Jazz: Boozer hammy not re-hurt

Rumors that Carlos Boozer re-tore his injured hamstring are untrue, but the Jazz forward did suffer something of a setback in his rehabilitation earlier this week, Jazz basketball boss Kevin O'Connor said Friday.

O'Connor said Boozer's hamstring "tightened up."

"He tweaked it a little bit, and stretched it a little bit, so he's backed up a little on what he's been doing," said O'Connor, the Jazz's senior vice president of basketball operations. "But it's not as if he's 're-hurt' or 're-injured.' "

The setback is the sort of which can be expected for the type of injury Boozer is rehabbing, O'Connor suggested.

Boozer had progressed to working out on the court recently, but now he is back to a rehab pool and an exercise bike.

Boozer initially hurt his hamstring at the tail end of the first week of training camp in early October, then injured it again during subsequent rehab work, and has yet to play a game this season. In fact, the Duke University product who left Cleveland to sign a six-year, $68 million contract with Utah in the summer of 2004 has not played since last Feb. 14 due to the hamstring issues and a foot injury sustained last season.

Before this week's setback, there had been indications from within the Jazz organization that Boozer would be ready to return sometime this month.

On Friday, though, O'Connor suggested there never was a specific timetable for Boozer's return — and that there certainly is not one now.

Boozer did not accompany the Jazz, who have won three straight and eight of their last nine, on a four-game trip that ended with Wednesday's win at Philadelphia.

OKUR'S PROGRESS: Mehmet Okur is having a breakout season, and he may well have a chance to go to the 2006 NBA All-Star game in Houston, third in the fans' voting for Western Conference centers.

But he has a ways to go to make Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan's all-star definition.

"Well, he's scoring. That's what people want to see," said Sloan Friday before practice at the Zion's Bank Basketball Center.

"But his defense has got to get better. I don't see that he can continue to be as lethargic sometimes on the defensive end as he has been. For him to be an all-star player, in my opinion, those are some of the things he has to do."