Mailman's Utah route delayed

LOS ANGELES — Mark him absent, again.

Karl Malone, who left the Jazz after 18 seasons to join the Los Angeles Lakers as a free agent last summer, remains sidelined by the same injury — a sprained right knee ligament — that has kept him out of L.A.'s last 15 games.

The NBA's No. 2 all-time scorer will sit out tonight's sold-out Jazz-Lakers game at the Delta Center; according to the Associated Press, he did not even travel to Utah.

It marks the second time in as many opportunities Malone has been unable to play his first game against his ex-team; the last was in December, when the NBA suspended him for elbowing Dallas' Steve Nash.

So be it, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan suggested.

"When the game starts, it doesn't make any difference — Karl Malone, or whoever it is," said Sloan, whose club was in L.A. on Friday to face the Clippers. "I don't really care. Our job still remains the same."

That is to beat a struggling, injury-plagued Lakers team also missing All-Star center Shaquille O'Neal, who remains out at least until next week with a calf injury.

L.A. might, however, have another star back.

Guard Kobe Bryant spent Friday in Colorado for a motions hearing related to his pending sexual assault trial, but he may be ready to return tonight from a shoulder sprain that has kept him out five games.

A decision will be made after today's morning shoot-around.

Other injured Lakers: Rick Fox, out eight months following foot surgery; Jamal Sampson, "questionable" tonight after not playing in Dallas because of a sprained ankle; and Brian Cook, out after breaking a pinkie finger in Thursday's loss to the Mavericks.

One likely returnee for L.A. tonight: veteran big man Horace Grant, who had been home in Georgia visiting his ill father.

All the woes have prompted 10 different Laker opening lineups, including one Thursday that had rookie Luke Walton, ex-NBAer Bill Walton's son, making his first start.

Walton started at the power forward spot belonging to Malone, who has seen the 25-15 Lakers go 5-10 over the 15 games he's missed due to the knee.

Malone will be out at least another week and perhaps until after the mid-February All-Star break, meaning it will not be until March 8 at the Delta Center that the Mailman gets another chance to deliver his first game vs. the Jazz.