Miles starts in place of injured Kirilenko

PORTLAND, Ore. — Forward Andrei Kirilenko received treatment Saturday and will be treated again today, but the Jazz do not expect to know more about his availability status until after he is re-evaluated Monday.

Kirilenko injured his back during practice Thursday, underwent testing Friday and sat out Saturday's visit with Portland with what the club is calling "lower-back inflammation."

He remained in Utah, both rehabbing and undergoing chiropractic treatment. It doesn't seem, however, as if the Jazz fear he'll be out long-term.

"He's been getting a lot of treatments, and he's working real hard doing that, trying to get back as quick as he can," said coach Jerry Sloan, whose club is off until facing Indiana on Tuesday night. "From what we know now, all the tests have been OK."

With Kirilenko out, usual reserve swingman C.J. Miles opened against the Trail Blazers — his second start of the season.

The call went to Miles, Sloan said, so he could play reserve swingman Kyle Korver and backup small forward Matt Harpring together off the bench.

Saturday's was the first game this season missed because of back issues by Kirilenko, who also missed six games during the 2005-06 season due to back spasms. He missed one additional game this season with a biceps/shoulder strain, and Miles started that one as well.

Though the Jazz aren't sure when Kirilenko will return, they have no immediate inclination to sign someone to a 10-day contract — something that, since Saturday, teams now are permitted to do.

"If we brought somebody," Sloan said, "we would bring in (Morris) Almond or somebody like that. We talked about it a little bit, (but) we'll just go ahead and stay the way we are for right now.

"If we bring anybody in on a 10-day contract who hasn't been on our team," Sloan added, "it takes 10 days for them to figure out what we're doing in most cases — and that's not fair to them, and it's really not fair to the guys who have already gone through it. They need an opportunity to play."

Almond, a shooting guard who was the Jazz's 2007 first-round draft choice, currently is assigned to the NBA Development League's Utah Flash. He spent all of training camp and the preseason with the parent club but is scoreless with just 12 minutes played in his only four regular-season Jazz games.

FREE ADVICE: The recent arrival in Utah of free-throw-shooting ace Korver had Sloan reminiscing about his own proficiency from the line.