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Houston • Derrick Favors tried to play through it. For five games he told the pain in his right foot to go away. But after Favors didn't return after playing just nine minutes in Friday's loss at Oklahoma City due to one of the trickiest injuries NBA players face, the Utah Jazz may have to get used to playing without their rising power forward.
Favors was held out of Saturday's game at Houston with what the team called a strained right arch. However, Favors told reporters that he is suffering from plantar fasciitis. Favors said he will undergo an MRI on Sunday.
"The MRI could reveal something," coach Tyrone Corbin said. "You don't know. He's having some discomfort. Hopefully it's just a short-term thing and he can get back on the floor quickly."
Plantar fasciitis is a chronic injury that plagues NBA players annually. The injury troubled Washington center Nene at the end of last season and kept him out of the first nine games of this year. Tyreke Evans, Tim Duncan and Rajon Rondo are among the many others who have been sidelined with it.
Favors' injury was the second blow to the Jazz rotation on this three-game road trip. Marvin Williams, who hit his head on the floor Wednesday in New Orleans, continues to be listed with concussion symptoms and did not play Friday or Saturday.
His status for Monday against the Los Angeles Clippers remains in doubt, given the league's strict concussion policy that requires players to go at least two days without headaches before beginning tests to get back on the floor.
Throughout the preseason and first month of the year, the Jazz had boasted great depth — "a good problem to have," as Corbin frequently puts it. For the first time, the Jazz get to test that depth.
"It seems like when guys go down," said Mo Williams, who has missed four games with injuries, "guys step up."
Speaking Turkish
Jazz center Enes Kanter is one of just five players in the NBA from Turkey — a small club that took a hit when former Jazz center Mehmet Okur retired earlier this year.
So when Kanter has an opportunity to chat with another Turkish player, he makes sure to reach out. A night after scoring a season-high 18 points, Kanter said he and Houston center Omer Asik chatted pregame Saturday in Houston.
"He told me, 'Good game last night,' " Kanter said.
Kanter is expected to play a bigger role for the Jazz in Favors' absence. Entering Saturday's game, Kanter averaged 5.4 points in 14.2 minutes per game.
In Turkey, Kanter and Asik became close as members of pro team Fenerbahçe.
"When I was there, I was 16 years old," Kanter said. "I wasn't really playing — I was junior team, and he was senior team."
They are currently both members of the Turkish men's basketball senior team.
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