LOS ANGELES — Last week, Jazz point guard Deron Williams had been hoping to make his season debut Wednesday night against Portland.

Now he's not sure he will, even though his sprained ankle is feeling better "every day I wake up."

"I still don't know if I'm gonna be able to play Wednesday or not. I don't know if I'm gonna be able to play Friday (against Oklahoma City)," said Williams, who was inactive for a third straight game when the Jazz visited the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday night. "It just depends on how it feels the next couple days."

Williams has been out since spraining the ankle during an Oct. 18 preseason game at Chicago, and now he's experiencing nerve-related pain in his foot.

"It feels like my foot's on fire," he said. "Imagine Flexall being on your foot 24 hours a day. That's what it's feeling like. But now it's just in, like, spots, and it feels like it's more sensitive to the touch.

"I can't really get taped because the pressure hurts more than anything," Williams added. "So I was out there (for Monday's morning shootaround) without tape, which is a good thing, because I can get the strength back."

Complicating matters: Teammate Mehmet Okur accidentally stepped on Williams' foot during the Jazz's home game against the Clippers on Saturday, then Okur accidentally hit Williams in the same foot with an errant airball during Monday's pre-game warmups.

Meanwhile, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan suggested the team continues to try to be prudent when it comes to its star point's return timeline.

"You have to," Sloan said. "It's a long season, and the most important thing is to let the guy try to get healthy.

"That's always been our policy — to try to not get a guy to come back too fast, because sometimes younger guys think they're healthier than they really are and they'll get themselves in trouble.

"That's what they call experience — learning how to handle those things," Sloan added. "He's done fine with it, but I think everybody has a learning process to go through for how to deal with injuries."

TRADE REACTION: The Northwest Division got awfully tougher Monday.

Such was the reaction from the Jazz to Monday's trade that sent All-Star guard Allen Iverson and his expiring contract from Denver to Detroit for a package featuring point guard Chauncey Billups.

"It looks to me like Denver helped themselves a great deal," Sloan said.