"That's the best I've ever seen him play since he's been alive," Sloan said, describing the double-double as "kind of a shock."

Told what Sloan said, Fesenko searched for the right words. "You don't hear that from Jerry a lot," he said, "so it means a lot for me. It means a lot and it means that I'm doing the right thing, so I cannot stop. I have to keep on going."

Fesenko scored off a layup, two free throws, two hook shots and a dunk with 2 1/2 minutes remaining and the bench on its feet. He and Andrei Kirilenko played particularly well off each other, with Kirilenko looking for Fesenko and vice versa.

Fesenko declared it his best game in the NBA, even better than the six points and seven rebounds he had against the Lakers as a rookie.

"He had a little success and hopefully he can carry that forward," Sloan said. Fesenko, meanwhile, was delighted with the two free throws he hit in the first quarter, saying, "Now this is even better for me than 10 rebounds."

Boozer's return

After sitting out two games with a sore left hamstring, Carlos Boozer saw his first action of the preseason Sunday. It took him a half to get going, but Boozer scored the Jazz's first nine points off the third quarter off the pick-and-roll with Deron Williams.

"We've got great chemistry already," Boozer said. "For us, it was just a matter of getting out there and playing together. It comes back just like everything we've been doing already in our careers. We had fun."

Boozer played 15 minutes and finished with 12 points and eight rebounds.

Rookie woes

Rookie center Kosta Koufos also returned from a hamstring injury, but had a nightmare second quarter, missing all five shots he took, getting dunked on by Greg Oden and charging into Shavlik Randolph for an offensive foul.

"I don't know what that was," said Sloan, who did not bring back Koufos in the second half. "He shot every time he touched it."

rsiler@sltrib.com