SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz couldn’t blow this one — playing against an undermanned Milwaukee Bricks, err, Bucks, team that was without Andrew Bogut, Mike Dunleavy and Beno Udrih.

The Jazz did let the Bucks get close in the fourth quarter before clamping down and holding them without a basket for nearly eight minutes. Utah earns solid marks for winning a game it should have.

GUARDS: Just when Devin Harris plays a game that Jazz fans are accustomed to seeing from their point guard, he gets hurt. Harris dished a season-high six assists before suffering a strained left calf. He only took two shots and went scoreless in 17 minutes. Raja Bell was in the starting lineup again, but only played 12 minutes. He sat out the entire fourth quarter. He hit a 3-pointer in the third quarter to make it 49-40, and again played well on defense. Milwaukee’s starting backcourt of Brandon Jennings and Carlos Delfino combined to shoot 4-for-26, so that certainly raises Utah’s grade. Grade: A-

FORWARDS: There’s a reason why Paul Millsap is a fan-favorite. He left the game with a knee injury early in the fourth quarter, but quickly returned. His shot was on, as he went 6-for-7 from the field and had 13 points and 12 rebounds. Gordon Hayward was also much better than he was on Monday night, as he had 12 points on 5-for-7 shooting. Milwaukee’s starting frontcourt made 7 of 26 attempts and was badly outplayed by Millsap and Hayward. Grade: A

CENTERS: Al Jefferson was dominant offensively with 26 points and 10 rebounds. Enes Kanter continues to provide the Jazz with a spark when he plays. The Jazz were fortunate that Andrew Bogut didn’t play, and surprisingly let Drew Gooden have a big night with 24 points and 12 rebounds. Grade: B+

BENCH: Derrick Favors is reaching fan-favorite status with the highlight-reel plays he provides on a nightly basis. He blocked five shots, scored six points and had seven rebounds. Alec Burks scored seven of his nine points from the free-throw line and dished six assists. The Jazz’s bench outscored the Milwaukee reserves 31-16. That’s big. Grade: A-

COACHING: It’s fun to watch what type of lineup combinations coach Tyrone Corbin comes up with. He started the fourth quarter with Jamaal Tinsley at point guard, Burks, Kanter, Miles and Favors. After he replaced Kanter with Jefferson, the Jazz held the Bucks without a basket for nearly eight minutes. Fans are probably still questioning why Bell is starting, but you can’t argue with the results in three home games. Grade: A

SALT LAKE CITY — As bad as they’ve played at times, it might come as a surprise that the Utah Jazz can even their record with a win tonight.

One guy that won’t get in their way: 7-foot Andrew Bogut .

The Milwaukee Bucks center and former University of Utah star is not with the team and won’t play tonight because of personal matters.

Mike Dunleavy (groin pain) and Ben Udrih (left shoulder pain) will also miss the Jazz-Bucks game.

“We have an opportunity to improve our record to 3-3 tonight, but it’s not going to be easy,” Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin said after his team’s morning shootaround. “Milwaukee’s a good ball club. We’re going to have to compete against them as if they’re coming in here to win.”

Both the Jazz (2-3) and Bucks (2-2) are coming off of games Monday night. Milwaukee lost in Denver 91-86, and Utah edged New Orleans 94-90 at EnergySolutions Arena.

That location tidbit makes tonight’s showdown an anomaly. This is the first back-to-back set with two home games for the Jazz since Nov. 2008.

This was Utah fans’ only chance to catch an up-close-and-person glimpse of the former Ute standout, who is averaging 14.3 points and 10.0 rebounds this season.

Earlier today, Corbin credited Bogut for being a solid passer with strong low-post moves.

“He’s a versatile big guy who’s continued to get better and learned this game,” Corbin said.

This game (7 p.m. MT tipoff, ROOT Sports) will conclude a six-games-in-eight-nights beginning of the season for the Jazz. It’s also the second of three home games Utah has this week and one of 12 contests at ESA in January for the young team.

