Williams, Fisher uncertain for Game 5

SAN ANTONIO — Uncertainty filled the air at the Jazz's morning shootaround in advance of tonight's NBA Western Conference finals Game 5 vs. San Antonio.

Starting point guard Deron Williams did not take part, and is being called a "game-time decision" for tonight by Jazz officials.

Williams has a sprained right foot — not sprained ankle, as the Jazz said Tuesday — that he sustained in the fourth quarter of Monday's Game 4 loss to the Spurs.

On Wednesday morning, in fact, Williams had the foot in a walking boot.

He refused to speak to media members, ducking out on talking with the press for a second straight day.

Also uncertain is the status of starting shooting guard Derek Fisher, who — as expected — has been in New York for his young daughter Tatum's follow-up appointment with the doctor treating her rare childhood eye cancer.

Fisher originally was expected to join the team in time for tonight's game.

That was somewhat in doubt Wednesday, though, as a procedure planned today for Tatum was pushed back an unclear amount of time.

"Those things, you never count on until a guy shows us," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "That's the way I looked at it. He has to take care of that first ... We go on about our business as though he's not here."

If Fisher was not available for the start of the game, backup Gordan Giricek would open in his place. If Williams can't go but Fisher can, Fisher would start at point and Giricek at the 2 spot. If both Fisher and Williams were unavailable, the Jazz could wind up starting rookie Dee Brown and Giricek in the backcourt.

That's all just one more issue of the unknown for the Jazz, who are down 3-1 and face elimination in the best-of-seven series should the Spurs win tonight.

"Maybe a little bit on side of mind (you think), 'If you lose you're done' — and you don't want to lose," forward Andrei Kirilenko said. "A little extra pressure. But it's a part of the game; somebody is gonna win, somebody is gonna lose. We don't want to lose, but if it happens, it's not going to be end of career, end of the world.

"But, again, we don't want to think about it. We come into here with the attitude we want to win, and the only way we can win is just stay as a team. If you're gonna continue to come to the game as individual and try to beat them 1-on-1, I don't think that's gonna be successful. I think we're gonna home that way. If we're gonna stay as a team, we'll be fine."

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