The Utah Jazz will retire Karl Malone's No. 32 and unveil a statue of the two-time MVP on March 23 when the Jazz host the Washington Wizards.

Malone, who played all but one of his 19 NBA seasons in Utah, will be the seventh member of the Jazz to be honored with a retired number and the first since John Stockton's No. 12 last spring.

The pick-and-roll combination of Stockton-to-Malone will be on display permanently outside the arena with two bronze statues. The bronze statue of Stockton was put in last March, next to an empty pedestal already in place for Malone.

Jazz owner Larry Miller announced the date of Malone's ceremony after the first quarter of Utah's game against San Antonio on Monday.

Malone scored 36,928 points in 18 seasons with the Jazz and one with the Lakers before retiring last February.

Carlos Boozer is at this point in his rehabilitation again.

Boozer said he is healthy enough to rejoin the Jazz's practice, and he intends to take part in a workout or two sometime this week. "Not jumping in full steam, just working in and getting comfortable playing again," Boozer said after Utah's loss to the Mavericks. "Being careful about it."

That's because the last three times he began pushing his strained left hamstring, he re-injured it, a mistake that has kept him out of all 44 games this season.

The Jazz have estimated that Boozer, who last played on Feb. 14, will need several practices before he is ready to enter a game again, and they have refused to put any sort of timetable on his return. But the power forward, who averaged 17.8 points in 51 games last season, seems to be on track to play in early to mid-February.

Utah Jazz Center Greg Ostertag will miss Saturday's game against the Mavericks as he sits out a one-game suspension handed down by the team Thursday for his conduct after a loss to Seattle, team officials said.

Ostertag, who was suspended without pay, is expected to rejoin the team Sunday for practice, and will be eligible to play against the Spurs on Monday, said a Jonathan Rinehart, a Jazz spokesman.

The one-game suspension, Ostertag's fourth since 2001, for arguing with coach Jerry Sloan, was levied after a Friday morning meeting between Ostertag, Sloan and Kevin O'Connor, the team's senior vice president of basketball operations.

"Greg had some things he wanted to say, we certainly had some things we wanted to say, he understood where we were going with it, and hopefully Sunday he'll be back at it," O'Connor told The Salt Lake Tribune. "We've been down this road before."

Greg Ostertag was suspended indefinitely by the Utah Jazz on Thursday for his conduct after a loss to Seattle.

The center did not show up for practice Thursday morning, a day after playing less than 10 minutes in a 133-94 loss to the SuperSonics.

"We did not tell him not to come to practice," said Kevin O'Connor, Jazz vice president for basketball operations.

O'Connor would not say what Ostertag did after the game to get suspended.

Utah Jazz rookie Robert Whaley is out indefinitely with torn cartilage in his right knee.

Jazz vice president of basketball operations Kevin O'Connor said the team learned Wednesday afternoon that Whaley's medial meniscus was torn and would need surgery. No date had been set for the operation.

Whaley was still on the active roster Wednesday night when the Jazz hosted Seattle because all three of Utah's inactive spots were already filled by Carlos Boozer (hamstring), Matt Harpring (knee) and C.J. Miles (development league).

The NBA is reviewing Jerry Sloan's confrontation with referee Danny Crawford shortly after Tuesday's game ended, a league spokesman said Wednesday, but has reached no decision on whether to penalize the Jazz coach for the incident.

"It's still in the investigation stage," said Mark Broussard, director of basketball communications. "We're in the process of finding out what happened."

As the players left the floor following their 111-98 victory over Toronto, Sloan noticed Raptors coach Sam Mitchell and forward Jalen Rose conferring with Crawford at midcourt. The Jazz coach, already angered by the 30 fouls whistled on the Jazz during the game as opposed to Toronto's 21 fouls, ran over to where Crawford was standing and yelled his objection to the meeting.

"The rules are that anytime they have a meeting with another coach, both coaches get to be there. I wanted to be a part of it," Sloan said afterward. "I didn't think I was allowed to be part of it in the first half, at halftime, and all the other meetings that they had. I just felt like it was something I should do, because they might be upset with me. I'm fairly competitive, and if it costs me, it costs me."

Healthy or not, Elton Brand was determined to get back on the court after missing two games because of a sore right hip.

Brand scored six of his 35 points in overtime and had 14 rebounds, and the Los Angeles Clippers knocked the Utah Jazz out of first place in the Northwest Division with a 102-93 victory Monday.

Not knowing when -- or if -- Corey Maggette would play again because of a separated ligament in his left foot, Brand couldn't wait any longer.

"It's tough dealing with injuries, especially Corey Maggette's, so you have to step up and play," Brand said. "It's not 100 percent, but I didn't want to let the team down. The team stepped up and won two games without me against sub .500 teams. So I felt, as long as they let me, I'm going to play through it."

Utah Jazz forward Carlos Boozer, who has yet to play this season, suffered a setback in his rehabilitation from a hamstring injury, a Salt Lake City television station reported Friday.

According to KSL-TV, Boozer aggravated the injury during his workouts and there is now no timetable on his return to the active roster.

Boozer hasn't played since Feb. 14, when he strained his right foot during a game. He said entering training camp that the foot was completely healed, but injured his hamstring in practice and did not play in a preseason game.

Boozer averaged a team-high 17.8 points and 9.0 rebounds in 51 games before missing the rest of the 2004-05 season with the foot injury.

Boozer had been intensifying his rehab and was believed to be close to a return to the Jazz, now leading the NBA's Northwest Division at 19-17.

"If Brown truly is devoted to the core of New York's youth corps (minus disgruntled Trevor Ariza, who may never regain his coach's trust after turning down a start in L.A.)," says Pete Vescey, "I assume the Knicks have stopped scouting Jalen Rose and Larry can cease pressing Isiah for Theo Ratliff."