SALT LAKE CITY — The NBA announced today that Utah Jazz guard Devin Harris , forwards Derrick Favors and Paul Millsap, and center Al Jefferson are featured on the 2012 NBA All-Star ballot, which was unveiled today during a special tip-off event in Orlando, Fla., the host city of NBA All-Star 2012. NBA All-Star balloting began today at 10:15 a.m. MT. The 61st NBA All-Star Game will be played at the Amway Center on Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012.

Harris was a 2009 NBA All-Star selection and has started the first six games for the Jazz, averaging 10.2 points and 4.2 assists. Favors, Jefferson and Millsap are vying for their first-ever All-Star selections. Jefferson currently leads the Jazz in scoring at 18.2 points per game, while also contributing 8.4 rebounds, 1.60 blocks and 1.00 steal. Millsap is the Jazz’s second-leading scorer, averaging a near double-double at 12.0 points and 9.2 rebounds to go with 2.00 steals per game. An NBA All-Rookie Second Team selection last year, Favors is averaging 8.7 points, 7.7 rebounds and 1.33 blocks in 24.8 minutes in his second NBA campaign. Fans are also permitted to cast write-in votes for other Jazz players not listed on the ballot.

The Jazz survived their first true test of the 2011-12 lockout-shortened season.

Peaking midway through the second quarter Tuesday, then sucking wind and simply holding on during the fourth period, Utah found just enough life to fight off the Milwaukee Bucks, 85-73, at EnergySolutions Arena before a crowd of 17,756.

The Jazz began the game playing their best basketball of the season. Utah continued the progress it made Monday during a home win against New Orleans, aggressively pushing the ball toward the basket on offense and clogging the lane on defense.

Utah shot 48.6 percent from the floor and outscored Milwaukee 30-18 in the paint during the first half. The Jazz collected 30 rebounds and Derrick Favors set a career-high with five blocks in just two quarters. It was 43-34 Utah at the break, and the Jazz (3-3) displayed rhythm, motion and chemistry previously unseen since their Dec. 27 season debut.

Then the human body took over.

Playing their sixth game in eight nights, Utah quickly became worn down and soon appeared exhausted. Devin Harris and Josh Howard were lost to injuries, Milwaukee (2-3) pulled within 49-46, and the Jazz turned to veteran point guard Jamaal Tinsley – out of the league during 2010-11 – and three players 20 or younger to build a bridge toward the end.

“We felt it. … The toll of so many games and the travel on everybody is showing and it’s what everybody’s going through,” Utah coach Tyrone Corbin said.

The Bucks never made it through. Milwaukee shot just 30.5 percent (29 of 95) from the floor and a sub-zero 9.5 percent (2 of 21) behind the 3-point line, failing multiple times to capitalize on 24 Jazz turnovers and claim victory.

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Swaying like a beaten-down boxer but never hitting the mat, the Jazz survived. Lifted up by a combined 15 fourth-quarter points from Paul Millsap, Gordon Hayward and Al Jefferson, Utah used a 17-6 run that bridged the third period with the fourth to finally put the Bucks away.

“One thing that I noticed, when it started getting bad on the offensive end we still played really hard on the defensive end,” said Jefferson, who scored a season- and game-high 26 points on 10-of-17 shooting, adding 10 rebounds, three steals and two blocks.

“We can’t use [the schedule] for an excuse because everybody [has] a tough schedule. It[‘s] either going to hit ‘em early or hit ‘em later,” Jefferson said. “Everybody has to go through a little stretch like that. We’ve just got to be ready to play.”

The Jazz kids were primed again Tuesday.

Recent NBA Draft lottery picks Alec Burks, Enes Kanter, Favors and Hayward combined for 32 points, 17 rebounds and seven assists, with each playing a key role in Utah’s survival.

“We’re all, what, 20, 21? Gordon’s the oldest one: 21,” Burks said. “We’re all young and we’re going to keep running. We’re just trying to bring as much energy as possible.”

Burks did just that, slashing away as soon as he entered the game. The No. 12 overall pick during 2011 reached the free-throw line a game-high 10 times and dished out six assists, trying to prove to Corbin he deserves minutes on the hardwood.

Meanwhile, Jefferson tipped his hat to Favors, saying the No. 3 pick during 2010 “set the tone.” Jefferson acknowledged there’s no way his 20-year-old self would’ve recorded five blocks in an NBA game. Favors did it in two quarters. And after the Jazz gutted out their toughest win of the season, moving to .500 for the first time since March 23, 2011, Favors had a confession: scoring’s fine, but he wants to make his real name swatting shots in the lane.

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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).

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Los Angeles • Coach Tyrone Corbin cautioned against overreacting. Center Al Jefferson said the Jazz must stick together. Devin Harris and Gordon Hayward know Utah missed way too many makeable shots.

