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SALT LAKE CITY - Coach Tyrone Corbin started with an old lineup Monday and ended young. The two lineups combined to lose to the Trailblazers by 20 points.
Devin Harris, Raja Bell, C.J. Miles, Al Jefferson and Mehmet Okur got the starting nod in the first preseason game. They all played late into the first and third quarters. Harris ended with 23 minutes and the rest of the starters ended in the high teens. Miles ended with nine points and the team was a minus-8 point differential while he was on the court. Jefferson and Okur were minus-19 and had a hard time guarding the quicker Blazers players, especially Okur who was guarding Gerald Wallace.
While the veterans got the start, the bulk of the minutes went to the young guys on the team. Gordon Hayward ended with a game-high 33 minutes, Derrick Favors was second with 29, Earl Watson had 25, Alec Burks had 23 and Enes Kanter had 20.
Favors had the best statistical night on the team with 25 points and 12 rebounds both game-highs. He was only a minus-1 while on the court. Kanter finished with 10 rebounds. He ended 1-7 from the field, but was 4-4 from the free-throw line. The only player that was plus points on the court for the Jazz was Evans with a +3. He ended with nine points in 10 minutes.
Miles played well in a starting role scoring nine points and hitting 3-5 from the field. Newcomer Josh Howard ended the game with five minutes and no stats in the box score.
Corbin has kept an open competition for all positions through this point. With Paul Millsap out for the first game the starters could look very different in the next preseason game and once the season starts. Going simply on the +/- numbers the starters would be Watson, Burks, Evans, Favors and Kanter.
An interesting stat line is assists to turnovers. Harris had two assists and five turnovers while Watson had five and one. Okur was plus-one assist to turnover and Burks was plus two. Everyone else was either neutral or negative.
With only one preseason game left the Jazz will have to capitalize on minutes.
"We don't have time to waste games," Corbin said. "We can't waste minutes on the floor, so I was disappointed in that."
He added that players like Bell and Miles have played better in practice.
Email: jmoore@ksl.com
