Jazz activate point guard Lopez

The Jazz on Monday activated point guard Raul Lopez and replaced him on the injured list with fellow point Keith McLeod.

Lopez, the Jazz's backup point behind Carlos Arroyo last season, has been out all preseason and all of the 18-game-old regular season due to Nov. 2 arthroscopic surgery to repair torn cartilage in his twice surgically repaired right knee.

Lopez did not dress against Miami on Monday night at the Delta Center, but he may be ready to return to the Jazz lineup sometime later this week.

"We're going to practice (today)," said Kevin O'Connor, the Jazz's senior vice president for basketball operations. "Let's see (Lopez) go hard, and then we'll see what we've got."

McLeod has a moderate left-side groin strain that was sustained prior to, and later aggravated during, a Nov. 27 game at San Antonio.

He has sat out the last three games prior to Monday, and now must sit out at least five more. That means the earliest McLeod can be play again is a Dec. 15 visit to Phoenix, the start of the Jazz's five-game pre-Christmas trip.

The related Lopez/McLeod moves were made Monday in part, O'Connor said, so the clock on the number of games McLeod must sit out can get started. Another factor: With McLeod on the injured list, he would not be tempted to rush to return to the lineup before he is fully healthy.

All-Star forward Andrei Kirilenko (partially torn medial collateral ligament, right knee) and reserve center Curtis Borchardt (inflamed right foot) remain on the Jazz's injured list.

Borchardt is eligible to be activated as early as Friday's game against Portland, but Kirilenko remains nowhere near ready to return.

HOT SELLER: The hottest selling NBA jersey these days? According to NBA.com, that would be Shaquille O'Neal's No. 32 Miami Heat jersey in black — the same one worn by the big fella Monday night.

MISC.: Former University of Utah big man Michael Doleac played 13 minutes for the Heat, pulling down two rebounds but missing his only two shots. . . .Jazz fans are asked to bring new, unwrapped toys to Wednesday night's game against Orlando, to assist the local Toys for Tots campaign run by the United States Marine Corps.

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com