From Deseret News archives:
The rise of D-Will: Williams is now a fixture among the best point guards
Instead, the coronation went on Sunday without Deron Williams.
One day after he guided Utah's improbable blowout victory over San Antonio in Game 3 of the NBA's Western Conference finals, the Jazz point guard was sent home prior to practice.
It had nothing to do, Jazz officials said, with the neck stinger that resulted when Spurs sub Matt Bonner plastered his forearm high on Williams' right shoulder in the closing minutes of Saturday night's 109-83 victory.
Williams, in fact, supposedly could have come back from that injury had need be.
Rather, it was something much more un-royal.
Stomach flu, said a Jazz spokeswoman who did not go into great detail except to call Williams "probable" for tonight's Game 4 at EnergySolutions Arena.
Whatever the particulars, it did not keep Williams' teammates — or even Jazz coach Jerry Sloan — from heaping so much praise on the second-season point guard from the University of Illinois that it seemed all that was missing were doves flying overhead.
"He's motivated. He's hungry. He wants to be the best point guard on the floor," power forward Carlos Boozer said of Williams, who after overcoming two-time All-Star Baron Davis of Golden State in the Western Conference semifinals is now locked in battle with close friend and fellow two-time All-Star Tony Parker of the Spurs.
"I mean, there are some really good ones out there," Boozer added. "(But) ... he challenges himself every game and every day. That's why he's getting better so quickly."
Boozer even added this addendum, a shot that may sting some with the Jazz but was intended merely to focus aim on just how much progress Williams has made since Utah took him No. 3 overall in the 2005 NBA Draft: "We have veterans on the same team that haven't been able to step up in the same category as him. To see him do it at such an early age, I'm really excited for him."
Spurned himself as an All-Star earlier this year, 22-year-old Williams is turning his first appearance in the NBA playoffs into a personal professional calling card.
With the Jazz down 0-2 to San Antonio and hope for Utah advancing to its first NBA Finals since 1998 seemingly slip-sliding away, Williams — second in assists per game during the regular season behind two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash of Phoenix — entered Game 3 averaging 18.4 points and 9.0 assists over 14 postseason games.
He also came into Game 3 having averaged 30 points in the Jazz's two losses to the Spurs, including a career-high 34 points in Game 1.
Saturday, though, was different.
