Foye said after the morning shootaround he was glad to be back at the point, the position where he started the season.

"I feel really comfortable at the one," he said. "I like having the ball in my hands. I just like making decisions. I feel as though my playmaking ability and my court vision is good enough to be a point guard."

Without being critical of former coach Randy Wittman, Foye also said he is looking forward to playing the more open style McHale has promised.

"That's how I think you learn," he said. "If every little mistake that you make you get chastised for during the game, I don't think that helps the player at all."

Foye didn't want to say it, but Wittman's demanding style obviously wore on some players.

"With Witt, I don't know how to say it, but just with Witt sometimes he got on us real tough," he said. "But with Mac, he lets us go."

"Especially when you're losing, you need someone there who can lift you up," Foye added. "I think Mac is that guy."

Miller out again: Shooting guard Mike Miller was held out for the third consecutive game because of a sprained right ankle.

McHale said Miller wanted to go, but the team decided to play it safe.

Rashad McCants started in Miller's place, and McHale said matchups weren't the only reason he decided to start Smith.

"I'm not married to any starting lineup," he said. "I've often said, your goal is not to start. Your goal is to finish."

Sloan fan: Tuesday's game marked the 20-year anniversary of Utah coach Jerry Sloan's hiring by the Jazz.

McHale, who was nine years into a 13-year NBA playing career when Sloan was hired to replace Frank Layden in 1988, said the Utah coach is one of a kind.

"It's a credit to him that he can get those guys to play that style for year after year after year after year," McHale said. "If you look at Jerry's stuff right now, you can go back at the same calls he did 16 years and it's a lot of this stuff."

Rough road: McHale, asked if he ever regretted not staying on as coach after his 19-12 stint in 2005, said it was the travel that he hated.

"Like tonight, I have no interest in getting into Denver at 2:30 in the morning and having a 50-minute bus ride from that airport that's closer to Montana that it is to Denver," he said. "That whole thing is just a drag, but at this point, look, these are my guys. I got them here and they were suffering. We're going to try to give them a little resuscitation here."

Tuesday's game was the first in a challenging five-game stretch for the Wolves, who will play in Denver tonight, return home to play San Antonio on Friday night, then go to the West Coast to play the Los Angeles Lakers and Sacramento Kings on back-to-back nights Sunday and Monday.

"These next few games will be a really good test for us," McHale said. "That's what we're looking for. We've got to test ourselves against some of the best teams, and that will give you a good barometer as to what you've got to work on."

Supersize it: Rookie forward Kevin Love is heading up a winter coat drive for the needy, but he has yet to find one for himself.

Love said he's having a couple sent from Los Angeles but that no one has donated one in his size yet.

"Not the big Whammies," he said. "Not the ones I'm going to need."