Utah will go with the same starters as Monday: Devin Harris, Raja Bell, Gordon Hayward, Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson.

Email: jody@desnews.com Twitter: DJJazzyJody

SAN ANTONIO — Big Al is back in the starting lineup.

The Utah Jazz waited as long as they possibly could to determine Al Jefferson’s availability for tonight’s game against the San Antonio Spurs, but the starting center will give it a go.

The Jazz’s usual starting center missed Friday night’s 102-99 win over the Philadelphia 76ers because of an inflamed right ankle.

Jefferson worked out and warmed up at the AT&T Center under the watch of trainer Gary Briggs, and they determined 45 minutes before the 6:30 p.m. MT tip that his health had improved enough to try to play.

Jefferson’s return sends his one-game replacement, Derrick Favors, to the bench.

In Big Al’s center spot Friday, Favors scored 20 points and had 11 rebounds in the Jazz’s first win of the season. Before Jefferson was ruled out against the 76ers, however, coach Tyrone Corbin had decided to reinsert Paul Millsap into the starting power forward position.

After two rough starts at power forward and a monster game at center, Favors hopes to keep the momentum going after his big performance.

His plan, Favors explained, is to “just try to play the same way I played. Really not try to go out and get the same numbers, but go out there and do what I did on defense and everything else will come.”

Along with Jefferson, the Jazz’s opening lineup includes Devin Harris, Raja Bell, Gordon Hayward and Millsap.

The Jazz will continue their difficult beginning to the 2011-12 season with back-to-back home games on Monday (New Orleans) and Tuesday (Milwaukee).

Email: jody@desnews.com Twitter: DJJazzyJody

SALT LAKE CITY — Get off the ledge, Jazz fans, and breathe easy. There’s no need to jump — your favorite NBA team is not gonna go 0-66 this season.

Not if Friday night’s effort is any indication of things to come.

After back-to-back beatings on the road, the Utah Jazz returned home and conjured up visions of glorious victories from the past with a gritty (and much-needed) 102-99 thriller over the Philadelphia 76ers at raucous EnergySolutions Arena.

It wasn’t clear whether Friday’s drama-filled win was one which brought about great joy or simply a sense of relief. After all, in their season-opener — a 25-point loss to the Lakers — the Jazz were The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight. And in Game 2 — an ugly 17-point defeat at Denver — they looked like The Gang That Couldn’t Play Defense.

But in Game 3 on Friday night, they became The Gang That Refused to Lose at Home.

With four starters — Derrick Favors, Devin Harris, Gordon Hayward and Paul Millsap — scoring in double figures, and two of them — Millsap and Favors — coming up with double-digit rebounds as well, this lineup looked much more focused and cohesive than the one that got slapped around in those lopsided losses at L.A. and Denver.

And with critical contributions off the bench from Earl Watson, C.J. Miles, Josh Howard and Enes Kanter, the Jazz gave their fans a wonderful, albeit a little late, Christmas present — hope.

Hope that this team will rise above all those preseason predictions that have them languishing among the worst teams in the league.

As for now, though, it’s doubtful that any team in NBA history has ever been happier to be 1-2.

And Utah coach Tyrone Corbin was mighty glad to that first victory.

“We needed a win, first of all,” he said. “The first two games on the road, we didn’t really feel good about how we played.

“We made some mistakes again tonight, but I thought our energy level was up on the offensive end of the floor and defensively we did a great job communicating with each other. … The guys did a good job of not falling apart but coming together more and encouraging each other and pushing each other.

“We’re growing; we’re getting better,” Corbin said. “We’re still a young group of guys, and we’ll keep getting better, keep fighting and keep trying to figure it out. And as long as we stay together as a group, we have a great chance to get this thing worked out.”

