie Gordon Hayward got the start in place of injured shooting guard Raja Bell.

But it was sixth-man swingman C.J. Miles who finished at the 2 spot — in fine fashion, too, as the Jazz beat Orlando 117-105 Friday night at EnergySolutions Arena.

His alley-oop dunk, delivered by Deron Williams, was icing that pushed Utah's lead to 13 with 43.4 seconds to go.

Rather than high-flying harm, though, Miles did most of his damage Friday from the outside.

He wound up with a season-high 26 points off the bench, doing it with 9-for-13 shooting from the field, including 4-for-6 from 3-point range, and 4-for-6 shooting from the free-throw line.

Nineteen of his 26 came in the fourth quarter, when the Jazz — leading by 10 after three — never allowed the Magic to get within closer than seven at 109-102 with just under three minutes to go.

"The basket just got big to me in the second half, basically," Miles said.

"I tried to mix it up. But I got a lot of looks from 3s, so I had to take them to make them (the Magic) honest," he added. "When they ran me I tried to get to the basket a little bit. But, mostly, guys just spaced the floor and guys found me."

Miles was 7-for-9 from the field in the fourth quarter alone, including 3-for-4 from behind the long-distance line.

It was part of a second half in which Utah was 9-for-13 on trey tries, accounting for the bulk of their season high-tying 10 3-pointers.

"We moved with a purpose in the second half," Miles said.

"Everybody gets going, running up and down the floor. We get easy baskets, and we get open shots, and you've got a rhythm going playing hard, and it allowed us to make some shots."

That Miles knocked most of his down was critical for the Jazz, especially with seldom-used Hayward going scoreless in Bell's absence.

The responsibility to pick up the slack with Bell being sidelined — the veteran sat out with an adductor strain — is something Miles readily acknowledged.

"You do (feel it)," he said. "But, at the same time, I didn't want to change from what I do."

That would be offering a scoring punch off the bench, a role Miles said he's "just trying to embrace."