SALT LAKE CITY — The gym was mostly empty.

Guard Brandon Knight worked with the Rockets’ training staff on one end of the court. On the other end, one veteran worked with the development staff as members of the University of Utah women’s basketball team watched, phones recording the scene.

The rest of the Rockets’ players and coaches were still far removed from Wednesday’s practice.

The session was not unlike many around the NBA before practices on the road, except that usually those workouts are filled with rookies and G Leaguers trying to carve out a niche in the league and with no need to save legs for games they will spend watching from the bench.

This was different, if not unique.

Chris Paul, a future Hall of Famer who at 33 might understandably choose rest over extra sprints and shooting drills, drove himself through the extra work. Unlike the extra shooting he does before home practices, he left this court drenched in sweat from the extra running.

This was not unusual.

A day earlier, Paul was on the floor in Minneapolis at 8 a.m. The workout, he said, is typical for him, and not necessarily tied to a particularly frustrating loss on Monday when he made one of eight shots while committing five turnovers that got under his skin even more than the missed shots.

Yet, there is an urgency about the Rockets at 11-12 as they face the Utah Jazz on Thursday. Paul had never during his previous 75 games with the Rockets made just one shot in a game in which he had attempted at least eight. To turn things around, he did what he always has.

“Just because, man,” Paul said of why he chose to work overtime. “This is our profession. I’m always trying to get better at things and push myself, too. We always talk about in training, the only way you can even try to simulate the game is to train that hard. If you just go through the motions when you’re training, it’s not going to simulate the game.

“I just try to keep getting better, figure it out.”

Paul was not as bothered by the missed shots as the turnovers, particularly on the Rockets’ final possession of the first half when he tried a low-percentage alley-oop to Clint Capela when he had James Harden open elsewhere. The turnover led to a running 38-footer that Andrew Wiggins banked in to cut the Rockets’ halftime lead to 14 points.

“For sure,” Paul said when asked if the turnovers bothered him the most. “That happens. The first half, I don’t think I scored and we were up by 14. For me, I can score. But there’s a lot of different ways to impact the game than just scoring.”

Sharing the backcourt with Harden, Paul’s assists numbers are not at the level of his league-leading seasons in New Orleans and Los Angeles. But his average of 8.1 per game is up from his first season with the Rockets and is fifth in the league. (Harden is third at 8.7.) In his past six games, Paul is averaging 9.2 assists per game, up from 7.5 in his first 12 games played.

Paul’s shooting percentage, however, is just 42.8 percent, the worst of his 14 seasons.

“The first thing I have to do is look at myself,” Paul said after Monday’s 103-91 loss to the Timberwolves. “I have to be better. It can’t all be on James to make every play.”

Paul missed the Rockets’ first game against the Jazz this season while he completed his two-game suspension, costing him a chance to go against Donovan Mitchell, one of his protégés around the league. Paul advised Mitchell to declare himself for the NBA draft and has worked out with him in each of the past two offseasons.

Their teams have been unexpectedly inconsistent, with both players missing time with tight hamstrings, in addition to Paul’s suspension and Mitchell’s bruised rib.

“He’s like a little brother to me,” Paul said. “I talk to Donovan all the time. He struggled here and there. He had a couple injuries. It happens. He’s going to be fine.”

The Rockets expect the same of Paul. But rather than assume it, he hit the court early to make that happen.

“I used to do it every day,” Paul said. “Getting back to that, it’s just finding a rhythm.

“Over the course of the season, I have to at times. Whether we win or we lose or whatever, I always have to look at myself to see how we can get better.”

jonathan.feigen@chron.com

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