But after the lifeless Jazz were blown out 96-71 by the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night at Staples Center, there was no getting around a single fact: Utah’s 2011-12 debut was historically bad.

How bad?

The Jazz set a franchise-low for points scored during a season opener, according to the team’s public relations staff, eclipsing a 37-year-old mark. The then-New Orleans Jazz lost 89-74 to New York on Oct. 17, 1974.

Utah (0-1) barely fought off two other inglorious franchise lows. The Jazz shot just 32.2 percent (29 of 90) from the field Tuesday, edging a 29.3 floor percentage that’s an all-time worst. In addition, Utah’s 25-point deficit was just one point better than a 26-point loss to Dallas on Oct. 31, 1986 that holds the record as the Jazz’s biggest season-opening loss.

Corbin wasn’t surprised his rebuilding team danced with futility after watching Utah miss a staggering variety of open looks. And as the clanking shots mounted, the Jazz’s defense fell apart.

“The [Lakers] came out and they were the aggressor,” Corbin said. “They ran the ball down the floor and got the ball where they wanted to and we didn’t get the shots to fall in that we wanted to, so we pressed a little bit.”

Utah appeared unfocused, unmotivated and unprepared just minutes into the fallout. Now, the Jazz have entered a lockout-shortened 66-game campaign staring at unforgiving NBA life from the bottom up.

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“We just have to find some continuity, some rhythm, where everybody knows what everybody likes to do,” Utah forward C.J. Miles said. “I don’t think we’ve gotten to that point where everybody knows where everybody likes to be.”

Down by 29 during the fourth quarter, Utah watched early-game miscommunication turn into in-game yells, and the faces of everyone from Raja Bell to Gordon Hayward tightened.

Bell gathered the Jazz’s other four starters together during an extended timeout, raising his voice and attempting to motivate his teammates.

But the Lakers (2-1) nullified the chatter with action, continuing to roll and turning a 25-8 run to start the third quarter into a total rout.

By the start of the fourth, Jefferson sat on the bench. The Jazz’s leading average scorer and rebounder last season had his right knee heavily wrapped, his face was in his hands and he was 2 of 16 from the field.

Nothing was working for Utah, and the Jazz were left to watch a near frame-by-frame reply of the worst moments from a bitter 2010-11 campaign.

Jefferson said the “basketball Gods” weren’t on his side Tuesday, adding he was already past the loss by the time Utah’s locker room opened to the media. But after the Jazz struggled through exhibition play and entered the regular season searching for everything from a true No. 1 player to a team identity, he acknowledged the blowout to the Lakers was a wake-up call.

“No need to panic,” he said. “We know what we got to do. … We just had to be better than what we was. It’s a wake-up call, but it’s not the end of the world.”

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SALT LAKE CITY — Jazz center Al Jefferson has first-hand experience of what it’s like to guard a healthy Mehmet Okur.

For six seasons, Big Al drew that defensive assignment when he played for Boston and Minnesota. Last year, Okur was hampered by a surgically repaired Achilles tendon and back issues, so Jefferson didn’t get the opportunity to face a fully functioning Memo in Utah practices.

But he’s getting more than enough of a full-strength Memo in camp action this week.

“I used to guard him when we played against them (Jazz) all the time. He wasn’t fun to guard,” Jefferson said. “He’s not even fun to guard in practice right now.”

The 6-foot-10, 280-pound Jefferson quickly rattled off one big reason why.

“Yesterday, he had me running off a double screen,” Jefferson said. “I ain’t never run off a double screen in my life.”

Because of the 6-11 Okur’s outside potency and inside efficiency, Jefferson’s current practice problem will present a defensive dilemma for Jazz opponents.

“That’s the good thing about having a healthy Memo,” Jefferson said. “(He) opens everything up.”

Former Jazz All-Star power forward Carlos Boozer used to benefit from that, Jefferson recalled.

Focus on Boozer, and defenses risked getting torched from afar by Okur. Focus on Memo, and defenses risked getting burned inside by Boozer.

Now Jefferson looks forward to reaping the rewards while other centers deal with Utah’s defense-stretching big.

That’s right. Jefferson, the likely starting center, raised the interesting possibility that he’ll be on the court at the same time as his possible backup, Okur. That is one of many combinations Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin could go with this season considering his big man depth.

“He just really opened the game up for Boozer,” Jefferson said. “That’s basically what he’s going to do for me and all of the other post players here. It’s going to spread the floor.”

And force opponents to make tough decisions.

“You come help on me, you’re going to have him out there hitting that wide-open 3,” Jefferson said. “And if you worry about him, you’re going to have me down there on the one-on-one.

“They’re going to have to pick and choose their poison.”

Depending on personnel, that same scenario figures to happen with Okur playing center alongside power forwards Paul Millsap and Derrick Favors.

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