Price is right as backup for Williams

Carlos Boozer sat in front of his corner locker, one thought interrupted by another as he broke down the Jazz's win Saturday over Atlanta.

The one that took precedence was delivered loud enough for anyone in the room to hear.

"And Ronnie Price was ballin'," the Jazz's All-Star power forward shouted.

Told he and Price — a Utah Valley State product who recently climbed past veteran Jason Hart to become the Jazz's chief backup point guard — seem to read and feed well off of each other, Boozer heartily agreed.

"We play good together, man," he said. "We do. Because Ronnie is a scoring point guard — and we're turning him into a point guard-point guard."

Jazz backup power forward Paul Millsap, making his way to the shower after the Utah's 14th straight victory at home, couldn't help but hear Boozer's point about Price playing the point.

He stopped, pivoted and smiled with a yeah-right look of disbelief.

The tale of transformation in Price's game probably is more the story of slow-but-sure work in progress, then, with the building blocks just now taking shape.

Yet Price indeed seems to have a handle on just what is needed from, and expected of, the person who plays point behind starter Deron Williams.

"My job still is just to maintain every lead we have, or, if we don't have a lead, try to break them defensively and get a lead," he said.

"I just want to provide energy when I step on the court and get the guys around me to play with energy," added Price, who along with the rest of the 36-20 Jazz has tonight off before playing Tuesday at Minnesota. "That's what a point guard's supposed to do. He's supposed to motivate the team; he's supposed to be the coach that's on the floor. So that's what I try to do."

Boozer, for one, can't be happier with the way he's going about it.

"We do play good together," he said, "because if they don't guard him he's gonna score. If they double him, he's gonna dish it off and I'm gonna get a dunk on somebody."

And some teams do tend to play off Price, daring him to shoot from 3-point range despite a 38.2 percent success rate from behind the long-distance line that ranks third-best among Jazz trey takers this season behind only Williams' 39.4 percent and reserve swingman C.J. Miles' 43.1 percent.

"They can sit back all they want," Price said. "Sometimes they'll fall; sometimes they won't."