BOSTON - Beyond the soreness from a strained left quadriceps tendon that has kept him out for 14 games, Carlos Boozer admitted Monday that he's been suffering from another problem recently in talking about his return.
"Again, I don't want to say nothing because I always put my foot in my mouth," said Boozer, who previously announced his intention to return for one of the Jazz's three games last week, only to remain sidelined. Boozer said he went through practice Friday "just to feel it out a little bit," suffered some soreness over the weekend, but was feeling better Monday. He could practice today in Boston and possibly return Wednesday at New Jersey.
"It was good to get out there and moving around," Boozer said. "It feels good today, a lot stronger, not as sore. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to practice a little bit [today] and if it feels good, then maybe Wednesday."
Boozer originally suffered the injury, which included a bone bruise in addition to the strained tendon in his knee, on Nov. 19. He was asked Monday how he would fare if he tried to play now.
"The way I play, I'm physical and I've got to bang against [Kevin Garnett] or [Kendrick Perkins] or whoever it is out there," Boozer said. "I probably wouldn't be strong enough to do it, but maybe."
He also was asked to assess the Northwest Division race between the Jazz, Portland and Denver: "I think we'll be battling throughout the season, but I think when we do get healthy and we're at full strength, I think we'll run away with it."
Scouting trip
Jazz general manager Kevin O'Connor met up with the team after traveling to Croatia to scout the team's two 2008 second-round draft picks, 7-foot-2 Croatian center Ante Tomic and Serbian forward Tadija Dragicevic.
The two played Saturday, with Tomic totaling seven points and nine rebounds while Dragicevic scored 11 points. The Jazz retain the rights to both players as long as they remain overseas; neither is expected to play for Utah next season.
O'Connor sat down with Tomic as well as his team's general manager and coach. He came away convinced Tomic wanted to play in the NBA someday. Despite being so tall, Tomic is not a low-post player and weighs only about 235 pounds.
"I think it's best-served to say that he needs to get stronger to play in the NBA," O'Connor said, "and we talked about that and we talked about what he was doing to do that."
