Utah Jazz owner plans on attending game

Franchise owner Larry H. Miller, still recovering from an offseason heart attack and subsequent life-threatening complications related to his type-2 diabetes, is expected to be in his usual EnergySolutions Arena courtside seat when the Jazz play their preseason home opener tonight vs. Phoenix.

"Hopefully we see him at a lot of games," Jazz general manager Kevin O'Connor said. "He's a pretty good fan."

O'Connor said Miller is "absolutely as enthusiastic as he (usually) is" about the Jazz, especially after all of the medical hurdles he's had to overcome.

"You know," he said, "if you use the word 'passionate' I think you're understating it."

Miller did pass day-to-day control of franchise operations over to his oldest son, new Jazz CEO Greg Miller, as a result of his arduous summer battles.

Greg Miller also has assumed his father's old seat on the NBA Board of Governors.

But Larry Miller still has a voice in team decision-making, especially on matters on great importance such as player contracts. It's just that now there's an added level high in the Jazz's chain of operational command.

"Anything that we do gets to him," O'Connor said of the Jazz's basketball operations department, "and then gets back to us."

"We've had communication," O'Connor added. "Have I had direct communication? Yes. Have I had it often? I don't know what 'often' means. But I just go through the chain. ... My responsibility is to report to (team president) Randy (Rigby), or the two of us report to Greg first. That's how Greg wanted it."

INJURY UPDATES: Carlos Boozer and Kosta Koufos, both nursing strained hamstrings, are "game-time decisions" for tonight's preseason home opener, a Jazz spokesman said Wednesday night.

Boozer, an All-Star power forward, missed Tuesday's 99-90 win over the Los Angeles Lakers in Anaheim, Calif., because of soreness in his left hamstring.

While working up a sweat on an elliptical exercise machine prior to practice Wednesday morning, Boozer said he's "feeling better."

"The soreness is starting to go away a little bit," he said before taking part in some, but not all, of the practice. "We'll see how it goes."

Boozer tore the same muscle three years ago, when he missed 49 games of the 2005-06 season. That in mind, he wants to take extra precaution to not cause further damage during exhibition play.