Okur May Be Ready for Game 4
RMJon23
Okur may be ready for Game 4
By Ross Siler
The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 04/24/2009 05:25:07 PM MDT
Jazz center Mehmet Okur was encouraged Friday about his prospects of
making his return from a strained right hamstring in Saturday's Game 4
against the Lakers.
Okur jumped into a shooting session with Andrei Kirilenko and part-
time assistant coach Jeff Hornacek before Friday's practice and was
planning to do full-court work for the first time since he suffered
the injury April 13.
"So far, so good," Okur said. "It feels good. Less pain. I was able to
do more moving and more stuff. I'm probably going to more stuff with
the team and see how I feel."
Asked if playing in Game 4 was a possibility, Okur said: "Yeah, it is
possibility. It's all up to after practice how I feel and how my
hamstring going to react. I'll tell you what, I'm excited, so
hopefully I'm going to feel good."
At the same time, Okur will have to be careful to avoid reinjuring his
hamstring, as Carlos Boozer did in missing 49 games to start the
2005-06 season.
"That's the other story," Okur said. "I'm saying I feel good right now
and I'm going to do full-court stuff, try to get my running, do my
stuff and see how I'm going to feel after practice."
The Jazz, meanwhile, found new life with Thursday's victory,
overcoming a 13-point deficit in the second half to win behind
Boozer's 23 points and 22 rebounds and Deron Williams' game-winning
pull-up with 2.2 seconds remaining.
"Now we're in the series," Boozer said. "They had a chance to put us
away, they gave us opportunities to come back in the game and we took
them.
"We were down by 13, but we fought back and won the game, and for us
we take a lot of confidence in that."