"His own spirits on the rise, injured center Mehmet Okur met with teammates Saturday in hopes of lifting theirs.

"I'm glad to be here," Okur said while standing just outside the locker room of the Jazz, who were down 0-2 heading into Saturday night's Game 3 of their second-round playoff series with the Lakers. "I just wanted to come in and say, 'Good luck, you guys.' " Okur — seeing most of his teammates for the first time since rupturing his left Achilles tendon three weeks ago, in the first game of Utah's first-round series with Denver — was decidedly down shortly after sustaining the injury and in the days following surgery to repair it.

Now, though, the one-time NBA All-Star seems encouraged about returning in time for the start of next season.

"I might miss training camp and preseason, but hopefully first game," said Okur, who turns 31 later this month. "I'm hoping. ... It depends how everything goes. So far so good. No pain, no soreness.

"I just can't go back and think about what happened. I've got to look forward, to get healed and get better," he added. "The good thing about this injury — I have more time hanging out with the kids and family, because I've got nothing else going on."

Okur, father of a young girl and newborn son, has been fitted with a new walking boot.

Rather than return to his native Turkey, as he usually does for at least a while after the season, he intends to spend the summer in Utah continuing rehab that started just a few days ago.

Okur had pain in his Achilles for a few days before tearing it, missing one late regular-season game as a result and prompting an anesthesia injection hours before Game 1 of the Nuggets series."