Points of contention: Can Williams avoid foul trouble?

BERKELEY, Calif. — A New York Times reporter covering the NBA playoffs asked Jazz rookie Dee Brown about his college buddy, Jazz starting point guard Deron Williams.

Only he mispronounced Williams' first name.

"His name," Brown offered softly, "is DARE-in. Don't call him Da-RON, please. I'm just warning you."

The blunder, however, should not come as any great surprise.

At the Colony High School near Dallas, he played second fiddle to Bracey Wright — a seldom-used reserve during his first two NBA seasons in Minnesota. Coming out of the University of Illinois, where Brown, now Utah's No. 3 point, was at least as well-known, he had to deal with the looming shadow of Chris Paul, the Wake Forest product who went to New Orleans/Oklahoma City.

And now, Williams has been on the short end of the respect stick in Utah's last two Western Conference semifinal series games against Golden State, getting into early foul trouble in each.

Both times it proved quite costly, though the Jazz still lead the best-of-seven series 2-1 heading into tonight's Game 4 in Oakland.

"Everything I do is a foul," Williams said after the Jazz practiced Saturday morning at nearby Berkeley High School. "I don't know what I'm allowed to do — me or (backup) Derek (Fisher)."

Williams has 13 fouls in the series' first three games.

He picked up his third just three minutes into the second quarter of Friday's Game 3, and — with Fisher also dealing with foul woes himself, and Brown sitting in a suit because of a sprained neck — it prompted coach Jerry Sloan to use forward Andrei Kirilenko at the point for much longer than ideal in an eventual 125-105 loss to the Warriors.

On Wednesday, Williams had two fouls before Game 2 of the series was 59 seconds old — prompting his early exit and, with Fisher tending to his baby daughter's battle with eye cancer, the arrival of Brown, who promptly crashed into teammate Mehmet Okur and wound up in the hospital with what could easily have been a broken neck.

No wonder Williams seemed so flustered Saturday morning, even after a night's sleep following Friday's follies.

"Did you see my fouls?" he asked a reporter from Utah. "Did they look too aggressive? I'm playing basketball, that's all I'm trying to do. I'm not getting into the refs and the fouls and all that. I'm just trying to play, stay on the floor."