Utah Jazz: Knight's bad back leaves Jazz practicing shy on point guards

BOISE — Suffice it to say the Jazz had a rather pointed problem Thursday night.

How bad?

Allow center Mehmet Okur to offer the perspective.

"I was this close to playing point guard tonight," he said.

Here's why:

Reserve point Brevin Knight did not take part in the morning session of the Jazz training camp Thursday due to a strained lower back suffered in Wednesday's second practice.

And Knight — battling Ronnie Price for the Jazz's backup point position behind starter Deron Williams — also missed most of Thursday's second session, including all of an open-to-the-public scrimmage at Boise State University's Taco Bell Arena.

Knight said he didn't want to put a timetable on his return to full-time practice but added that he didn't think the injury was a serious one.

"It's minor," he said. "I just got caught in a funny position."

Knight, acquired in an offseason trade with the Los Angeles Clippers for journeyman point Jason Hart, said he "tweaked" the back when he tried to fight through a play in which Williams was defending him.

Also out of action Thursday morning were two free-agent hopefuls, point guard Gerry McNamara and big man Kevin Lyde.

Lyde was ill and stayed back at the Jazz's team hotel in the morning, but the center from Temple scrimmaged at night.

McNamara has a whiplash and a sore jaw after hitting his head on the floor during Wednesday's late session.

The Syracuse product sat out all of both sessions Thursday.

The various injuries left the Jazz with just two pure points for the scrimmage in Williams and Price, prompting usual swingmen Ronnie Brewer and C.J. Miles to match up and run their respective offenses for a significant portion of the scrimmage.

"They played pretty hard, executed pretty well," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said of his club, which breaks camp in Boise with a morning session today.

"One good thing about it: It's good for (Brewer and Miles) to be able to handle the basketball and be put in that situation out there," he added. "They do it sometimes in practice anyway, because you never know how you're gonna play."