Kirilenko's injury not serious

ORLANDO — Andrei Kirilenko sprained an ankle, again.

This time, though, the injury is not believed to be as serious as previous sprains that over the last few seasons have caused the Jazz's starting small forward to miss multiple games.

Jazz trainer Gary Briggs said X-rays of Kirilenko's left ankle from multiple angles all were negative, and there was no swelling in the joint — as so often accompanies such an injury.

"You still treat it the same — you just don't have the swelling to get out," Briggs said, adding Kirilenko "said he stepped on somebody's foot."

Kirilenko was scoreless with no shot attempts in 21 minutes when he exited in the second minute of the third quarter in Utah's loss to Orlando on Wednesday.

He also had two rebounds, two assists, two blocks, two steals and two turnovers at the time.

Briggs said Kirilenko, who missed six games earlier this season with a sprained right ankle, will be a game-time decision for Friday's visit to Philadelphia.

After Kirilenko's backup, Matt Harpring, encountered foul trouble Wednesday, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan turned to infrequently used former starting shooting guard C.J. Miles for 10 off-the-bench minutes.

"C.J., I thought, played hard," Sloan said. "(But) he made a couple mistakes for a young player. ... He wasn't quite ready to go in the game, and those things hurt you."

SLOAN ON KRYSTKOWIAK: After Sloan learned the Milwaukee Bucks had fired head coach Terry Stotts on Wednesday with plans to promote assistant Larry Krystkowiak, the Jazz coach expressed angst over yet another NBA coach losing his job — and offered nothing but kind words for one of his former players.

"I think he'll do a good job," Sloan said of Krystkowiak, who played 71 games for Utah in the 1992-93 season and, until Wednesday's developments, was in line for the vacant University of Utah head coaching post.

"We really enjoyed coaching him when he was here. He was a nice man, and I think he's got some toughness about him," Sloan added. "He played smart, he played hard. He was a tough guy. He was not afraid of anybody."

Stotts' departure pushes to 189 the number of NBA coaching changes since Sloan succeeded Frank Layden in Utah on Dec. 9, 1988.