According to a league source at the pre-draft camp, Charlotte part-owner Michael Jordan has targeted Golden State general manager Rod Higgins to replace Bernie Bickerstaff, who had been the GM and is now an executive vice president.

Golden State Warriors owner Chris Cohan, whose long-suffering team finally has become a force on the basketball court, has been waging his own battle in federal court over claims he evaded taxes and owes the government more than $160 million.

The government says Cohan, a former cable TV mogul, "engaged in three potentially abusive tax shelters" when he sold Sonic Communications in 1998 for more than $200 million, court records show.

An attorney for Cohan was at the Phillip Burton Federal Building in San Francisco on Wednesday -- the day after the Warriors' unexpected playoff run ended -- arguing that his client should not have to turn over certain documents the government has pursued in its investigation of the tax shelters and their creators.

Coach Don Nelson isn't sure he'll return to guide the Warriors through the next stage of their resurgence.

Nelson plans to decide by July 1 whether he'll be back for another season with the Warriors, whose surprising playoff run ended Tuesday night with a second-round loss to the Jazz. The defeat capped the franchise's first winning regular season and postseason berth since 1994.

"It's not a good time for me to make that decision," Nelson said Wednesday at the Warriors' downtown training complex. "I think it was really important that I came here. I'm not so sure it's important that I stay on."

Utah ended Golden State's surprising run through the playoffs and got the Jazz back to where they haven't been since the days of Stockton and Malone.

Andrei Kirilenko had 21 points, 15 rebounds and three steals to lead the Jazz to a 100-87 victory over the Warriors on Tuesday night, wrapping up the Western Conference semifinal series in five games.

Baron Davis will be allowed to play in Game 5 of the Golden State-Utah series Tuesday night after the NBA league office decided not to suspend him for his hard hit on Derek Fisher of the Jazz in Game 4.

NBA disciplinarian Stu Jackson upgraded the penalty against Davis to a flagrant foul, category 2, but elected not to suspend him.

Carlos Boozer and the Jazz shoved and scraped to slow down the Warriors -- and then Derek Fisher put a sweet finish on a victory that put Utah on the brink of the Western Conference finals.

Boozer had 34 points and 12 rebounds as the Jazz handed the eighth-seeded Warriors their first home loss of the postseason, 115-101 Sunday night to put Utah up 3-1 in their second-round playoff series.

Fisher scored 14 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter for the surprising Jazz, who can clinch their first trip to the conference finals since 1998 with a victory at home in Game 5 Tuesday night.

"That was a big step in the growth process for us as a team," said Fisher. "I haven't practiced much lately, so it felt good to be able to step up for my teammates."

The Warriors were a dissonant mess through most of their first home loss in 10 games dating to the regular season -- yet they still held a lead in the final minutes before Utah's superior poise won it again.

"We just didn't have enough juice," Warriors coach Don Nelson said. "They did everything they were supposed to do to beat us, and they took it to us. They came in and played really well, and we weren't that good."

Fisher's 3-pointer put Utah ahead to stay with 5:57 to play, and the veteran guard -- traded by Golden State to the Jazz last summer -- hit a long jumper and another 3-pointer in the final minutes to silence the Oakland din.

"This is an environment a lot of our guys hadn't been in before, and I'm glad I was able to use some of my experience to help us tonight," Fisher said.

When Baron Davis spun, sprang and threw down a breathtakingly vicious one-handed dunk right in Andrei Kirilenko's mug, it was more than an exclamation point on the Warriors' win.

Davis had 32 points and nine assists, Jason Richardson scored 25 points and Golden State stayed unbeaten in Oakland during the postseason with a 125-105 victory over the Jazz in Game 3 of their second-round series Friday night, cutting Utah's lead to 2-1.

Davis' mind-bending slam put multiple punctuation marks on a comfortable victory for the eighth-seeded Warriors, who lost two tough games in Utah to open a series few expected them to reach. They got back to their exciting style in front of the same fans who watched the Warriors beat top-seeded Dallas three times in the first round to the same 110-decibel soundtrack.

But after Utah cut Golden State's 30-point lead in half during the fourth quarter, Davis closed the door on yet another memorable spring night with his special delivery on shot-blocking specialist Kirilenko with 2:48 left.

Utah rookie guard Dee Brown was forced to miss Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals against Golden State on Friday night after spraining his neck in a collision with teammate Mehmet Okur.

Brown took part in light workouts during a morning shootaround Friday, but had difficulty turning his head after the scary injury in Game 2 of the series.

"It's stiff. It's really stiff," Brown said. "I'm just blessed enough being able to move and talk to you all right now and turn my head a little bit. I still haven't seen it, but I felt it. I'm blessed to be here."

Brown hopes to be ready for Game 4 on Sunday night.

Without being specific, Stephen Jackson said fans directed a racial slur at him during Game 2.

"If you can't read between the lines, you don't need to be asking these questions," he said. "If I say too much, it's going to be a problem."

A reporter asked, "Is it a six-letter word?"

Jackson said: "Yeah. Exactly."

"I just thought people would carry themselves in a better way," Golden State guard Stephen Jackson said before Thursday's practice. "They're always worried about how we're going to act toward fans, but they never consider what we have to sit there and take."

Utah rookie Dee Brown injured his neck when teammate Mehmet Okur landed on him in the first quarter of Wednesday night's Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals against Golden State. He was taken to a hospital as a precaution.

Brown had to be helped from the court and then was wheeled on a stretcher to have X-rays taken. The team said neurological tests on Brown were normal, but he was taken to a hospital with his neck in a brace.

The injury left the Jazz shorthanded in the backcourt because Derek Fisher, who was inactive for the series opener Monday night because of a health problem involving one of his four children, didn't arrive at the arena until midway through the third quarter.