Andrei Kir­ilenko

Bar­ring any unfore­seen set­backs, Jazz for­ward Andrei Kir­ilenko plans to play against the Lak­ers in Game 3 of the team’s semi­fi­nal series on Sat­ur­day night.

“I feel good,” said Kir­ilenko. “I think it’s a very good break and those extra four days will def­i­nitely help pre­pare me better.”

Kir­ilenko went through a full prac­tice on Mon­day and was active in Tuesday’s shootaround. He has not played in a full game since mid-March after aggra­vat­ing his left calf strain last month.

Real GM

Andrei Kir­ilenko

Won­der­ing whom they will play against in the NBA play­offs is not the only ques­tion on the Utah Jazz’s minds right now.

They are also try­ing to fig­ure out who will play for them this week.

And they are much more con­cerned with get­ting Andrei Kir­ilenko and Mehmet Okur back than they are wor­ry­ing about if they will play the Spurs, the Suns or any of their other six pos­si­ble first-round foes.

HoopsWorld

Paul Mill­sap

Andrei Kir­ilenko and Paul Mill­sap left Utah’s win over Port­land on Sat­ur­day night with injuries.

After hit­ting his first three shots, Kir­ilenko felt a twinge in his lower back. Mean­while, Mill­sap banged knees with a Port­land player.

Both of the inci­dents occurred in the first half and nei­ther player returned.

Real GM

Andrei Kir­ilenko

If the famous Red Tele­phone between Rus­sia and the United States still existed, Nets fans would prob­a­bly like to see Mikhail Prokhorov and NBA Com­mis­sioner David Stern on it.

Con­sid­er­ing the 0–7 emer­gency that Nets are cur­rently in, it seems appro­pri­ate to use the secure tele­phone line to hurry up the sale of their team to the Russ­ian billionaire.

And if Stern and Prokhorov shake hands on the deal, chances are that Prokhorov and Andrei Kir­ilenko — cur­rently the only Russ­ian player in the NBA — will shake hands, too.

HoopsWorld