Utah Jazz: Expectations high for Kyrylo Fesenko tonight

DENVER — Third-year backup Kyrylo Fesenko — all 7-foot-1 and 300 pounds of him — will start at center for the Jazz tonight in Game 2 of their first-round NBA Western Conference playoff series with the Denver Nuggets.

Fesenko will open in place of Mehmet Okur, who ruptured his left Achilles tendon in Saturday night's Game 1 loss at Denver and is out for at least the next four months — and probably more.

Okur will undergo surgery to repair the tendon sometime this week, but no specific date has been set yet, Jazz general manger Kevin O'Connor said this morning.

Fesenko gets the call from Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, who is opting against starting backup power forward Paul Millsap because he wants some experience coming off the bench, over fellow young reserve big man Kosta Koufos.

"I just thought he'd give us a little more size, to try to keep them from getting inside as much," Sloan said of Fesenko. "He (Fesenko) is a bigger, stronger guy than the other guy (Koufos) and I think that, hopefully, will help us. We'll see what happens."

Expectations for Fesenko from teammates were high at today's morning shootaround.

"We look forward to having him out there," power forward Carlos Boozer said. "It's a big moment."

"We have a lot of confidence in Fes. He's had some good games when he's got the minutes, which is probably going to be the case tonight," point guard Deron Williams added. "I think he's one of those players the more minutes he gets the more productive he is, the better feel for the game he's gonna have."

Fesenko, averaging just 8.3 minutes over 49 games this season, is expected to be matched against Nuggets big man Nene.

"He brings a lot," Williams added. "You know, he's a big body in the middle. He can alter shots, change shots, block shots. He's a big body that can try to contain Nene a little bit."

Fesenko vowed this morning that tonight he would "play as I hard as I can."

"Play 100 percent, maybe a little bit more on defense," the 23-year-old Ukraine native said. "Try to lighten up guys on offense, put in some hustle plays, tough fouls maybe. We'll see."

The biggest challenge about defending Nene, Fesenko said, is "he's very tough on his spin moves."

"So that's going to be really tough for me to play defense on him, because he's really quick," he added. "I have a history against him — when I got fouled out in 10 minutes."

Fesenko said Sunday that he was nervous about the minutes he anticipated getting, but that wasn't the case this morning.

"I can't say that I'm nervous," he said. "Excited, happy.

"It's a huge jump for me," Fesenko added. "Tonight we will see where I'm at — physically, mentally. It's a really good test for me. ... It's gonna be fun. I think I'm ready, and I feel really confident about tonight's game. I may not score 45 points, but I know that I will bust my (rear end) on defense."

Denver leads the best-of-seven series 1-0.

e-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com