Harpring's availability questionable

Today, Jazz forward Matt Harpring will have the bruised bone just below his left knee re-examined.

His availability for tonight's Delta Center game against Chicago, Jazz trainer Gary Briggs said Tuesday, will be a game-time decision.

But there still is a possibility, Jazz basketball operations senior vice president Kevin O'Connor said later Tuesday, that Harpring will be put on the injured list.

"We're going to look at it," O'Connor said. "It's one of those things where it's not definitive, but if he's in real pain (today), we've got to evaluate it."

Harpring, Utah's co-captain, was struggling with his shooting and rebounding before the Jazz shut him down for the past three games.

He is anxious to return but doesn't want to rush back too soon.

"That would be bad . . . if I'm back to square 1," Harpring said Tuesday.

Harpring suggested the knee feels better when he is walking, but "running and cutting, obviously, is a different story." As for his right knee, which was surgically repaired last January, it is back to feeling fine.

MCLEOD DOWN, NOT OUT: For three straight games, the Jazz's No. 3 point guard has not seen a minute of action.

But Keith McLeod, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan suggested, could soon work his way back into the lineup, which has Carlos Arroyo starting at the point and Howard Eisley backing up Arroyo.

"It was a tough decision (to bench McLeod)," the Jazz coach said Tuesday, "but that doesn't mean he's going to stay there.

"I mean, I don't know that I'd put anybody's name in concrete that they're going to be there regardless," Sloan added, "because I'm expected to win."

McLeod, who started the 7-4 Jazz's first six games of the season and helped Utah get off to a 5-1 start while Arroyo sat with a sprained ankle, has handled the benching with class.

Rather than pout, he actually spent last Sunday working out and shooting at the Jazz's practice facility — despite the fact Utah had just returned home from a four-games-in-five-nights road trip that ended late Saturday night in Atlanta.

LOPEZ IMPROVING: Briggs said injured-list point guard Raul Lopez is "increasing activity" and "progressing as tolerated" while rehabbing from arthroscopic knee surgery, and that he will be re-examined next Tuesday.

Center Aleksandar Radojevic and rookie forward Kris Humphries also are on the injured list with supposed knee tendinitis, but neither is really hurt and both are ready to join the Jazz's 12-man active roster if needed.

BY THE NUMBERS: Arroyo missed his first of three free-throw attempts Monday night, ending a streak of 20 straight makes from the line to start his season.

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com