Philadelphia » Deron Williams left the Jazz on Friday morning and returned to Utah to deal with a medical situation within his family. Williams would prefer to keep the matter private for now but may make a public announcement later.
Although Williams has voiced frustration in recent days with the Jazz's 3-5 start, the situation is far from a disgruntled star leaving his team. Williams has a private plane at his disposal and could rejoin the team for Saturday's game at Cleveland.
The Jazz have excused Williams and said he would miss tonight's game against Philadelphia. Down to just nine players, the Jazz will give rookies Eric Maynor and Wesley Matthews their first NBA starts, coach Jerry Sloan said this morning.
Sloan added that he will bring Andrei Kirilenko off the bench to help with ball-handling duties. Ronnie Brewer and Kirilenko will fill in as backup point guards behind Maynor, who has played just 31 minutes all season.
"That's what basketball is about," Sloan said. "All the teams run into some of those problems every once in a while. It's how you approach it, you come and play hard and go home and realize it's not life or death.
"You would hope that they'd put their best effort forward. Whatever the case may be, we need a good effort out of everybody. We can't win unless we get a good effort out of everybody."
The Jazz already are missing backup point guard Ronnie Price, who is out with a sprained left big toe. Kirilenko, meanwhile, served as an emergency point guard in the 2007 playoffs with Derek Fisher and Dee Brown both out.
"From beginning of my career, I was playing point guard, so it's no surprising me," Kirilenko said. "It's just last nine years, I've been playing once, that playoff."
"The hardest part is keep tempo every time," Kirilenko said, "because with D-Will being at point guard, he will always push the ball in the fast break. ... You kind of get a tendency not to look for the ball and get into fast break rather than get the ball and push it."
Maynor, meanwhile, was poised to start Wednesday in Boston before Williams was able to overcome his strained back and play. The last time he played at Wachovia Center was Virginia Commonwealth's NCAA Tournament loss to UCLA.
"I'm excited to play any game," Maynor said, "but to be able to come out here and get a start, my first career NBA start, I'm very excited."
