Barely seven seconds had ticked off since the opening jump, and already Carlos Boozer had a wide-open layup when Deron Williams found him quickly with a pass. Fifty-three seconds later, Williams found Boozer again.

They were just the first two of Williams' seven first-quarter assists that helped the Utah Jazz reel off a 21-point lead with still nearly three minutes left in the first quarter Monday night at EnergySolutions Arena as the Utah Jazz curbed their habit of falling behind early.

They did it against the Dallas Mavericks, who were a game ahead of Utah to begin the night but are now tied with the Jazz, both with 39-22 records, thanks to Utah's 116-110 win.

Williams had 14 assists by halftime, playing for the first time against his hometown team when it had his boyhood idol, Jason Kidd, running the Maverick offense.

"Just like getting 20 assists against anybody else," Williams said afterward, claiming there was nothing special that the came against Kidd and the Mavs. "Happy we won, that's all I'm happy about."

The 20 assists tied his season high and were one less than Williams' career high set nearly 14 months ago against Memphis, the team against which he had 19 assists in Tennessee on Saturday night.

"I thought he was great," said Kidd of Williams. "He runs the show, and each time he takes the court, he gets better."

"Oh, he was phenomenal," Boozer said of his point guard. "He came out and got everybody involved, pinpoint passes, precision passes. You guys ever play Madden (video football game)? It's like QB vision. He has that QB vision, and all you've got to do is get your hands ready and catch it and put it in."

The 14 helpers at halftime were a career-high for Williams in a half and were one short of the all-time Jazz record for a half, set by his predecessor, John Stockton, who had 15 assists in a half four times.

By halftime, the Jazz as a team had 20 assists, seven short of their record.

Williams said the start of the game "was definitely a concern of ours. How we started the last four games has been pretty bad, so we wanted to try to set the tempo early, and I think we did a good job of that. We wanted to get out and run and get some easy baskets in transition and gain some confidence that way."

"The start was terrific compared to what we had since the All-Star break, maybe a little bit before that," added coach Jerry Sloan.

Williams was a large part of that, especially in the first minute with those two bullets to Boozer.