Before the game, shooting guard C.J. Miles — who, at the ripe old age of 24, is the longest-tenured member of the team — thanked the fans “for sticking with us through the lockout” and commended them for being the “best fans in the NBA.”

SALT LAKE CITY — Earl Watson, C.J. Miles, Enes Kanter, Josh Howard and Derrick Favors on the floor to start the fourth quarter. A 13-point second-quarter deficit. No Al Jefferson in the lineup.

Factors that seemed to stack the deck against the Jazz actually didn’t, and Utah pulled out a stunning 102-99 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday night. The Jazz earn mostly high marks while picking up their first victory of the season.

GUARDS: If Devin Harris has proved anything in his time in Utah, it’s that he’s no John Stockton or Deron Williams. He doesn’t play like a true point guard, and tries to be too much of a scorer. Harris, who committed what could have been a game-costing turnover with 13.8 seconds left, got his points though against the 76ers, leading Utah’s guards in scoring with 19 points.

The Jazz got their best true point guard play from Watson, who pushed tempo and moved the ball around. He finished with one more assist than Harris despite playing three fewer minutes. Raja Bell was a forgotten man, playing just 18 minutes. Rookie Alex Burks did not play. Grade: B+

FORWARDS: Paul Millsap had an off shooting night and is taking too many 3-pointers, but played hard like usual and finished with 14 points and 14 rebounds. Gordon Hayward hit a clutch jumper with 30.2 seconds left to give the Jazz a 101-97 lead, and also made some nice passes in crunch time. Howard played 24 minutes and did a decent job, although he shot just 2-for-6 from the field. Grade: B+

CENTERS: Favors started the game in place of Jefferson at center and looked nothing like the player who struggled against the Lakers and Nuggets. He hit some short-range jumpers and showed off his athleticism near the basket while finishing with 20 points. Kanter provided some valuable minutes. He had four points and six rebounds in 15 minutes. Grade: A-Grade: A-

BENCH: Watson and Miles were Utah’s two most effective players coming off the bench. Utah’s reserves outscored Philadelphia’s 31-29. You can’t ask for much more than your bench beating the other team’s bench. Grade: A-

COACHING: Fans may have wanted to summon a doctor to check Corbin’s temperature when he started the fourth with Watson, Miles, Kanter, Howard and Favors. It was a high-risk, high-reward type of move and it paid off handsomely. Corbin put together other creative lineups during the game, and seemed to make the right changes when he needed to. Grade: A

OVERALL: The Jazz avoided being 0-3 for the first time in 32 years. It wasn’t always pretty, especially in the first half, but they got the job done and gave their fans a reason to stay interested this early in the season. Grade A-

SALT LAKE CITY — Chalk one up for the young guys.

And while you’re doing that, mark a win down for the Utah Jazz.

The Jazz bounced back from a pair of rough road games to open the season with a riveting 102-99 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers Friday night in their home opener at EnergySolutions Arena.

Derrick Favors had a humongous night with 20 points and 11 rebounds after filling in for usual starting center Al Jefferson, who sat out with an inflamed right ankle.

Fellow second-year player Gordon Hayward also made a big impact in this game, hitting a clutch jumper in the final minute and scoring 15 points.

Devin Harris scored 19 points and Paul Millsap, reinserted in the first five, added a strong double-double with 14 points and 12 boards as the Jazz improved to 1-2.

Jrue Holiday led Philadelphia (1-2) with 20 points.

The Jazz were in an unfamiliar position at halftime.

They actually went to the locker room with a lead — 53-51.

Harris had 14 points at the half, including 13 in the second quarter when the Jazz rallied out of a 13-point deficit.

The Jazz also received double-digit performances from Millsap (11 points) and Favors (10) in the opening half.

Both Millsap and Favors started — Millsap because he’d been put back into the opening lineup to help Utah get off to a better start, and Favors because of Jefferson’s injury.

Philly jumped out to a 29-22 edge at the end of the first quarter, and then upped its lead to as many as 13 points as the Jazz looked lost and listless.

