Jazz will face Spurs sans ailing Boozer

ESPN has been promoting its coverage of San Antonio's visit to Utah tonight by playing up the contributions this season of starting power forward Carlos Boozer, the Jazz's leading scorer and rebounder.

Sorry, network boys.

The Jazz on Tuesday said Boozer will not play tonight, marking his second straight absence due to a bruised left knee sustained when he bumped into Hornets center Tyson Chandler during last Saturday's loss at Oklahoma City.

Boozer was a noticeable void Monday for the Jazz, even though they still managed 115 points in a one-point loss to the New Jersey Nets.

"Some of the things we did were moved around a little bit," starting shooting guard Derek Fisher said, "because we didn't have that consistent post presence that Carlos gives us.

"Even if Carlos doesn't give us one point or one rebound, just his presence is enough," added Fisher, who referenced his days playing for the Los Angeles Lakers along with a certain superstar teammate named Shaquille O'Neal. "To me, he's similar to when I played on teams with Shaq — just his presence is enough to cause problems for other teams."

Without Boozer, then, the 29-17 Jazz must game-plan for a Utah offense that normally runs a majority of plays through its power-forward position and for a defense that must deal with the 32-14 Spurs' own power forward, two-time NBA MVP Tim Duncan.

The Jazz lost their most-recent meeting with the Spurs 106-83, when Boozer — a candidate to be named Thursday as a Western Conference reserve for next month's NBA All-Star Game in Las Vegas — mustered only seven rebounds on nine points on 2-of-10 shooting from the field.

But when Utah faced San Antonio the first time this season, Boozer came up big, scoring 23 points and pulling down 16 rebounds while helping hold Duncan to just seven second-half points in a 83-75 Jazz win.

"There are some plays that are designed to really benefit Boozer," said longtime Jazz assistant coach Phil Johnson, who filled as head coach Monday vs. the Nets and again for practice Tuesday morning because Jerry Sloan is fighting the flu.

"We obviously don't have (Boozer), we don't think," Johnson added, "so we're going to play and use different things and play differently — but not to the extent that you'll even notice, probably."