Considering he only leads the team in assists, blocks and steals, Jazz fans can probably relate.
Kirilenko, who rolled his right ankle when he landed on Othello Harrington's foot Saturday night in United Center, estimated he would be out "a week or 10 days." Trainer Gary Briggs, noting that X-rays showed no break, put it at one to two weeks.
Either way, "we're going to do all the treatments, and I think I'm going to be all right," said Kirilenko, who was carried off the floor by teammates and later hobbled to the team bus on crutches. "I'll do my best."
So will Deron Williams, who suffered his own right-ankle sprain with 24 seconds left in the game. He was in obvious pain in the locker room, but said "we'll see tomorrow when I get up, how I feel."
"Deron's is a chronic thing," Briggs said. "We'll have to adjust with more strapping [on his ankle], changing shoes more. If we hadn't had him strapped like he was, it would have been worse than Andrei."
Williams will test his ankle at Monday morning's shootaround, and if he feels better, he could play that night against the Knicks.
Mehmet Okur wore an ice pack on his left shoulder after the game, a result of a blow that "cranked his arm back," Briggs said. "It was like hitting your funny bone," and Okur should be OK.
Carlos Boozer will work out today with Jazz assistant coaches, in hopes of gauging his progress at recovering from a lingering strained hamstring.
Sleepless in Chicago
C.J. Miles took his usual two-hour pre-game nap after the Jazz's team meeting Saturday morning. And how did that work out?
"I got 45 minutes, maybe," Miles said with a laugh. "It was a little bit different today."
That's because of the jolt of caffeine Miles received at the meeting, in the form of three simple words from Jerry Sloan: You're playing tonight.
With Matt Harpring temporarily unable to play on consecutive nights while his right knee heals, Miles was placed on the 12-man active list for the first time. "I'm just excited. I'm ready to play," he said while waiting anxiously for gametime. "I've been waiting for a chance. Now it's time to show them I can play."
He didn't play.
Briefly
By sitting out as a precaution, Harpring's consecutive-game playing streak ended at 54 - a modest number, yet still second-highest on the Jazz. Okur owns the longest streak; he has played in all 89 games since he joined the Jazz. The franchise record belongs to John Stockton, with 609. . . . Sloan spent some time before the game visiting with Katie Ramsey, whose bid of $1,100 at a charity auction won her two tickets to the game, a basketball autographed by the Bulls, and a ball autographed by Stockton and Karl Malone. Ramsey surprised Sloan with a connection to the distant past - as coach of the Bulls in 1980, Sloan cut her husband, Randy, a former DePaul player.
pmiller@sltrib.com
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