Okur may be ready for Game 4

Okur may be ready for Game 4

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."