The Jazz began preseason play Wednesday without their leading scorer from a season ago, Carlos Boozer.

Boozer sat out Utah's exhibition opener at Toronto with a strained left hamstring, and Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said the power forward will not play tonight at Indiana either.

"I think those are things we have to be a little bit more cautious about at this time of the year," Sloan said of the injury. "I don't think we're gonna make or break what he does (in the regular season) by playing him (so early in the preseason)."

Boozer, who initially sustained the strain in the second session of two-a-day workouts Saturday night, declared himself to be "day-to-day."

"It's constricting," said Boozer, who also missed last year's preseason opener ? with soreness in his lower back. "It only gets painful when I try to do too much, go too far. But it's fine. It's gotten a lot stronger. It's healed very nice, and we'll just take it day-to-day and see how it goes."

Boozer, who missed the last 31 games of last season with a foot injury, did work out with trainer Gary Briggs on Wednesday. Later, Sloan did not seem overly concerned.

"We'd like to have him back, so where we can kind of see where he is, how he's able to play with our team," the Jazz coach said. "But we know he's going to be a part of it, so there will be space for him."

It remains to be seen if Boozer will play in Utah's third game of the preseason, Monday night vs. Phoenix at the Delta Center.