Should the Jazz sweep the Houston Rockets in their first-round NBA playoffs series — they're up 2-0, and need two more victories to do so — perhaps the biggest beneficiary would be point guard Deron Williams.

A sweep would mean the Jazz are done with the opening round Saturday night, and would not play the first game of their second-round series until at least May 3.

"It would definitely help me," Williams said of the potential weeklong rest period.

"I don't know about everybody else," he added, "but it would help me to get some more treatments, stay off my feet for a little bit. It definitely would be good."

Williams, make no mistake, is hurting.

The Jazz point acknowledged as much prior to practice Wednesday, saying he's "just sore."

He does, however, definitely plan to play in tonight's Game 3.

Williams started the series with a bruised rear end and aggravated the injury — he says it's a bruised bone, though the Jazz earlier said it was a muscle and not a bone that was bruised — in Monday's Game 2.

He'll wear extra padding tonight, something he changed back into during the second half of Game 2.

Williams also was asked by an out-of-town reporter after Game 2 about a sprained ankle, but he seemed genuinely baffled by the question.

He appeared to have no special extra wrap or protection on either of his ankles at the practice.

"I didn't know what he was talking about," Williams said Wednesday. "I tweaked it a little bit, but I do that all the time."

Williams played 44 minutes in Game 1 and 40 in Game 2, but it remains to be seen if he'll again go 40-plus tonight.

"I just have to see what's going on in the game," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "He has to see how he feels, and see how things are working."

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