Harris was even taken out — getting replaced by backup point Earl Watson — four minutes into the game. But the starting point guard came out with a vengeance in the second quarter.

Interestingly, Favors had eight first-quarter points on a day when he was benched and then named a starter within hours.

Rookie Enes Kanter also contributed with a strong interior defensive presence, finishing with four points and six rebounds.

C.J. Miles added 10 points, Watson scored nine and Josh Howard had eight in what was easily the Jazz’s best game of the season.

The Jazz travel to San Antonio for a New Year’s Eve showdown with the Spurs.

EMAIL: jody@desnews.com

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SALT LAKE CITY — EnergySolutions Arena may have never looked or sounded as good as it will Friday night for the Utah Jazz.

If a team was ever in need of a home-crowd boost, it’s this ragtag collection that has suffered back-to-back beatdowns.

Their aim was so off in Los Angeles, they might not have been able to point in the direction of a B-list actor at Staples Center.

Their ability to stop someone was so poor in Denver, Tim Tebow might have been able to throw for 1,000 yards and 12 touchdowns on them if they wore pads.

If that sounds overly harsh, give another glance at the final scores: Lakers 96, Jazz 71 and Nuggets 117, Utah 100.

Utah players don’t just need to find an elusive identity, consistency, properly functioning combinations, defensive rotations, team chemistry and a commitment to put forth enough effort to win.

Their juiceless battery could use a jumpstart from a crowd that’s done that so many times over the past three decades.

“We’re still trying to figure it out. Hopefully in the next few days we’ll figure it out, especially with our young group,” Jazz sixth man Paul Millsap said after Wednesday’s game. “I think home court advantage will help us, give us a little energy, let us get out and run a bit.”

Heck, maybe even win a game — or at least have a chance to win one.

In reality, there’s only so much of an edge 19,911 fans can give a team. There is a reason why one group pays to get in, while the other much smaller (in numbers) and more talented group gets paid to be there.

Ultimately, it’s up to Jazz players and coaches to get their acts together and play up to their potential.

“We’ll see what type of team we are the next couple of games,” second-year Jazz small forward Gordon Hayward said.

Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin took extra time after Wednesday’s loss to emphasize to his entire team — players, staff and himself — that everybody is responsible to do his part.

“They have to step up and do it. We have to as a coaching staff and myself. We have to lead them through it,” Corbin said. “It’s a young bunch of guys for the most part. We’ve got to grow together.”

The second-year coach believes that will happen, that player development and victories can happen simultaneously.

“I’m not quitting on the guys, and I don’t think they’ll quit on me. But we’ve got to get things figured out,” Corbin said. “We’ve got to learn to trust each other as players on the floor and just go out and compete together as a group of guys and not as individuals, two or three guys going hard. We’ve got to have everybody competing on the floor.”

DENVER — The Pepsi Center hoops appeared to be bigger than the ones at Staples Center.

Unfortunately for the Utah Jazz, that went both ways.

A night after their offense was nowhere to be found in a lopsided loss against the Los Angeles Lakers, the Jazz hit some shots and scored just fine.

But their defense disappeared.

Rotations, team help, effort and any chance at winning all evaporated in the thin Mile High air on Wednesday night, too.

The result was another embarrassing 117-100 blowout — this one by the Denver Nuggets.

“We have to get better. … We’ve had two tough losses,” said Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin, whose team lost by an average 21 points in back-to-back nights. “We’ve got to get back together and continue to work and fight. We’ve got to learn to trust each other on the defensive end of the floor and get it figured out.”

Utah did hit 48 percent of its field goals in Denver’s building after missing a whopping 61 shots while shooting 32 percent against the Lakers in an awful offensive showing, so there’s that.

But Denver had its way with Utah’s restructured defense, which resembled a church-ball team.

