Miles, playing a career-high 43 minutes, scored 16 points with five rebounds. Brewer scored 23 points -- on 8-of-11 shooting from the field -- in 40 minutes on the court.

Not bad for a couple of wing players Jazz coach Jerry Sloan had considered removing from the starting lineup prior to the game.

"I feel good for C.J. and Ronnie, those two guys," said Sloan. "C.J. in particular. I felt like he really hustled hard and really worked much harder and consequently a lot more things happened on his behalf."

Miles averages fewer than 23 minutes per game and played only 17 in Utah's previous outing at Denver on Sunday. So his extended playing time was a bit unexpected, but nice.

"I'm a little tired now, but during the game I didn't really feel it," said Miles. "I had a couple of times that I was pretty winded, but then there would be a timeout and it would only take a couple of seconds to get my wind back. ... I felt good. I just put forth the effort to play as hard as I could while I was on the court and I think (Sloan) rewarded me for that."

Sloan, indeed, admitted he was rewarding Miles with extra court.

"Those things will continue to grow if (Miles) works at it that way and (if he's) involved on the defensive end," said Sloan. "He's a young player and I stuck with him and I think he played well. He played much better tonight and that's what you want to see all the time."

Brewer finished the game as Utah's leading scorer. His 23 points were two short of his career best set last month against Minnesota.

But the strong personal game didn't mean much to the third-year shooting guard since it didn't come during a victory.

"It's always frustrating to lose a game," said Brewer. "You can take something out of this game because we played a good team and kept it close, but we still lost and we're disappointed about it -- especially since it was in front of our fans."

Utah has now lost four games in a row and are in 9th place in the West with only eight playoff spots available. Brewer admits the Jazz are starting to get concerned.

"I wouldn't hit the panic button, but we are in a must-win situation," said Brewer. "There are still a lot of games left, but we've got to turn the switch on soon. We can't wait."

Utah will try to get back on track Friday night when it hosts the Oklahoma City Thunder. E-mail: lojo@desnews.com