<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko could miss up to a month with a sprained MCL in his right knee and is expected to be placed on the injured list Tuesday, ESPN.com's Marc Stein reports. Kirilenko, off to a strong start through 14 games, was injured Saturday when Spurs guard Beno Udrih fell backward into Kirilenko's right knee.</div> <div align="center">Link </div> As if Utah's losses to previously winless teams wasn't bad enough. On the bright side, it can't get much worse than this. Can it?
Ouch ... this is the one player the Jazz need on the court. It looks like the injury bug has decided to harass the Jazz this season. Harpring, Arroyo, and now AK47, the Jazz have a deep team, but these are key players for them. The only upside is seeing if their rookies are NBA worthy and maybe showcasing Harpring a little to get some trade interest. And to answer your question, it's going to get worse because their next five opponents are the Suns, Sonics, Mavs, Heat, and Magic. It's conceivable they lose all those games and drop to 8-11.
There was a stretch last season where AK47 was out for 5 games, the Jazz went 0-5. There's conflicting reports on his injury, but it sounds like he will be out till late December. Matt Harpring used to start over AK47, and he needs to return to old form for the Jazz, he is bit more of a scorer than AK47, but not even close on defense (and Harp's defense is above average). Utah need to get healthy, and start playing well again as soon as possible if they are to make the playoffs. Raul Lopez will still be out a while too.
The Jazz will need Harpring or possibly Okur to step up for them. Combined they can produce better offensive numbers, but like you mentioned, AK47's defense is going to be impossible to replace. So far they are 0-1 and got dominated by Amare inside. AK was obviously missed last night and Boozer did all he could to keep the game close.
