Kirilenko, aching back and all, looks limber in warmups

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko's sore lower back seems to have taken a twist for the better.

Kirilenko did not play in Utah's loss at Detroit on Tuesday night, but he did take part in pregame warmups — and looked fairly limber as he did.

"I feel good, no problem," Kirilenko said after the lengthy workout, "but I'm a little afraid of, like, high jumps."

Kirilenko, who has now missed two games and two practices in the past week, said he will "try to practice harder" today. He still isn't sure, however, if he'll be ready for Thursday night's Delta Center exhibition game vs. Portland.

Perhaps just as importantly as the back being better, meanwhile, it seems like Kirilenko's spirits are vastly improved as well.

He acknowledged as much.

"It's just a much better feeling," Kirilenko said, "when your motion is back."

His secret to finding a favorable path leading toward apparent recovery?

Electrical stimulation treatment has helped some, Kirilenko suggested, but anti-inflammation medicine really seems to be doing the trick.

"I think the pills helped me," he said. "Magic pills."

SLOAN STEAMING: Sloan looked like he could have used some magic pills after watching the Jazz's starters play against the Pistons on Monday.

Utah opened with Deron Williams at the point and Gordan Giricek at shooting guard — the same backcourt that started the Jazz's preseason-opening loss to the Los Angeles Lakers — and went with Matt Harpring, Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur up front.

Nine minutes into the opening quarter, Detroit had a double-digit lead — and Sloan had about seen enough.

"I thought we looked like we were just happy to be in the business, and that's about it," he said. "It didn't look like too much of an effort.

"We missed layups, we missed jump shots and threw the ball away. ... We looked like we were not really that concerned about playing. And that's going to be the tough thing — if we're not concerned about playing every night, we aren't going to be good enough."

Boozer did wind up sharing team-high scoring honors with rookie Ronnie Brewer at 15, but Harpring and Williams both shot just 1-of-6 from the field, Okur made only 1-of-7 and Giricek was tagged with four turnovers in only 13 minutes.