Utah Jazz: Miles' hot hand leads to big confidence boost

The way he was shooting Monday night, C.J. Miles was understandably a popular target for his teammates' passes.

The Jazz's starting small forward, turns out, was also in demand when he wasn't playing in Utah's 109-97 win over the Phoenix Suns.

"I told Ronnie (Price) a second ago I was trying to sit next to (Miles) on the bench, so I could get going," Carlos Boozer said. "C.J. was unbelievable, man."

Unconscious while hitting about everything he heaved up at times, too.

Miles tied Boozer for team-high scoring honors with 21 — a season-high for the 21-year-old — and his 15 first-quarter points were about all that kept Utah in this game for a while.

Miles also had a hot stretch in the beginning of the second half during which he scored six points, helping Utah maintain a lead that eventually exploded.

"He's the star of the game, man," Boozer said. "He couldn't miss a shot. We were trying to find him and just let him keep shooting."

Starting for the 11th time this season — after the Jazz matched Oklahoma City's contract offer sheet for the young talent in the offseason — Miles got into a rhythm from the get-go.

Miles began the game with a dunk and then hit a pair of free throws, which he says helped him build his confidence. If so, the Jazz should try to repeat that process often. Miles proceeded to score 13 of the Jazz's first 15 points, hitting from mid-range and from 3-point range.

After draining 9-of-13 shots, Miles said it was almost like being in high school again.

"I just felt good. I didn't think about anything. Everything was just flowing," he said. "The basketball hoop was about as big as this room."

While Miles certainly enjoyed his third-highest offensive output in his NBA career — and the highest since his 29-point career-high against Washington last March — he seemed to smile even bigger when talking about a different number on the stat sheet.

That number being: 25:06, which is how many minutes he played. Jazz players who get less than 20 minutes of game action are required to hit the stationary bike before practice the following day, so he earned an exercising exemption.

"That was the first thing I looked at," he said, smiling. "When I saw 25, I was excited because I don't have to wake up extra early for practice to ride the bike in the morning."

Sloan admitted that Miles "got off to a great start offensively," but he bristled about how his 6-6 swingman didn't "do that much defensively."