FanHouse CJMIles

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

Boston had two reasons to beat Philadelphia: to flex its biceps, and to help ensure the Celtics and Sixers would meet in the playoffs. Those muscles gleam, because Paul Pierce nailed a jumper late to give Boston the victory, dropping Philly into the No. 7 seed heading into the season's final day.

Pierce scored 31 on 16 FGAs, filling offensive gaps left by the absences of Kevin Garnett (injury recovery) and Ray Allen (spastic elbow). Philadelphia has Thaddeus Young back, but dang. No good, y'all.

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

J.R. Smith took 14 field goal attempts for Denver last night. Thirteen of those came from behind the arc. He made eight, for a decent 57% shooting clip. But figure the three-pointer's bonus, and holy cow! that's 24 points on 14 shots. He added four FTs for a total of 28. Nuggets win, and remain in pole position for the No. 2 seed.

Deron Williams had 18/10 for the Jazz, and C.J. Miles had his best night in about six weeks with 19 points. It took Carlos Boozer 23 shots to get 15 points. That's a whole lotta misses.

The Rotation is a weekly study on the NBA by one of our All-Star voices. In rotation this week is Tom Ziller.

Depending on your interior biases, the Utah Jazz either represent a flimsy facade waiting to be knocked over or the last gasp of insurgent power willing to make the Western Conference playoffs compelling.

As always, the truth falls somewhere in the middle. The public consensus, however, has cast Utah as more bit player than force to be reckoned with. But mis-measuring the Jazz as a Western also-ran is a huge mistake.

C.J. Miles -- who has consistently clashed with Jerry Sloan -- almost saw his way out of Utah by signing a four-year, $15 million offer sheet with the Un-Sonics. The Jazz were not expected to match, as Deron Williams' max extension has landed the luxury tax right into Larry Miller's lap for the 2009-10 season. But after some minor maneuvering (which we'll get to in a sec), Utah made the call to match the offer, keeping Miles under Jazz authority.

Ross Siler of the Salt Lake Tribune notes that Miles now has pressure to earn his keep. Before, C.J.'s lack of action on the court was more annoyance than crime; Miles was just a minor prospect who might someday be a decent bench cog. But making almost $4 million a year -- Sloan will be forced to get Miles minutes and Miles needs to deliver quality play, lest everyone end up fools. (It's almost a similar situation as with Amir Johnson last season -- Detroit paid him, but Flip Saunders wouldn't play him. Sloan's in no danger either way, but it certainly wouldn't hurt the harmony if Miles got a chance.)

Besides Utah and OKC, one more team took an impact from this move, as ClipsNation notes flawlessly. To create a little breathing room, Utah dealt Jason Hart to the Clippers for Brevin Knight. Hart makes roughly a half-million more than Knight. When L.A. made the trade, the Warriors still had about a day to match Kelenna Azubuike's offer from the Clippers. Utah surely wanted the Hart deal done ASAP so they could make a decision on Miles. So L.A. pulled the trigger. Once the Warriors unexpectedly matched on Azubuike, the Clips were left with a hole on the wing and (thanks to Hart) less money with which to address it. L.A. really should have waited on the expiration of Golden State's matching period before making any related deals. Jason Hart just ain't worth the heartache.

While some Midwestern NBA fans may bristle, the reality on the ground is that Oklahoma City's cultural relevance to rich, young, mostly urban-bred athletes will be a punchline forever, or at least until Jay-Z opens a 40/40 there. In fact, insofar as judging books by their covers, Utah may have just ceded its long-held status as most despised recreation city by the NBA hordes. (Milwaukee's not that bad, no matter what Gil says. And the first Sacramento joke in the comments gets a ban.)

C.J. Miles has had issues with Utah, most them surfacing by theory or conjecture. Shoals, a few days ago, wondered if Miles' new YouTube rap career was a passive-aggressive plea for a Utah exit. And hey, well what do you know? I'll be darned, Miles has signed an offer sheet with another team. Possibly the only franchise and city which will be less enthused about Miles' rap stylings than Jerry Sloan, Salt Lake City and the Jazz. Yep, those Oklahoma City Thunder*.

Miles signed a four-year, $15 million deal with OKC on Friday. The Jazz can match. But while hovering in luxury tax territory, and considering Miles played only 700 minutes in his third season in Utah, it seems like the Thunder* has got itself a new guard. The signing seems slightly odd, but not too bad. Basically, consider Miles the new-age Damien Wilkins with a slight chance to be more. Being that Wilkens is "really, really mad" at his bosses for fleeing Seattle, maybe the transition to Miles will happen sooner than we think.

Seriously, it fits the Thunder*'s modus operandi: find young, potential-ridden players who soak up little cash and can play multiple positions. OKC doesn't need to be good for a few years anyway; why sign anyone older than, say, 23?

* Not confirmed.

Who's the most important player for the Utah Jazz? You could make a strong case for Deron Williams or Carlos Boozer, and I'm sure Mehmet Okur's clutch shooting will garner a few votes. Heck, there might even be a few holdovers from the Andrei Kirilenko camp. But hey, the stats don't lie, and the answer might surprise you. From Jazzbots:

It may not be sexy, it may not be pretty, but the more C.J. Miles plays, the more the Jazz win. During the '06-'07 season in games where C.J. played 10 minutes or more the Jazz went 13-8 (.619). When Miles played 15 minutes or more the Jazz won eight games and lost only two (.800). And when C.J. logged 20 minutes or more the Jazz were a perfect 4-0 (1.000). Oh, and in the 13 games C.J. Miles started the Jazz went 12-1 (.923).

Correlation is not causation -- I don't actually think Miles is the key for the team. He averaged just 2.7 points on the year, and in 13 starts averaged just 4.5. But, those numbers might be an indication that the rest of the starting lineup is so solid that it doesn't much matter who starts at shooting guard, even if it's a 20-year-old project. Miles, who signed his qualifying offer to remain with the Jazz on Monday, probably won't start very much this year -- there's not a clear-cut favorite at the moment, but Ronnie Brewer and Gordon Giricek have to be considered ahead of him on the depth chart. But at some point, if his number is called, the Jazz know they can win with him in the lineup.