Utah Jazz notes: Sloan ticked with basic defense

DENVER — Jazz coach Jerry Sloan seemed to run out of patience Tuesday night.

And it wasn't just with referees.

Rather, it was with a couple of his younger guys — namely starting shooting guard Ronnie Brewer and starting small forward C.J. Miles.

Sloan — whose Jazz lost Tuesday at Portland and visit Denver tonight — subbed in two veterans, shooting guard Kyle Korver and small forward Andrei Kirilenko, earlier than usual in Tuesday's opening quarter.

It was just six minutes and 45 seconds into the game, in fact, when Sloan went with the two 28-year-olds over 24-year-old Brewer and 22-year-old Miles.

Sloan had some choice words at the bench for both, but seemed especially bothered by the job Brewer was doing on Trail Blazers All-Star Brandon Roy.

"He's a wonderful player," Sloan said of Roy, who wound up with 25 points on 10-of-14 field shooting.

"Ronnie had one foul playing a great player. That's not gonna cut it," the Jazz coach said as he scanned the postgame box score sheet.

"I mean, he (Roy) got two lobs on him right there on the basket — and he (Brewer) wasn't even ready for the lob," Sloan said.

"Those are things you learn when you're in grade school — you've got to get your body between your man and the basket, and not let them have something like that."

Brewer started the second half, but Miles did not. Instead, 32-year-old vet Matt Harpring opened in his place.

"If I had to do it over," said Sloan, who wound up getting ejected in the third quarter of the blowout loss, "I'd probably play him (Harpring) a little more."

SURPRISE REACTION: Sloan surprisingly let the Jazz off the hook a bit after they lost for the 15th time in their 18th back-to-back set second-game opportunity.

"We played (Monday) night," he said with reference to a win over New York. "I think young teams sometimes have a tendency to run into those sort of things. It's just how fast they fight back, with the next game being a tough game, (that matters)."

Point guard Deron Williams seemed much more bothered by the way the Jazz have been closing out back-to-backs.

"It's become a recurring thing for us — just playing bad on the road, playing bad on back-to-backs," he said. "There's no excuse. No reason I can put my finger on. We just have to find ways to win."