Jazz backup power forward Paul Millsap will undergo surgery on Thursday to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his left thumb, the team announced Monday.

Millsap, the Jazz's most-durable player over the past two years, injured the thumb in Utah's series-ending Game 6 NBA Western Conference semifinal playoff loss to the Los Angeles Lakers Friday night.

Jazz team physician Dr. Lyle Mason made the preliminarily diagnosis after X-rays initially were taken, and on Monday Dr. Steven Huish confirmed Mason's opinion.

Huish will perform the surgery to repair the ligament on Thursday in Salt Lake City.

A timetable for Millsap's recovery is not expected to be made known until Friday.

Jazz general manager Kevin O'Connor said Monday that Millsap will need to wear a cast following the operation, but it should not hinder his conditioning routine.

The injury will in no way impact the Jazz's plans to pick up the third-year team option on Millsap's current contract, O'Connor suggested.

Millsap, a second-round draft choice in 2006, has played in all 164 regular-season games and all 29 playoff games of his two-year NBA career.

No other Jazz player has made it through the past two seasons without missing a game, and only starting point guard Deron Williams also made it through all 82 this season.

Millsap averaged 8.1 points and 5.6 rebounds in 21 minutes per game this past regular season, and 6.4 points and 3.9 rebounds in 17 minutes per game during the 2008 postseason.

RUMOR MILL: According to NBA columnist Mitch Lawrence, writing earlier this week in the New York Daily News, Miami Heat basketball boss Pat Riley has "targeted Utah's Carlos Boozer as a candidate for a free-agent signing down the road, perhaps even next summer."

Boozer, a two-time All-Star and the Jazz's starting power forward, has a player-option for the final season (2009-2010) of a six-year, $68 million with Utah.

If he did not exercise the option, Boozer would become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2009. Otherwise, he is scheduled to make $12,658,233 in '09-10.

Boozer resides in Miami during the offseason.

ADORABLE DERON: Hollywood actress/director Penny Marshall, aka Laverne DeFazio from the popular 1976-83 TV sitcom "Laverne & Shirley," was asked by the New York Times during the recently concluded Jazz-Lakers series who among the visitors she is particularly fond of.