Tyrone Corbin is becoming more comfortable with each passing game.

The Jazz coach has not hesitated to make noticeable moves, such as starting Derrick Favors and temporarily benching C.J. Miles. And when Corbin’s been forced to challenge a player via a tough in-game conversation — he’s already pushed Devin Harris and Miles, among others — the second-year leader has not hesitated.

Asked about learning just how far he can push his young, rebuilding team, Corbin paused before saying, “It’s not a set thing.”

“You wish guys would go out and do the right thing all the time and that I would do the right thing all the time,” said Corbin, prior to Utah’s home game Tuesday against the Milwaukee Bucks. “It’s just a thing where things happen and you have to respond to it. If a guy’s struggling, you have to encourage him. If a guy’s not giving effort, you have to push him. So that’s just a part of the business, man.”

No Ute

Former University of Utah star center Andrew Bogut was a late scratch Tuesday and didn’t play for Milwaukee due to personal reasons.

“It’s a personal situation and he’s excused to go and deal with it,” Bucks coach Scott Skiles said before tipoff.

Story continues below

He added: “I really don’t want to say anything more … out of respect to Andrew.”

Bogut, the No. 1 overall pick of the 2005 NBA Draft, is averaging 14.3 points and a team-high 10 rebounds.

He drew praise from Corbin and Utah center Al Jefferson during a Tuesday morning shootaround.

“He’s a versatile player who can really pass the ball, who can make moves in the low post,” Corbin said. “His game has continued to get better.”

Jefferson added: “Bogut’s a special player. … I love playing against him because he makes me step up.”

No leader

Six Jazz games have been played and Corbin still hasn’t named a team captain.

Next Page »

Tyrone Corbin is becoming more comfortable with each passing game.

The Jazz coach has not hesitated to make noticeable moves, such as starting Derrick Favors and temporarily benching C.J. Miles. And when Corbin’s been forced to challenge a player via a tough in-game conversation — he’s already pushed Devin Harris and Miles, among others — the second-year leader has not hesitated.

Asked about learning just how far he can push his young, rebuilding team, Corbin paused before saying, “It’s not a set thing.”

“You wish guys would go out and do the right thing all the time and that I would do the right thing all the time,” said Corbin, prior to Utah’s home game Tuesday against the Milwaukee Bucks. “It’s just a thing where things happen and you have to respond to it. If a guy’s struggling, you have to encourage him. If a guy’s not giving effort, you have to push him. So that’s just a part of the business, man.”

No Ute

Former University of Utah star center Andrew Bogut was a late scratch Tuesday and didn’t play for Milwaukee due to personal reasons.

“It’s a personal situation and he’s excused to go and deal with it,” Bucks coach Scott Skiles said before tipoff.

Story continues below

He added: “I really don’t want to say anything more … out of respect to Andrew.”

Bogut, the No. 1 overall pick of the 2005 NBA Draft, is averaging 14.3 points and a team-high 10 rebounds.

He drew praise from Corbin and Utah center Al Jefferson during a Tuesday morning shootaround.

“He’s a versatile player who can really pass the ball, who can make moves in the low post,” Corbin said. “His game has continued to get better.”

Jefferson added: “Bogut’s a special player. … I love playing against him because he makes me step up.”

No leader

Six Jazz games have been played and Corbin still hasn’t named a team captain.

Next Page »

SALT LAKE CITY — It was an interesting day for Josh Howard.

First, on Monday afternoon, the Utah Jazz reserve forward got punished to the tune of a $25,000 fine for his flagrant foul in last Saturday’s game against San Antonio.

Then the nine-year NBA veteran went out and punished the New Orleans Hornets a little bit in Utah’s 94-90 victory on Monday night at EnergySolutions Arena.

Howard, who had 18 points and seven rebounds in Utah’s loss to the Spurs, followed that up with a solid 13-point performance against New Orleans as the Jazz improved their early season record to 2-3.

“I’m coming around as far as my legs go,” said Howard, a former All-Star with the Dallas Mavericks who was a free agent before signing with the Jazz on Dec. 15. “Our defense was good in the fourth quarter. Ultimately at the end of the day, you’ve got to have defense to win games. The offense will come eventually, but the main focus right now is defense.

“I don’t know my role right now, you know, I just go out there and play and try to be a veteran leader. That is my role, as far as myself defining it, but for the most part the team is trying to focus on defense, and we played great defensively over the last six minutes, and that was the main thing.”

Howard hit a big jump shot midway through the fourth quarter to tie the score at 80, and his two free throws with 3:48 remaining gave Utah an 85-84 edge and put the Jazz ahead for good.

Then with little more than a minute remaining and the Jazz clinging to a precarious three-point lead at 89-86, Howard came up with a huge offensive rebound that allowed Utah to run more precious time off the clock before Devin Harris hit Paul Millsap flashing down the lane for a slam dunk that made it 91-86 with under a minute to go.

“Oh, yeah, I snuck in there,” Howard said of grabbing a critical carom off the offensive glass. “I had to get my young Wake Forest alum (Al-Farouq Aminu) away from the ball. That was a big possession.”

Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin has certainly noticed Howard’s contributions and says the cagey 31-year-old forward could be in line for additional playing time.

“He’s getting in better shape, man, and he knows how to play,” Corbin said.

