Williams, Boozer may play today

DENVER — The Jazz are calling both usual starting point guard Deron Williams and usual starting power forward Carlos Boozer "game-time decisions" for tonight's visit with Northwest Division-rival Denver.

Williams sounded eager to play — despite warnings from many that his strained left groin is an injury that might linger for weeks should he return too soon.

"Coach (Jerry Sloan), Kevin (O'Connor, the Jazz's basketball operations senior vice president) and everybody told me to just be smart about it," Williams said. "They know I want to play every game, but I have to be smart and use my head."

Fighting temptation, however, is no small task.

"It's pretty hard, especially after last game, when I was sitting over there behind the bench," said Williams, who missed his first game of the season when Utah fell Tuesday night at Portland. "I don't like that."

Williams suggested he sat Tuesday to make it that much more likely he can play against the Nuggets tonight: "I felt this was the more-important game," he said.

Boozer, meanwhile, has been out since Jan. 27, when he sustained a hairline fracture in the fibula bone head leading into his left knee. Both he and Williams took part in much of Thursday's practice.

"We'll know more (today)," Boozer said, adding that compared to a week ago he felt "absolutely great."

Boozer acknowledged he's not in game shape, but said, "That will only take a little bit of time." X-rays taken earlier this week, he added, showed "a lot of bone growth." He did not answer directly when asked if the fracture is fully healed, but said he has "no soreness, no pain."

ACCEPTING BLAME: With Williams out Tuesday, usual starting shooting guard and backup point Derek Fisher started and closed at the point — and afterward wound up accepting full blame for a critical late-game turnover in a three-point loss.

On Thursday, however, Sloan was the one taking responsibility.

"We haven't had Derek in that situation. What kind of things we tried to do is probably more my fault than it is his," the Jazz coach said. "I maybe put him in the wrong situations as we came down the stretch."

In the future, Sloan added, "We'll try to give him an opportunity to do other things where he's been successful.