EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — When the Jazz's most recent opponent paired a rookie point guard with a vet late in the game, as Charlotte did playing Raymond Felton and Brevin Knight together in the backcourt Monday night, it was a risky move by a desperate team.
"They say a drowning man will grab a razor blade," Bobcats coach Bernie Bickerstaff said.
When the Jazz did just the same, playing Deron Williams and Milt Palacio together for much of the fourth quarter and all of overtime in Utah's eventual 95-91 win, it was purely by design — a tactical decision by a coach juggling three points and hoping he grabs the right one, or two as the case may be, at the right time.
To wit, here's the rotation pattern developing for Jazz point guards early on this season:
Jerry Sloan starts Keith McLeod, and brings in rookie Deron Williams to spell him either late in the first quarter or at the start of the second in each of the 3-1 Jazz's first four games so far.
Unless Williams is in early foul trouble, veteran journeyman Milt Palacio sits and watches.
Such was the case Monday.
At the start of the second half, McLeod starts again. Williams subs in for him again, in Monday's instance very late in the third quarter.
Palacio still sits, still watches.
At some point in the fourth, Palacio comes off the bench — quite cold, as it happened in Charlotte — and joins Williams in the backcourt.
It's not necessarily an ideal way to get Palacio in the game, Sloan readily attests.
"It's tough," the Jazz coach said. "But he's a veteran player. He's got some toughness about him, to be able to step out there and get the ball where you want to go."
That's why Sloan stuck with what he did Monday, even as the move encountered roadblocks.
When Palacio entered for the first time in Charlotte with five minutes and 50 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, Utah was up eight at 79-71. By the 3:07 mark, a short span in which Palacio picked up two quick fouls and the Bobcats went on a 10-1 run, Charlotte was ahead 81-80.
"They brought in Palacio," Bickerstaff said later, "so that was a good thing for us."
Sloan, meanwhile, admitted having second thoughts.
But he also explained why he stayed with Palacio, including all five minutes of an overtime period in which the seventh-season pro helped the Jazz escape with their win.
"I talked to our coaches a couple of times about possibly changing that and putting Keith (McLeod) back out there, but I went ahead with Milt because he's got experience — and looks to get other people the ball," Sloan said. "As it turned out, Memo (Okur, who finished with a career-high 31 points, including seven in OT) got the basketball where he could get a couple decent shots."
That reality was aided in part by the fact the Jazz closed with two points on the floor, allowing Williams to act as an extra passer out of Gordan Giricek's shooting-guard spot.
"It makes a big difference," Palacio said. "When you've got two point guards out there handling the ball, you can't really pressure up one point."
Coming in about two hours after initially having warmed up for the game, though, is no easy chore.
"It's tough," Palacio said, "but my mindset is to be ready."
How, one wonders?
"I just make sure I'm into the game," he said. "I'm just watching, making sure I know what they're doing, how they're playing things. I know that once I check in they're going to try to pressure me, because coming in cold — I would do the same thing."
Palacio has no idea how long Sloan will stick with the current rotation.
"It's a who-knows thing," he said. "But I just know that toward the end of the game he wants that veteran leadership out there — a guy that's kind of gonna settle the guys down."
Sloan, for his part, isn't sure if he'll settle on that for a while — or if it's too unsettling to stick with.
So it goes for a coach with three points and only one, or at the most two, spots in which to play them.
"It's not a comfortable thing," said Sloan, whose Jazz visit New Jersey tonight. "You're sitting on pins and needles when you've got three guys. I want to be fair, and that's difficult to do, because you have to make decisions.
"They all want to play. They should. I told them I'd be disappointed if they didn't want to play and weren't upset a little bit — as long as it doesn't affect what we're trying to do from a team standpoint.
"Hopefully," he added, "it will work itself out as time goes on."
E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com