Utah Jazz: Williams to make season debut tonight

PHILADELPHIA — Point guard Deron Williams informed the Jazz this morning that he will try to make his 2008-09 NBA season debut tonight, when Utah visits Philadelphia in its second outing of a five-game road trip.

"He told me he's gonna play," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said after the team's morning shootaround at Wachovia Center here. "We'll probably play him sparingly.

"You know how he is," Sloan added. "He might want to get out there five minutes and say he feels great. But we're gonna try to watch him pretty close."

Sloan said Williams, who has out since sustaining a second-degree sprain to his left ankle in an Oct. 18 preseason season game at Chicago, likely will start if he indeed plays.

"I'm happy," said Williams, adding he'll decide for sure if he's gonna go shortly before game-time. "I'm ahead of schedule.

"I don't think I'm gonna play 40 minutes tonight," he added. "The problem with playing games is that (if you) sit out (for long stretches) the ankle gets stiff, so I don't know what Coach has in store if I play. We'll find out."

Williams has missed all six games this season for the 5-1 Jazz.

So have big man Jarron Collins (elbow) and forward Matt Harpring (ankle), neither of whom is expected to play tonight.

Also out for the Jazz tonight will be usual starting center Mehmet Okur, who has returned to his native Turkey because of an illness in his family, and would-be replacement starter Kyrylo Fesenko, who went to Toronto to address a visa issue.

The Jazz still didn't know today when Okur or Fesenko would re-join the team.

With Okur, Collins and Fesenko all unavailable, Sloan said rookie Kosta Koufos — a 19-year-old from Ohio State who yet to score his first NBA starts — will start in the middle.

"If nothing else," Sloan said, "he deserves a chance. Because he's worked hard every single day. There hasn't been a day that he hasn't worked hard in practice.

"We're shorthanded," the Jazz coach added. "He's probably as capable as anybody we could put out there right now. Just everybody do their job, and we'll be fine."

Said Koufos: "It's an opportunity. I'll just play hard — and play to the best of my ability."

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com

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