If necessity is the mother of invention, the Jazz have given birth to quadruplets during their playoff series against Denver.

Forced to play without injured starters Andrei Kirilenko and Memo Okur, coach Jerry Sloan was forced to give four players a more significant role in a tight new rotation.

How have C.J. Miles, Wesley Matthews, Kyle Korver and Kyrylo Fesenko fared with those extra minutes and greater responsibilities?

Put it this way: Utah owns a 3-1 lead in the series and can close out the Nuggets, who reached last year's Western Conference finals, with a win Wednesday night in Denver.

In the Jazz's 117-106 victory in Game 4, Miles, Matthews, Korver and Fesenko combined for a series-high 48 points and 16 rebounds.

During the regular season, the same foursome averaged 29 points and nine rebounds.

The reason for the greater production is directly linked to the Jazz's injury situation.

Sloan has little choice but to split the 96 minutes at shooting guard and small forward among Miles, Matthews and Korver.

Inside, Sloan must milk 15 or 20 minutes a game from Fesenko so his two veteran power-types, Carlos Boozer and Paul Millsap, don't have to play over 40.

"That's kind of who we are right now," said Sloan.

Oddly, the Jazz played much of the season with a logjam of wing players. That, however, was before Kirilenko missed over a month with a calf injury and Ronnie Brewer was traded.

"From a coaching standpoint," Sloan said, "it's a little easier this way. ... Sometimes, you have a lot of guys deserving to play."

From a player's standpoint, a tight rotation translates to more opportunity -- something that has helped Jazz players not named Deron Williams, Millsap or Boozer thrive.

"You can relax and play," said Miles, who scored a career playoff-high 21 points in Game 4. "You don't worry as much about making mistakes."

Korver, who had a career playoff-high six assists in Game 3, agreed.

"Mentally, it's a positive thing," he said. "You know you are going to get your chances. You know you can mess up a couple of times [and] play through that. It gives you a little more freedom and somewhat more confidence. ...

"If you get in foul trouble, then it gets to be a bad thing. You don't have as many guys on the bench to put in there. But as long as you don't do that, it's pretty ideal, really."

Matthews, the undrafted rookie who became a starter after the Brewer trade, didn't have much of an impact during Games 1 and 2 in Denver.

In Utah's two wins at home, however, he averaged 16 points and five rebounds while going 4-for-10 from the three-point line.

In Game 4, Matthews played 42 minutes -- more than anyone on the floor except Denver All-Star Carmelo Anthony.

Like Miles and Korver, Matthews has embraced the heavier workload.

"You're more comfortable," he said. "You can get in a groove. You don't end up forcing the issue. You can let things come to you, knowing that you have time."

Minutes that are practically guaranteed could be a problem, but Matthews vows complacency won't be a problem.

"You can't be lax," he said. "You can't say to yourself, 'We have a short bench and I'm going to be out here regardless and I'm going out there and do whatever I want to do.' That's a trap you could fall into, but you can't think that way. You have to stay with it, keep your head up and grind it out."

Okur's loss meant Sloan had to decide which of his young untested big men would join the rotation -- Kosta Koufos or Fesenko.

He picked Fesenko, who has averaged 24 minutes since Okur was injured in the second quarter of Game 1.

That's been critical because it has allowed Boozer and Millsap to get enough rest to remain effective.

"We have to get some minutes out of [Fesenko] so the other guys don't have to play 48," Sloan said.

"... We'll go as far as we can with him. His conditioning needs to be better to go much beyond 20 [minutes]. He gets tired, especially in these games, where there is a lot of energy involved."

With Millsap in foul trouble in Game 4 -- he eventually picked up his sixth personal with 5:33 remaining -- Fesenko played 29 minutes.

In Utah's new rotation, that's probably 10 more than Sloan would prefer. But, he noted, "In these games, guys have to be ready anytime, in any different situation."

One win away from advancing to the second round, the Jazz role players have turned a seemingly tenuous manpower situation into a non-issue.

"They can be more relaxed out there -- more calm, more confident," Boozer said. "Coach is going to be a little bit more lenient. If they make a mistake, they are going to get a chance to make up for it."