From the Jazz medical ward, here's the rundown:
Andrei Kirilenko (sprained right ankle), Gordan Giricek (tonsillitis) and Carlos Boozer (strained left hamstring) all did not play Monday night vs. New York and all did not travel to Sacramento for Utah's game against the Kings tonight.
Keith McLeod (back spasms) also did not play Monday, but did go to Sacramento.
Kris Humphries tore the webbing between the index and middle fingers on his right hand with nine seconds left in the loss to the Knicks, took five stitches to close the cut and was on the plane bound for Sacramento.
Not that coach Jerry Sloan cares about any of that.
"You can't worry about injuries," he said.
Because of all of the medical woes, undrafted Andre Owens made his first NBA start at shooting guard Monday and second-round selections C.J. Miles and Robert Whaley both made their NBA debuts.
Miles made just 1-of-7 shots from the field, and said anxiousness had something to do with it.
"You've got so much energy because you're sitting around," said Miles, who was inactive for Utah's first six games and dressed but did not play Saturday at Chicago. "I love to play. I knew my chance was coming."
Whaley had two rebounds in six scoreless minutes.
"I'd rather sit on the bench and watch and win, I guess, than play," he said after the 73-66 loss.
Jazz forward Matt Harpring, meanwhile, returned after missing last Saturday's game at Chicago because it was the back end of a back-to-back set. Due to offseason knee surgery, his doctor still does not want him to play on such occasions.
He traveled to Sacramento, but it's unknown if he'll play tonight.
KUDOS FOR KIRILENKO: Shortly before Kirilenko sprained his ankle, an injury that has him out 1-to-2 weeks, NBA analyst Charles Barkley dubbed the Jazz forward one of the league's toughest foreign players, along with San Antonio's Manu Ginobili.
"If you knock them down when they come to the basket," Barkley said while yapping recently on TNT, "they are coming back."
A recent story posted on ProBasketballNews.com also makes a case for Kirilenko as the NBA's "most well-rounded," over the likes of Ginobili, LeBron James, Tim Duncan, Tracy McGrady and Kobe Bryant.
HMMM: A feature story about NBA referee Joey Crawford and his family that was posted recently on SI.com has this revealing nugget about Crawford, who most recently worked the Jazz's game at New Jersey last Wednesday, and a certain retired Jazz star:
"Over the years he's had to watch John Stockton, Charles Oakley and Anthony Mason like a hawk, he says, because they've been so skillful at getting away with stuff like pulling an opponent's jersey, stepping on a foot, or holding down a wrist."
E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com