"He's a big part of our offense," power forward Carlos Boozer added, "especially off the bench — because it's hard for people to guard him, because he can not only shoot the 17-footer, but he'll go inside and post up as well."

Sloan suggested Harpring's minutes, health permitting, are bound to rise from the 16 he averaged during the season's first half.

"We'll probably change some," the Jazz coach said. "We'll keep him out there on the floor maybe longer if he's going well. If not, then we'll try to go back and see what we've got going on somewhere else."

Asked if that meant Harpring will close games — like he has frequently in the past, albeit not this season — Sloan was noncommittal.

"I've got other people too, you know," he said. "I don't know whether we'll go with (Kirilenko) playing 2 guard. I don't know. We haven't made that decision."

Sloan, for his part, made no apologies for following doctor's orders.

"He wanted to play more," the Jazz coach said, "and obviously we had to say, 'Well, this is where it is.'

"I'm certainly not into trying to (mess) somebody's career up. ... If I didn't want to worry about that there's times I would have played him 30 minutes, 40 minutes — who cares, you know? But I've never had that attitude with a player. That's not important to me. Their career, certainly, is a lot more important than mine."

And Harpring's other health issues are even more important.

"We just hope he gets it cleared up," Sloan said, "so he can hopefully get over what he had."

Harpring, who has missed four games this season because of the gastrointestinal issues, wholeheartedly agrees.

"I'm doing everything I can to be healthy. ... Everything else is out of my control," he said. "Hopefully I'll get good news Wednesday.

"The book," Harpring added, "will be complete after this test, I hope."

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com