CLEVELAND — Raul Lopez should be ready to return for the start of training camp next October, Jazz trainer Gary Briggs said two days after the Jazz point guard underwent season-ending knee surgery in his native Spain.

According to Briggs, Lopez had damaged tissue "on the medial side of his femur," which was smoothed during surgery.

"The lesion," Briggs said Monday, "was a little more than the MRI (exam) had indicated."

Lopez will remain in Spain for at least four weeks for rehab.

According to FIBA.com, the Web site for basketball's international governing body, Lopez told El Mundo Deportivo, "Before I was injured I intended to play for Spain in the European Championships, although now we will have to see how I feel after a period of rehabilitation."

Briggs, though, said he did not expect Lopez to play in this summer's European tourney — but that he should be good to go for the 2005-06 NBA season.

Lopez has had two reconstructive surgeries and one arthroscopic surgery on his rebuilt right knee, but this was his first surgery on the left knee.

The Jazz allowed Lopez to be operated on by the surgeon of his choice, just as Matt Harpring and Jarron Collins choose their own doctors rather than the team's for their knee surgeries in recent seasons.

"The Jazz would have preferred me to have an operation in the (United) States, but in the end they understood," FIBA.com quoted Lopez as saying to the Spanish newspaper.

"Now," he added, "I hope all of my injury problems are behind me."

HE SAID IT: Harpring, after the Jazz — losers of five straight — blew two late-game possessions and fell by two points Sunday at Detroit: "We're there. We played great defense. We got rebounds. We got loose balls. And then, come down the other end, . . . we just don't execute and get a good shot."

BIG LOSS: Sunday's loss was the Jazz's 42nd in 62-of-82 games this season, meaning they're guaranteed to have their first losing season since 1982-83.

Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, who hates to lose, is devastated by that fact.

"I think we accept losing a little bit easier (than other Jazz teams). That's what scares me about the whole thing," he said. "That's who we are a little bit. That's something that we have to overcome to be a better team."