Jazz collapse

LOS ANGELES — If it's not one thing, it's another.

In this instance, another injury.

Already shorthanded from the start, with their top two scorers both hurt and sitting out, the Jazz had yet another regular go down Tuesday night.

Point guard Raul Lopez, who has been starting while Keith McLeod nurses a strained hamstring, played 12 opening-quarter minutes against the Los Angeles Lakers before exiting with an unspecified left-knee injury of unknown extent.

X-rays on Lopez's knee — not the same joint that already has been twice surgically reconstructed — were negative. An MRI exam to search for possible additional damage, however, is scheduled for today.

Yet even with Lopez absent for the final three quarters, and even with both starting small forward Andrei Kirilenko and starting power forward Carlos Boozer — Utah's top-two point producers — also out, the Jazz went into this week's NBA All-Star break with a not-so-pretty flurry.

Utah led most of the way at the Staples Center, but collapsed at the end as the Lakers nabbed a 102-95 victory that dropped the Jazz to 17-35.

Howard Eisley restored the Jazz's long-held lead at 95-93 with two free throws, but with less than a minute remaining Lakers guard Chucky Atkins hit a 3-pointer to put L.A. up by one.

After Lakers center Chris Mihm blocked Matt Harpring's attempted putback of a Raja Bell miss, Atkins hit two more freebies.

Eisley turned the ball over on the other end, and the 26-24 Lakers sealed their win with free throws.

Kirilenko — an All-Star last season, but not this — did not play due to a sprained right ankle sustained in the second quarter of the Jazz's Monday-night loss at Phoenix.

He was hurt after accidentally landing on the foot of Suns point guard Steve Nash.

Boozer, who sprained his right foot late in Monday's second quarter, also did not play.

It was the first game Boozer has missed this season, leaving guard Gordan Giricek and center Mehmet Okur as the only two Jazz players who have played in all 52 games this season.

Neither of those two injuries, however, is believed to be serious or long-term.