Williams will miss tonight's game due to thigh injury

The Utah Jazz will face Charlotte tonight without point guard Deron Williams.

According to a team spokesman, Williams has a "moderate right quad contusion with reflective swelling in the right knee" — in other words, a bruised thigh that also caused his knee to swell.

But, spokesman Jonathan Rinehart added, "the knee joint itself is stable."

Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said Utah Valley product Ronnie Price, the team's usual No. 3 point guard, will start in Williams' place against the Bobcats.

The Jazz said Williams be out "day-to-day," though Williams — who was wearing a brace today — said he was told he may be able to play when Dallas visits on Thursday night.

"The doc (Dr. Lyle Mason) said he hopes I can be back by Thursday," Williams said after today's morning shootaround. "That might be pushing it, but you've just got to, I guess, wait for the swelling to go down and see how quickly it starts feeling better.

"If I can't play, I can't play though," he added. "I definitely want to, so I'm just going to try to get back as soon as possible."

Williams said he sustained the injury early in Saturday's loss at Portland when big man Greg Oden of the Trail Blazers "set a screen on me and ran into me, ran into my quad, like right above my knee."

Williams finished that game and scored a season-high 35 points against the Blazers, but the knee ballooned on the team's plane right back to Utah.

"It hurt the whole game like any bruise would," he said. "But when I got on the plane, my knee just swelled up and it started hurting pretty bad. I couldn't walk."

As expected, the Jazz tonight also will be without power forward Carlos Boozer (knee surgery) and sixth-man forward Andrei Kirilenko (ankle surgery).

"It's been a rough year for us all, you know, filled with the injuries," Williams said. "Not one or two guys. It's been the whole team that's gone through something. So, it's been rough."

Price wasn't totally shocked to learn he'd be playing significant minutes tonight.

"When he walked in with the knee brace on," Price said, "I kind of figured that it was bad — that he probably wouldn't be playing tonight."

Price, who started when Williams was out for 13 games earlier this season with a sprained ankle, will be backed up tonight by usual Williams backup Brevin Knight.

"I think we'll fine," Williams said. "Brev is capable of running the team. Ronnie Price has proven when I was out that he could play significant minutes, so we have confidence in him."

Kirilenko, who underwent surgery Friday was re-examined Monday.

Jazz general manager Kevin O'Connor said Kirilenko definitely will remain out through the mid-month NBA All-Star Game, meaning five more games including tonight's, and he'll be reevaluated again then.

Boozer remains on what was originally called a four-week rehab program that began shortly after his Jan. 9 arthroscopic surgery, but he has yet to resume running.

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com