Utah Jazz: Miles key to big Jazz quarter

Jerry Sloan didn't go bonkers in the third quarter Friday like almost everybody else in EnergySolutions Arena did when C.J. Miles took a Deron Williams pass off the backboard and rattled the rim with a highlight dunk.

The Jazz coach didn't go crazy when a rare bad Williams pass accidentally dribbled to Miles, who picked the ball off the ground and drained a 3-pointer, or when the starting small forward hit a shot while falling down.

But that's not to say Sloan wasn't pleasantly astonished by something he witnessed during that explosive period in which the Jazz turned a tied game into a 120-94 blowout win over the Kings.

And it wasn't the 44-point total in those 12 minutes, either.

Nope.

Sloan was far more excited — to borrow the NBA's commercial phrasing — when and where Miles playing tough defense happened.

Miles' defensive efforts, the very veteran bench boss claimed, sparked his 16-point quarter output and Sacramento's meager 17-point team total that period.

"C.J. came out in the second half," Sloan said, " (and) when he got after it defensively, started playing harder defensively, and (then) had some things work for him offensively. It's amazing how that happens."

Sloan might be happy to hear that Miles, who had two of the Jazz's six steals that quarter and committed two fouls while being aggressive, completely agrees. Miles credited the Jazz's "intensity" for igniting a fire under their collective defensive bottoms.

"It was three times better than it was in the first half," Miles said of Utah's third-quarter defense. "We (were) active. We were more physical than we were in the first half. ... We were playing harder."

That's a message that — this might come as a shocker — Sloan delivered loud and clear to his players at halftime after the Jazz allowed the Kings to erase an eight-point lead while shooting 55.3 percent.

"Coach came in and told us to get up and play guys," Miles said. "He said, 'Get more physical, get more intense.' He said, 'We're at home, protect our floor and get after it.'

"And we went out there and we did it."

That paid off big-time on the other end of the floor, too.

Miles ended up scoring six more than his season average and all but two of his 18 points in the third quarter. He hit 5-of-6 field goals, including that 3-pointer which came in Utah's second-half-opening 13-0 run.