Utah Jazz notebook: Injuries continue to mount for Jazz, 5 miss game

Now even the guys who hardly play are getting hurt.

Jazz reserve big man Kyrylo Fesenko strained his lower back during pre-game warmups prior to Wednesday's night loss to Miami, and did not dress.

Fesenko, who has appeared in just six games this season, is the latest in a long list of injured Jazz players.

Neither Andrei Kirilenko nor Carlos Boozer played Wednesday, though Deron Williams did.

Williams, the Jazz's starting point guard, had been questionable because of a right hip flexor strain sustained in Tuesday's win at Sacramento.

Williams finished the game against the Kings, his fourth straight after missing 13-of-15 because of a sprained ankle.

But he had to have help stretching from team trainer Gary Briggs during timeouts after he got hurt. And on Wednesday — clearly at less than 100 percent — he played wearing compression shorts that went all the way to his shins.

Sixth-man Kirilenko, meanwhile, missed a second straight game Wednesday because of irritation in his right ankle, and All-Star power forward Boozer missed an eighth straight due to a strained quadriceps tendon in his left knee.

Also absent for the Jazz were reserve forward Matt Harpring, who missed reserve big man Jarron Collins, who is out long-term with an elbow injury.

Harpring, who hurt his back during pre-game warmups before a Nov. 24 game against Chicago, has missed four straight games and five of Utah's last six.

All that left the Jazz with just 10 available players Wednesday, nine of whom played.

Reserve point Brevin Knight — back from a sprained finger — dressed against the Heat but did not play (coach's decision) for a second straight game.

EX-JAZZ CAMPER TAKES OVER IN TORONTO: Canada native Jay Triano — who once was in training camp with the Jazz — will coach his first game as head coach of the Toronto Raptors when they visit Utah on Friday night.

Triano was named interim head coach on Wednesday, when the Raptors fired Sam Mitchell one day after the 8-9 team lost 132-93 at Denver.

The change is the 222nd in the NBA since current Jazz head coach Jerry Sloan succeeded Frank Layden on Dec. 9 1988, and the sixth coaching switch for the Raptors since then.

Denver and New York, incidentally, are tied at 12 apiece for most changes during the Sloan era — whose 20th anniversary comes when the Jazz play Tuesday night at Minnesota.

Mitchell was NBA Coach of the Year for the 2006-07 season, and 156-189 in four-plus seasons in charge of the Raptors.

Triano, who was raised in Niagara Falls, was head coach of Canada's national team from 1998-2004.