CLEVELAND (AP) -The Utah Jazz were without Deron Williams and three other key players Saturday night against Cleveland.
Forwards Andrei Kirilenko and Matt Harpring, and center Mehmet Okur all missed the game, leaving coach Jerry Sloan with depleted options as the team ended its five-game Eastern trip.
Williams, one of the top point guards in the NBA, is out with a sprained left ankle, an injury he sustained in the exhibition season. He missed the Jazz’s first six games, but returned for two contests earlier this week. After Wednesday’s game in Washington, however, Williams said he still didn’t feel the ankle was ready and he didn’t play Friday in Charlotte.
Kirilenko, Utah’s sixth man, dislocated his right index finger Wednesday and didn’t play Friday.
Harping, a key player off the bench, is still working his way back from surgery on his right ankle in the offseason. He scored four points in 14 minutes Friday, but has yet to play in games on back-to-back nights.
Okur, Utah’s starting center, has missed the last four games after returning to his native Turkey to be with his father, who is ill.
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