Utah Jazz notes: Injuries lead to 20th different starting line

LOS ANGELES — Neither center Mehmet Okur nor small forward C.J. Miles played when the Jazz faced the Los Angeles Lakers in a late-starting, TNT-televised game Tuesday night.

Miles didn't play for a second straight game, and for the fifth time in the Jazz's last six, because the dislocated index finger on his left, shooting hand remains swollen.

But he wants to be ready when Utah opens postseason play this weekend.

"That's what I'm hoping," Miles said. "The swelling hasn't gone down, so it's starting to . . . make my hand hurt. The outside and inside of my palm is getting real sore, catching the ball or when I grab.

"Trying to shoot, I don't have much strength in my hand, so it doesn't make too much sense to keep on trying to push it . . . and then I won't be ready."

Okur is out because he strained his right hamstring in the first half of Monday's win over the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Jazz continue to call him out "day-to-day," and it remains to be seen if he'll be ready for the start of the playoffs.

With those two usual starters out Tuesday, Jarron Collins opened at center and fellow veteran Matt Harpring at small forward.

The start was Collins' third of the season, and it was the second straight for Harpring, who made his first of the season Monday.

In their final regular-season game, this was the 20th different opening lineup the injury-plagued Jazz used in 82 games.

"We've had teams that have not had injuries, and that makes it a lot easier," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "But when you have them, that's part of the business. Everybody has to go through it."

The Jazz opened with backup power forward Paul Millsap and usual starting power forward Carlos Boozer inside for Monday's second half, but Sloan said he opted for Collins over Millsap on Tuesday because of the length and size of the Lakers with Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum in their frontcourt.

MORE HARPRING: After starting him in Miles' place Monday — and seeing how much grit, toughness and energy his team got from him — Sloan plans to utilize the sporadically used Harpring during the playoffs.

Just how much, however, remains to be seen.