Utah Jazz will dress 12 players tonight

SALT LAKE CITY — The Jazz will play tonight with a full active roster of 12 healthy players — for the first time this season.

Utah — down to just nine in recent games — play host tonight to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Both backup center Kyrylo Fesenko reserve combo guard Ronnie Price plan to dress — which would push the count of available Jazz players to 11.

So does backup shooting guard Kyle Korver, who'll be back for the first since undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery to repair a bone spur.

Fesenko has missed the Jazz's last two games due to a stomach virus, and Price has missed 15th straight with a toe/foot injury.

"Some of them haven't played any minutes to speak of, so I'd be really reluctant to play them any number of minutes," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said after the team's shootaround this morning. "I'll try to play them if I can, you know, try to get something. Whatever it takes to try to win, you know?"

Not dressing tonight is backup small forward Andre Kirilenko, who said this morning that he received a cortisone shot in his strained lower back Friday. He expects to be able to return Monday night vs. Minnesota, but after tonight will have missed five straight games and six of Utah's last seven due to muscle tightness and inflammation in his back.

Sloan, meanwhile, said he's preparing as if Lakers star Kobe Bryant will play tonight.

"He'll play. I'm sure he will," the Jazz coach said. "That's why he's Kobe. You know, I've never heard him make excuses with injuries. He plays through all that stuff."

Bryant sustained an avulsion fracture in the top joint of his right index finger in Friday night's win over Minnesota by the Lakers, who have won 11 straight — including Wednesday's victory in Los Angeles over the Jazz.

The NBA's second-leader scorer returned to play after halftime, however, with the finger taped.

Bryant made the trip to Utah, and the Lakers are calling him a probable starter.

e-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com