Tim Duncan returned to the Spurs lineup on Wednesday in Utah, scoring 17 points and grabbing 7 rebounds, but they could not pull off the win, losing to the Jazz 93-91.

"I don't want to fall for fool's gold now and put him in a position where that ankle's too weak and have something happen to him," San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said. "Sure we wanted to put him in, but I don't think that would have been wise."

"I was pushing for a little more time. Pop's the intelligent one and luckily he's the coach and I'm not," Duncan said. "I'm going to take my time and really get back into our rhythm and make sure that I'm not pushing it too hard and hurting myself."

Mehmet Okur scored 25 points and had 16 rebounds.