“I love his approach to the game and he’s going to continue to get better as he gets in better shape.

“If he continues to work and learn what we want to do and be effective for us, right now he’s a tough matchup for teams. He does a good job of putting pressure on other teams and getting stops. He wants to be in there and he’s doing a lot of extra stuff still to get in the game. There’s a lot of upside to what he’s doing.”

Harris hit 7-of-8 free throws, and his ability to get to the foul line certainly wasn’t lost on Corbin.

SALT LAKE CITY — Raja Bell is a smart NBA player.

He can do math, too.

So, yes, he’s aware that hitting 5 of 17 field goals through four games falls into the rough start category.

“I would like to be a shooting a higher field-goal percentage,” said the 12-year veteran, who’s shooting 29.4 percent. “But, ultimately, I don’t think it really matters if I make or miss my three shots in a game.”

Obviously, Bell wants to make those precious few shots (4.25 per game, to be precise) — if not get more looks.

But the veteran isn’t the only offensive goat on a struggling 1-3 team that’s averaging just 90.5 points on 40 percent shooting.

Scoring is just one part of his job. Considering his gritty defensive style and other Jazz weapons, oodles of offense isn’t necessarily what the team needs from him.

As the starter, Bell gets the first crack at Kobe Bryant, Manu Ginobili and other top-notch scoring threats.

“He knows how to play different guys,” Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin said.

Asked for an assessment of his 2011-12 start, the 35-year-old said he’s making an extra effort on defense because his offensive game hasn’t arrived yet.

“If something’s not working, you’ve got to try to make a difference somewhere else,” Bell said. “I think I’m doing a good job defensively.”

So does Corbin, who defends Bell’s defense.

That’s why the second-year coach has kept him in the starting lineup even while some fans plead for rookie shooting guard Alec Burks — a more explosive scorer — to get more playing time and/or to start.

“I feel comfortable with what he’s doing. He’s playing his defense,” Corbin said. “I thought he did a good job on Ginobili in the first quarter (Saturday), and then he had that run in the second quarter.”

When Bell was on the bench, mind you.

But the guard’s effort isn’t predicated on his shots falling or not.

“All I can do is go out there and play hard,” Bell said. “If Ty and (coaches) think that I’m a good fit, then I’ll go out there and try to do my best.”

Offensively, Bell knows he has nowhere to go but up.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t feel like it necessarily clicked for me last year on offense and I’m struggling again,” he said. “But I’ll keep plugging away at it. The one thing I know I can control is busting my (behind) defensively, so that’s what I’m doing.”

DISCUSSING D: The new Jazz defense (allowing 104.0 points per game) remains a work in progress, which will require more talking and effort to help each other out.

“Communication falls into rotations,” Jazz forward Josh Howard said, “because you’ve got to talk on defense, not saying nobody didn’t talk (Saturday). We’ve just got to want it a little bit more.”

SAN ANTONIO — What do the Jazz need to do in order to win, then? Keep Al Jefferson out of the game?

Following a three-point win over Philadelphia Friday night, Utah reverted back to the same poor play it had in its first two games of the year with the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver, and shot below 40 percent for the second time in four contests (including 2-of-16 from the 3-point line) in getting hammered, 104-89, by the San Antonio Spurs Saturday night in Texas.

Jefferson returned to the lineup after sitting out against the Sixers at EnergySolutions Arena.

GUARDS: Devin Harris continues to turn in sub-par performances. He scored eight points on just 2-of-8 shooting, while dishing out just three assists. Curiously, he shared time with Earl Watson, who was equally bad in going just 2-of-9 from the floor with no assists.

Raja Bell has yet to play great in any game, going scoreless in three attempts in 17 minutes Saturday, while C.J. Miles returned to inconsistency by scoring seven points on just 2-of-7 shooting. Meanwhile, San Antonio shooting guard Manu Ginobili was nearly flawless in scoring nearly as many points (23) as he logged minutes (24), while going 9-of-10 from the field. He simply ran around, shot over and backcut the listless Jazz guards whenever he actually was in the game. Really, no Jazz guard hardly played well at all. GRADE: D-

FORWARDS: Paul Millsap scored eight points on 4-of-7 shooting with seven rebounds, but he really needs more shot attempts. Derrick Favors gave a mediocre performance in 23 minutes in his first effort off the bench this season, while Gordon Hayward probably gave his worst performance of the young season, going just 1-of-9 for four points. He tallied four assists and three rebounds. Former all-star Josh Howard scored 18 points, but it came on 6-of-16 shooting. Future Spurs hall-of-famer Tim Duncan was limited to a 4-of-13 effort. GRADE: C-

CENTERS: Jefferson did return with a decent offensive game in scoring 21 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. He and rookie Enes Kanter allowed DeJuan Blair to score 17 points on just eight field goal attempts. Kanter’s two rebounds mark the lowest rebounding game of his four-game NBA career. It remains to be seen if the Jazz will miss Mehmet Okur. GRADE: B-

BENCH: You know when you’re in trouble when Howard’s 6-of-16 effort leads the bench attack. Overall, the reserves shot just 16-of-43 from the field in going just 1-of-8 from the 3-point line. The saving grace? The Jazz bench outscored the San Antonio reserves 48-30. GRADE: C