D-Will power — Utah point guard leads Game 1 win with 31 points, 8 assists

Foul trouble. Family matters. A horrifically fast pace from the get-go.

The Jazz overcame all the obstacles facing them Monday night at a sold-out EnergySolutions Arena, paving the way to a 116-112 victory over Golden State in Game 1 of their NBA Western Conference semifinal playoff series.

It was a win spurred by the sort of effort, forward Matt Harpring suggested, the Jazz must have to continue overcoming whatever may be in their way as the best-of-seven series marches on.

"Playoffs," Harpring said, "are gonna be a lot of adversity."

The Jazz were able to deal with Monday's adversity largely because of the play of point guard Deron Williams, who finished with a game-high eight assists and game-high 31 points to give the No. 4 seed Jazz — fresh off a first-round Game 7 win at Houston less than 48 hours earlier — quite a jump on the eighth-seed Warriors.

"He's unbelievable," small forward Andrei Kirilenko said of Williams, whose scoring marked a personal postseason high for the second-season University of Illinois product.

"He's a great player," guard Gordan Giricek added. "He's doing a great job."

All in a night's work, Williams would have you believe.

"We didn't play our best game by any means," he said, "but we still got it done."

Despite, it goes without saying, the challenge of trying to finish with five fouls.

Both starting point guards picked up their fifth fouls quite early, with Williams getting his with six minutes to go — the Jazz were down 102-98 at the time — and the Warriors' Baron Davis following less than a minute later.

When Williams returned with just less than four minutes left, the Jazz — thanks to two baskets by usual No. 3 point guard Dee Brown, who was playing because starting shooting guard and backup point Derek Fisher was dealing with an undisclosed family matter, and one by Harpring — had the Warriors tied at 104.

"Dee Brown came in and did a terrific job holding us in there," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said.

Williams took over from there, scoring six of Utah's final 12 points — including a daring drive that helped the Jazz go up 112-110.

Williams took a hop stop into the lane, made the basket, drew a foul from Golden State's Stephen Jackson and hit the free throw that followed.