Utah Jazz: This shot's no fun for Kirilenko

HOUSTON — Andrei Kirilenko was on fire Wednesday night.

Just not the way he or the Utah Jazz would have preferred.

Instead of his red-hot shooting touch producing sizzle marks on the nets, the scorching was inside his inflamed right ankle. The flame was ignited by a cortisone shot he received after making an early exit from the Jazz's win over Minnesota on Tuesday.

"It's the first day after the shot and it's burning. I know the first day is the hardest one," said Kirilenko, who received a similar shot after injuring the ankle and subsequently missing two games in early December.

"It's like it's on fire."

Kirilenko, who traveled but didn't dress in Wednesday's 108-99 loss to the Rockets, said prior to Wednesday's game he still holds out hope he'll be available to play this weekend.

"Yeah, I think Saturday or Sunday," he said.

That's when the Jazz have a back-to-back set at home versus Cleveland and then at Denver.

While "frustrated," Kirilenko said doctors warned him that the painful inflammation would return about a month after he received the first injection in December. In that regard, he got some bonus time. It's been nearly seven weeks since that injury and shot occurred.

The Russian forward said he's willing to repeat this heat-inducing yet eventual pain-alleviating process until the end of the season, smiling as he added that he still has "three, four shots to go." In the offseason, he'll have surgery to remove bone fragments from his ankle joint.

STAYING PUT: Because of Kyrylo Fesenko's surprising success against Yao Ming in their last outing — a 120-115 double-overtime victory for Houston on Dec. 27. Jazz brass considered calling up the seldom-used NBA Development League assignee from the Utah Flash for this match-up.

Fesenko had a career-first double-double of 12 points and 11 rebounds with three blocked shots and played some pestering defense against the 7-foot-6 center.

"Yeah, we talked about it a little bit and we didn't do it," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "I think he's playing down there and he's starting to play well and having some success."

More PT with the Orem-based Flash is more beneficial for Fesenko now, Sloan indicated, than bringing him up to perhaps only sit on the bench or play a few sporadic minutes.