Boozer tweaks injury, placed on inactive list

Jazz power forward Carlos Boozer didn't make it through Monday's practice at the Zion's Bank Basketball Center, "tweaking" the sore left hamstring that kept him out of the whole preseason.

The re-injury put Boozer on Utah's "inactive" list, along with rookies C.J. Miles and Andre Owens, for Wednesday's season-opening game in the Delta Center at 7 p.m. against the Dallas Mavericks.

Boozer had the leg checked out by Jazz doctors Monday afternoon.

Jazz senior vice president of basketball operations Kevin O'Connor said the team likely won't know a lot more about Boozer's condition until today, when he comes in for treatment.

But trainer Gary Briggs told O'Connor late Monday that an MRI on Boozer "showed no significant damage to the hamstring." That means the Jazz will have to continue to be careful with their power forward. "We'll deal with it as it goes on," O'Connor said.

The inactive list for the season opener had to be turned in to the NBA by mid-afternoon Monday, but it is not necessarily binding, and the players on it could even change up until an hour before game time. Teams can have a limit of 15 rostered players but can only dress 12 for games.

As opposed to the "injured list" from past years, players are not obligated to sit out any length of time when they are designated "inactive," except for that game, if they're on the list an hour before tipoff.

Earlier Monday, Boozer said he practiced some on Saturday and felt good but couldn't use that as a measurement because the practice was short. "It's only when I start to run and push it a little bit that I feel a little tug," he said. On Monday and today, the Jazz were planning scrimmages, and Boozer expected that to be his big test, one the leg didn't pass.

Meanwhile, forward Matt Harpring, who missed much of the preseason after a second microfracture surgery on his sore right knee, "seems to be OK, but he's not in basketball condition," coach Jerry Sloan said Monday morning. Harpring's preseason minutes were limited by the medical staff. Sloan wasn't sure Monday how much he could use Harpring Wednesday.

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