Utah Jazz: Fesenko plays big against biggest foe

HOUSTON — At a listed 7-foot-1 and 300 pounds, Jazz reserve center Kyrylo Fesenko considers himself a pretty big guy.

Standing next to 7-6, 310-pound Houston Rockets center Yao Ming, however, made him feel awfully small.

"I feel shocked, because I play (previously) against players who (are) bigger than me," Fesenko said after Houston beat Utah in double-overtime Saturday night. "But not (as much) as Yao Ming.

"That was pretty hard," Fesenko added with reference to the 34 minutes he logged, mostly matched against Yao, because injured Jazz bigs Mehmet Okur, Carlos Boozer and Paul Millsap all were out. "That was pretty tough."

Yet Fesenko responded with 12 points and 11 rebounds, his first career double-double, while a flustered Yao shot just 9-of-23 from the field.

"He played hard. He played hard," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said of Fesenko, who — with Okur out—- has put together back-to-back strong games for perhaps the first time in his two-year NBA career. "He tried to get to him as early as he could.

"He (Yao) is a wonderful player, and he's difficult to play against," Sloan added. "But I thought Fes and (rookie replacement-starter Kosta) Koufos, they both tried to do the best they could trying to play against him."

HARPRING MRI: Jazz reserve forward Matt Harpring hasn't reinjured his right ankle. But it isn't progressing as he'd hoped it would, either.

In fact, it's still giving him problems related to offseason surgery he had for bone spurs and a subsequent strep infection.

As a result, the Jazz veteran had a second MRI taken on his ankle last week at the request of his Chicago-based doctor, who performed the surgery and suggested getting a second opinion.

Harpring sent the images to the recommended North Carolina doctor, who will evaluate them later this week.

In the meantime, Harpring will continue to play through pain. He logged 16 minutes and scored six points with four rebounds in Utah's Friday win over Dallas, and had four points in 12 minutes Saturday.

"It just hasn't healed yet," Harpring said. "It hasn't got to the point where it's feeling good yet, so I'm just making sure nothing else is going on in there."

It concerns Harpring that five months have passed since he first suffered the serious infection. He expected to feel much better by now.