"Mehmet Okur's left Achilles tendon has been healed for months and doesn't give him problems.

But Okur still feels another sort of pain from the major injury and the eight months of ensuing rehabilitation.

The Utah Jazz center believes his latest injury setback — a strained lower back that kept him out of a second straight game Saturday — is an indirect result of the time he spent nursing his Achilles and rebuilding the strength in his weakened left leg.

Four scrimmages in his rehab process left him below NBA playing shape.

"It's been eight months. I just came back to play," Okur said. "My body (is) not used to it."

That, he's certain, played a part in the return of an old enemy: his occasionally aching lower back. He tweaked it in the first half against the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday while jumping for a rebound, and he had to pull himself out of action in the second half after the back seized up on him. Again.

"I always had to deal with my back all my career," Okur said. "It's pretty much the same story. ... It felt a lot worse than it was before because eight months no game, four scrimmages and practices.

"This one was way different, but I'm glad I'm feeling better now."

He's especially glad that he can walk again.

Okur wasn't able to move much after injuring himself Wednesday — he couldn't even greet 800 enthusiastic Turkish fans who attended the game in L.A. to support him — and he couldn't walk before the Portland game Thursday.

But the center received an epidural cortisone shot on Friday to help relieve the pain from the spasms around his spine."