Utah Jazz: Korver's return put on hold; Jazz like TV game

So much for returning soon, so much for perhaps returning as early as Saturday night.

The pause button has been pressed on Kyle Korver's comeback bid.

The Jazz shooting guard suggested Thursday he's had a setback in his rehab from arthroscopic knee surgery, and it will be more than a week before he's ready to return.

Korver cited poor results on a Cybex test, which judges strength in the joint.

"You have to have 75 percent. ... That's borderline for being able to play. And I was like 70 percent in my quad, 56 in my hamstring," he said. "So, for the next week, no more courtwork and just focus on strengthening."

The Jazz have four more games through the end of the next week, including home meetings Saturday with Portland, Monday with Memphis and Dec. 4 with Indiana, followed by a Dec. 5 visit to Minnesota.

"It's frustrating, because I wanted to be back before then," Korver said. "But it's part of the process."

Korver, the Jazz's backup shooting guard last season, underwent surgery Oct. 28 in New York to remove a bone spur from his left knee.

He thinks some of the strength in his upper leg was lost before he had surgery, when swelling in the knee and uncertainty over the precise nature of his injury kept him from working out as usual.

"It's been a while since I've gotten after it," said Korver, who did do a week's worth of post-surgery rehab at the P3 Peak Performance Project training center in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Korver has missed all 15 games this season for the Jazz, including Thursday night's game against Chicago at EnergySolutions Arena.

Swingman C.J. Miles (thumb surgery) and combo guard Ronnie Price (sprained toe) also were out again Thursday.

Miles, who also has missed the entire season to date, still hopes to practice for the first time early next week.

Price missed his eighth straight game and remains out indefinitely.

TV TALK: With Thursday night's game aired as part of a TNT doubleheader, Jazz point guard Deron Williams suggested he didn't at all mind playing on Thanksgiving.

"You're usually at home watching the game," he said, "so it's a good change."

Jazz power forward Carlos Boozer felt similarly.

"It's great for us," he said. "We don't get a lot of attention out here, so it's fun to get some.

"We've got more TV game this year than previously years we've had," Boozer added, "so we're enjoying that."

Thursday marked the Jazz's third appearance this season on major national cable TV. They're scheduled to be on TNT three more times this season and on ESPN seven more times for a total of 13 appearances in all.

TV TALK II: With the Jazz having recently signed a long-term agreement to televise all of its game locally on FSN Utah, team-affiliated KJZZ TV lost all of its live NBA game programming.

Now, though, the local station is considering airing "classic" Jazz games as part of its regular lineup.

Old ones, in other words.

Thoughts from fans on the programming possibility are being sought on the Jazz's Web site, www.nba.com/jazz.

HE SAID IT: Boozer, on it being four months now since his offseason radio banter about wanted to be traded to Chicago and how much he'd love to be a Bull: "That's like a lifetime ago, man.

There's been so much going on since then."

e-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com