Kirilenko's injured back causes him to leave team

BOSTON — Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko left the team Wednesday and flew from Boston to Los Angeles, where today and Friday he is scheduled to undergo further evaluation of his injured lower back by specialists there.

Kirilenko hurt the back late in the opening half of last Saturday's win at Milwaukee, and did not play in that game's second half or in Tuesday's loss at Cleveland.

The Jazz and Kirilenko himself had been saying the 24-year-old Russian was bothered by painful back spasms, and both hoped he'd back by Wednesday's game against Boston — if not Tuesday in Cleveland.

Kirilenko did not show any improvement, however, so he left Wednesday for L.A. There, the Jazz hope doctors can rule out what has to be among their worst fears — structural or disc damage in the back.

"We hope he'll get healthy," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said Wednesday. "That's the biggest thing."

Kirilenko, limited to 41 games last season and 17 so far this season because of various injuries, is averaging 12.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 3.1 blocks and 1.1 steals.

"He's a tremendous help to us when he's able to play," Sloan said, "so we hope we can get him back."

The Jazz do not expect to know anything about Kirilenko's status until Friday at the earliest, and perhaps not until early next week.

WHALEY BACK: Playing for the first time since he cut his hand during an incident at a Park City bar earlier this month, Jazz rookie big man Robert Whaley logged 17 minutes and scored a career-high six points in Utah's 101-89 loss to Boston.

Whaley, suspended for Tuesday's loss at Cleveland because of disciplinary action stemming from the weekend gone awry in Park City, made 3-of-4 from the field despite playing with six stitches still in the webbing of his right hand.

After the game, three of the sutures were removed.

"Toward the end (it hurt)," he said of the hand. "You know, I can't really palm the ball because of the stitches."

Whaley got a passing grade from Sloan in his first appearing since a Dec. 9 outing at Seattle, five games ago and one night before he went to Park City, where he first cut the hand, and later got in trouble with police for offering false identity following a verbal alternation with fellow bar patrons.

"He played OK," Sloan said. "At least he hustled and tried to defend a little bit."