Utah Jazz: Kirilenko, Russian team to face Team USA

Andrei Kirilenko will get a crack at the Americans — and possibly two of his Jazz teammates — even before this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

Kirilenko's Russian national team will face Team USA in a pre-Olympic exhibition game Aug. 3 in Shanghai, China, USA Basketball announced Monday.

Team USA will close its pre-Olympic training schedule Aug. 5 in Shanghai, where in another International Challenge game it will face an Australian team that features University of Utah product Andrew Bogut of the Milwaukee Bucks.

Jazz starting power forward Carlos Boozer and starting point guard Deron Williams both are candidates for the American team roster, which will be named following a mini-camp held late this month in Las Vegas.

Kirilenko stars for Russia, which surprisingly won last year's FIBA European championship tournament. The Jazz's starting small forward was named MVP of that tourney.

Russia and Team USA are in different preliminary pools but could meet in the medal round of Olympic play, which for the Americans opens with an Aug. 10 game against host China.

BILLUPS BETTER: For a while, it appeared Williams' bid to make the Olympic team might have been boosted by an injury to point guard Chauncey Billups.

But the Detroit Piston star's "right hamstring is feeling a lot better, which is why he doesn't think it'll be an issue when he joins his fellow Team USA teammates in Las Vegas," Michigan Live — Web site for a collection of newspapers in that state — reported this past weekend.

Williams, Billups, Dallas' Jason Kidd and Chris Paul of New Orleans are vying for what may be three point guard spots on the 12-man team.

Billups was bothered by the hamstring injury during Detroit's NBA playoffs run, which ended with last week's Eastern Conference finals loss to the Boston Celtics.

ANOTHER WILLIAMS?: Williams evidently has a fan in Southern Cal star O.J. Mayo, a likely lottery pick in this month's NBA Draft.

Asked recently by DraftExpress.com's Jonathan Givony if he sees himself as an NBA point guard, combo guard or shooting guard, Mayo said he thought he'd be better at the point.

Asked by Givony if he saw himself "as more of a Brandon Roy kind of player, who operates in the mid-range, or — more like an Allen Iverson, a slasher and a high volume free-throw guy," Mayo invoked a certain Jazz point's name.