BOSTON - The Jazz will open their annual pre-Christmas trip Monday night against the Boston Celtics without Carlos Boozer, who will miss his 14th game with the strained left quadriceps tendon he suffered Nov. 19.

Although he had talked about returning last week, Boozer has not suffered any setbacks and has done everything the Jazz have asked as far as his rehab exercises. He's traveled with the team as well in the hopes of playing as soon as possible.

The Jazz aren't committing to a date for his return, with coach Jerry Sloan saying at Monday's pregame shootaround: "I don't know when he'll be back. We'll just see when he gets here."

Boozer's injury is more to his knee than his quadriceps tendon and also included a bone bruise. The Jazz will practice Tuesday in Boston, but Sloan wasn't sure if Boozer would take part. Boozer is expected to practice in full at least once before returning.

The Jazz will be out to end the Celtics' 14-game winning streak tonight. They ended a 10-game winning streak the last time they came to Boston in March, beating the Celtics 110-92.

"We've got to try to figure out a way to win some games," Sloan said. "We've had a lot of injuries and stuff, but we've still got to try to figure out how to win games. From our standpoint, it would hopefully be a good start on this trip."

Ronnie Brewer rejoined the Jazz after missing Saturday's game to attend the funeral of an aunt. Sloan said Brewer would start against Boston.

rsiler@sltrib.com

More on tonight's game from The Boston Globe.