By DOUG ALDEN
AP Sports Writer

SALT LAKE CITY(AP) -- The NBA's replacement referees were a
non-issue in the preseason opener, just as the league wanted.

The Utah Jazz beat the Denver Nuggets 103-87 on Thursday night
in an exhibition game that featured 69 fouls and very little
objection to any of them.

Whether it was preseason indifference or players and coaches
heeding to the league warning to be nice to the new officials,
there wasn't much of a reaction to the crew of Tre Maddox,
Deldre Carr and C.J. Washington.

"They'll have a month to get ready for the season, just like we
will," Denver coach George Karl said. "They'll learn some stuff.
Right now, I don't see it being a problem."

Karl seemed less concerned with the officiating than he was with
the Nuggets' mistakes in the preseason opener. Denver had 27
turnovers and was outrebounded 44-37.

The Nuggets were also called for 39 fouls to the Jazz's 30.
Other than the quantity of calls, there was not much to note
about the officiating as the league called upon replacements
during its lockout with the referees union.

Players mostly shook their heads and smiled after the whistle
until the third quarter, when Utah coach Jerry Sloan had a
mini-outburst after Paul Millsap was called for fouling Carmelo
Anthony. Sloan leaped out of his seat, barked a few statements
at Carr and sat right back down.

"All refs are going to make good calls, make bad calls, miss a
few, make a few. That's just the nature of the beast," said
Denver's Chauncey Billups, who had 10 points and three assists.
"It just really comes down to personality."

The league warned teams Wednesday about publicly criticizing the
officials. There was scarcely of that Thursday as the Jazz and
the Nuggets plodded through the exhibition looking little as if
the Northwest Division rivals they will be once again when the
regular season begins.

Deron Williams and C.J. Miles scored 16 apiece to lead the Jazz
and Williams added six assists in 21 minutes. Mehmet Okur had 10
points and seven rebounds for the Jazz, who used 16 players and
got at least two points from each of them.

"I thought it was a good first game for us. We did a lot of
things well," Williams said. "There's definitely some things we
can look at and say we can do better, but for a first preseason
game, I thought we did well."

Utah's Carlos Boozer has seven points and seven rebounds in his
first game since comments about potential trades over the summer
to Chicago and Miami. Boozer was still cheered in the
introductions, just not as loud as his teammates.

"I had a great reception from the fans. I was happy about that,"
Boozer said. "I want to continue to earn their respect and earn
their trust again."

Anthony led the Nuggets with 13 points.

The Nuggets trimmed a 17-point lead to eight at halftime and got
within five in the third quarter before the Jazz pulled away to
another big lead. Williams hit his second 3-pointer of the
period to put Utah up 78-63 and the Jazz led 84-71 entering the
fourth, when Utah's reserves held off Denver's backups.

"We scored our points after they came at us and put some
pressure on us," Sloan said. "I liked the way we responded."

NOTES: The Jazz leave Saturday on a European tour that includes
games in London and Madrid. ... The Nuggets had nine turnovers
in the first quarter. ... Denver's Anthony Carter was the only
player to get in the game and not score, but did have five
assists for the Nuggets. ... Miles was 5 for 7 from the field.