Kirilenko's back

When starting forward Matt Harpring went down with a season-ending knee injury, the Jazz got by, going 4-3 over their next seven games with little or no discernible drop in winning percentage, scoring or even team rebounding averages.

But when starting forward Andrei Kirilenko was lost as well with a sprained ankle four games ago, it was simply too much even for a Jerry Sloan-coached team to handle.

With their top two forwards out, 32.5 points and 15.9 rebounds averaged between them, the Jazz went backward.

Four straight losses, giving them five in a row overall. Scoring down, from a norm of 91.8 points per game to just 87.3 with both Kirilenko and Harpring out. Team rebounding down too, from 41.3 boards per game to 38.5.

The point:

They could make up, for a short while, at least, for one of their two-best players being gone; two, however, was one too many.

"I'd like to get everybody healthy," Sloan said when asked the other night what it would take for the 21-22 Jazz to shake their current funk, "but that's not gonna happen."

It was a rare concession to reality from the Jazz coach, hardly ever one to fret over who is absent and who is not.

And he's right.

Harpring's surgery has him out until next season. Center Ben Handlogten is out for the season due to knee surgery as well. And, now, neither of two other big men — Keon Clark (ankle surgery) and Curtis Borchardt (broken wrist) — are expected back anytime before the mid-February All-Star Game break.

But the Jazz do have one going for them heading into tonight's Delta Center rematch with the Los Angeles Clippers, who beat them 93-82 just last Friday night in L.A.

If things go as he hopes, Kirilenko plans to play against the Clippers.

Yet even that's not certain.

"I feel OK," he said Sunday morning. "Not good."

And even with Kirilenko — and his team-high 16.3 points per game, and his 7.9 rebounds, and his 2.9 blocks, and his 2.2 steals, and his energy, and his hops — there is no telling if the Jazz will be able to turn things around.

"Having Andrei back," Sloan said, "is no guarantee of anything."

His fear: "If the other guys say, 'Oh, Andrei's back, so I have to let up a little bit now.' "