Utah Jazz: Kirilenko's ankle may have him sidelined

Kirilenko's ankle may have him sidelined — again

Andrei Kirilenko's bad right ankle flared up again.

Kirilenko, who says he'll have surgery in the offseason to clean out the joint, didn't play in the second half of the Jazz's win Tuesday over Minnesota.

It just started (hurting) before the game, he said, and during the game it just got worse and worse.

The Jazz are calling their six-man forward questionable for tonight's game at Houston because of an inflamed ankle, but Kirilenko - who received a second cortisone injection Tuesday night - doesn't not plan to play.

I know how it's gonna feel, he said.

Kirilenko also missed two games in early December because of pain in the same ankle, but he returned after receiving a steroid shot then.

It happened a month ago, he said, and I think that medicine we injected — it just wears off. So I think in two, three days I'll be ready.

I think the goal is for Saturday.

The Jazz face LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday night at EnergySolutions Arena.

— Tim Buckley