Kirilenko, Okur ailing, uncertain for opener

They are not nearly as bad off as Indiana, which already has lost Reggie Miller and Anthony Johnson to broken hands and Jermaine O'Neal to a strained foot ligament and Jeff Foster to hip surgery and, well, you get the picture.

But with their season-opener coming Wednesday against the Los Angeles Lakers, the Jazz aren't the NBA's healthiest team, either.

Utah practiced Sunday without two key cogs, All-Star forward Andrei Kirilekno and big man Mehmet Okur.

Kirilenko has a strained lower back and is out day-to-day. Okur was poked in the right eye during practice Saturday and still was bothered by blurred vision Sunday; he also is out day-to-day. The availability of both for Wednesday is uncertain.

The Jazz already were without point guards Carlos Arroyo (sprained ankle) and Raul Lopez (right knee), both of whom are doubtful for Wednesday.

Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, though, wasn't whining about the woes.

"You would like to have everything go well, but . . . you can't do anything about it," he said.

"If somebody gets hurt, I can't tell them to cancel the game," Sloan added. "We're going to play them. We may not do very well, but hopefully we'll play hard and hopefully we'll play with some kind of intelligence. If we don't, that's just the way life is."

Still, Okur's absence in particular is something of a setback — because Sloan already is flustered by the summer signee's conditioning.

"From what I've seen in exhibition season, he's not in as good a shape as we'd like for him to be," the Jazz coach said. "But that's happened to us before, where we've had guys come in not familiar" with how the Jazz train.

Sloan still has not named Wednesday's starting lineup, and it remains uncertain if Okur — if available — will open at center.

"It may change some of the things I have to make decisions on," Sloan said over the weekend.

"I've got some guys not in real good shape, and I don't know how long they can play," he added after Utah closed its preseason with Thursday's loss at New York. "I noticed they got tired, couldn't think, couldn't get to where they wanted to go. So, there's a lot of work to be done there."

BAD MOVE: After not playing Thursday in New York, free agent guard Jason Miskiri asked the Jazz if they planned to waive him. They said yes, so Miskiri did not return to Utah.