• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Shorthanded Jazz, Nuggets face off in season opener

Oct 29, 2008 - 10:17 AM Denver at Utah, 9:00 p.m. EDT

SALT LAKE CITY (Ticker) -- As the Utah Jazz tip off the 2008-09 season with expectations of a third straight Northwest Division title and a deep run in the postseason, they will be doing so without their best player.

The Jazz host the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday, but star point guard Deron Williams will be on the bench in street clothes nursing a sprained left ankle as the teams renew their high-octane divisional rivalry.

Williams has emerged as one of the league's top players over the last two years, leading the Jazz to two playoff appearances - including one trip to the Western Conference finals - and winning a gold medal with Team USA this summer. But he rolled his left ankle after falling awkwardly on Chicago guard Derrick Rose's foot in a preseason game on October 17 and has been forced out of practice.

According to multiple reports, he is expected back in action soon - but that won't be in time for the opener. The 24-year-old guard has been remarkably durable in his career, missing four games in three seasons. Last year, he was the only Jazz player to start all 82 games.

When he has missed time, however, the Jazz have struggled. In his breakout 2006-07 campaign, he missed two games in late February - Utah lost both.

By contrast, when leading scorer Carlos Boozer missed seven straight games leading up to the All-Star break that same year, Williams led the club to a 6-1 mark.

In this particular instance, however, things might even out. The Nuggets, who finished four games behind the Jazz in the division race last year with a 50-32 mark, will be without the services of fellow Olympian Carmelo Anthony. The All-Star forward, the league's fourth-leading scorer last season, will miss the first two games of the season while serving a two-game suspension stemming from his drunk-driving arrest in April.

The Jazz took three of four from the Nuggets last year, and all four meetings were high-scoring affairs. Considering these were two of the NBA's top-five scoring offenses last season, that only makes sense. The Jazz and Nuggets combined for 230 points per contest in their head-to-head meetings.

Utah's sharp-shooting center, Mehmet Okur, shot 62 percent from the floor against Denver last year, averaging 19.5 points and 10.5 boards.

Denver superstar Allen Iverson averaged 29.5 points and 6.3 assists against the Jazz last season, getting to the foul line an average of 13 times per contest.