Okur sidelined for 4th straight game

ATLANTA — The Jazz played for a fourth straight game Monday without usual starting center Mehmet Okur, who remains sidelined with a strained and bruised left shoulder.

"I feel better — but that's without contact, without pushing against anybody," Okur said before the Jazz's 116-111 loss to Atlanta on Monday night here. "I haven't tried any 1-on-1 or 5-on-5 on the floor."

The 2007 NBA All-Star Game center said Monday he wasn't sure if he'd be ready to return when the Jazz play Wednesday at Charlotte, their second outing on a four-game trip.

With Okur still out Monday, backup Jarron Collins opened for a third straight game and reserve big man Paul Millsap again came off the bench. Millsap, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan suggested, is a deserved beneficiary of the extra minutes he's been getting while Okur has been out.

"He's needed more playing time all along," Sloan said of the Jazz's usual backup power forward.

"It's hard to get everybody playing time when we're playing like we should," he added before Monday's game, "but if anybody deserves it he does — because of the amount of work he puts in to play."

Millsap, however, wound up playing just 17 minutes Monday — four below his season average.

HARPRING TESTED: Also out for the Jazz on Monday, as expected, was Atlanta area prep product and former Georgia Tech star Matt Harpring, who stayed back in Utah to undergo gastrointestinal testing.

Harpring, who led Marist High School to a Georgia state tournament title, became ill and passed out on the Jazz's return flight Friday from Portland to Salt Lake City.

He did not play in Saturday's win over Seattle.

Preliminary testing was performed Monday, a Jazz spokesman said, and additional tests are planned for today.

Plans continue to call for Harpring to rejoin the team in Charlotte tonight, making him available Wednesday night's game against the Bobcats.

SLOAN ON ALMOND: The Jazz's other Atlanta area prep product, rookie shooting guard Morris Almond, remains assigned to the NBA Development League's Utah Flash.

Even with the Jazz in dire need of strong outside shooting, and even with Harpring missing two straight games, Sloan prefers for Almond to remain with the Flash for now.

"We've got C.J. (Miles). He needs a chance to play some," Sloan said.