The Jazz gave up 68 points in the paint, allowed Nene to score 25 points, watched Andre Miller dish out 12 assists and Al Harrington drop in 18 points off the bench, cranked their necks as speedy Ty Lawson burst to the hoop time after time, helplessly permitted the Nuggets to shoot a sizzling 53.5 percent, and let the home track team run and jump all over, around and above them.

That was one long paragraph — and an even longer night — for a deficient defense.

Giving up lobs, drives, backdoor cuts and transition baskets disgusted Corbin.

“That’s unacceptable,” he said. “That’s just effort. That’s disappointing.”

The second-year coach had a longer-than-usual postgame chat with his team, taking an extra 10 minutes or so to try to impress on them the need to play harder and together.

Sure, they’re a work in progress. They’ve got an odd mix of inexperienced talent and capable veterans. But they lack an identity and consistency, with the offense and defense trading turns at stinking it up.

“We’ve got to get things figured out quickly,” Corbin said. “The effort we got for the most part today wasn’t satisfactory, so we wanted to have a discussion about it.”

Things started somewhat promising for Utah, which is in the midst of a rough six-games-in-eight-nights stretch.

Center Al Jefferson scored 10 of his team-best 19 points in the first quarter after missing 14 of 16 shots against the Lakers. But Utah’s starting five of Devin Harris, Raja Bell, Gordon Hayward, Derrick Favors and Big Al still didn’t completely click, falling behind 28-23 after the first 12 minutes.

By David Smith, For the Deseret News

Thanks to the NBA lockout, there was a lot of anticipation leading up to the Utah Jazz regular season opener. Reality set in quickly. Against an LA Lakers team playing its third game in three nights, the young Jazz squad came out flat, falling 96-71.

With little flow on offense and looking overwhelmed on defense, Utah was a welcome opponent for a team that was 0-2 going into Tuesday’s late nationally-televised game. Kobe Bryant led the way with 26 points, followed by Pau Gasol’s 22. Utah was led by sixth man Paul Millsap who finished with 18 points. Newcomer Josh Howard was the only other player in double figures with 10.

Offensive woes: Where to start? Here are some not-so-savory statistics to illustrate the evening:

• Until Devin Harris nailed a jumper at the close of the second quarter, the Jazz had 28 rebounds – and 29 points.
• The Lakers were anything but spot-on with their marksmanship, hitting just 15 of 38 in the first half (39.5 percent). But Utah made them look stellar, registering a miserable 26 percent in the first 24 minutes. Before hitting four of the last eight field goal attempts, Utah was 9 of 42 (21.4 percent). The Jazz bumped up a touch in the second half, ending with a dismal 32.2 percent mark.
• The third quarter only escalated the situation, as LA pounced on Utah with a 27-9 run.
• Without recently-traded Mehmet Okur, the Jazz were just 1 of 13 on 3-point attempts.
• Utah’s point totals the first three quarters: 17, 14, and 15.

Growing pains: Each of the young guys—Derrick Favors, Gordon Hayward, Alec Burks, and Enes Kanter—took his lumps in the season opener. Due to two quick fouls, Favors sat out the final 20 minutes of the first half. He finished with eight points and six rebounds in 19 minutes. After a dominant performance the last time he visited STAPLES Center, Hayward was quiet with seven points.

Burks made a two-minute cameo in the game opening but was pulled quickly after he forced a shot and got lost on defense a few times. Kanter had a somewhat rude welcome to the NBA, getting the ball blocked or slapped out of his hands repeatedly early on. To his credit, he fought on the boards, pacing Utah with 11 rebounds.

It is TNT’s fault: While Utah fans were impatiently waiting for the conclusion of the TNT broadcast of the Miami/Boston game, the Jazz raced out to a 15-11 lead, thanks to 7 of 12 shooting (five different players scored). It did not take long for point guard Devin Harris to match his preseason assist total with three early dimes. By all accounts, the Jazz offense looked crisp.