Utah Jazz: Williams bounces back big — real big

SALT LAKE CITY — Deron Williams was near unstoppable on Saturday night.

The Rockets and their quick guards certainly failed to slow him down.

The 18-inch-wide orange cylinder — which seemed to shrink on Williams on Friday in Sacramento — didn't stop him from scoring like crazy, either.

A night after Williams missed 12 of 16 shots, in fact, the only guys who could cool off the sizzling-hot Utah Jazz point guard were the ones with whistles in their mouths.

Despite early foul problems, Williams bounced back from his shooting struggles against the Kings to score a game-high 35 points on 13-for-17 shooting in the Jazz's 133-110 win.

"He was Deron," Jazz small forward C.J. Miles said. "When he gets going like that, he's tough to guard."

"He came out with a vengeance, man," added an admiring Jazz power forward Carlos Boozer. "(Williams) had a tough one last night (and) wanted to come back tonight and prove himself a little bit. He took on that challenge. He just came out and cooked them."

Shooting-clinic directors might want to buy videos of his performance.

Williams hit his first five shots and went 8 for 9 while exploding for 20 points in the opening quarter — the most he's ever scored in a period.

"You can see it when he gets locked in like that," Miles said, "especially from the beginning of the game. … Like he (will) just get in that groove, get in that zone, and everything is just clicking."

And it clicked from everywhere.

Williams hit all four 3-point attempts. He attacked the basket and softly floated drives into the hoop, even when fouled a couple of times. He hit mid-range jumpers and free throws.

"Deron Williams really got them going. … He made very shot he took, it seemed like," Houston coach Rick Adelman said.

Williams also handed out 13 assists — an NBA-best ninth consecutive game with double-digit dishes — and grabbed seven rebounds.

Ironically, on the plane ride back from Sacramento late Friday night, Miles gave Williams some of the same advice his buddy Williams gave him last week after he missed 9 of 10 shots against Charlotte — basically, to not worry about the bad night and focus on the next game.

"We knew he was going to come in ready to go," Miles said, "especially today because of last night. He was pretty upset."

"Sometimes," Williams added, "you just need a little motivation to get refocused and that's all that was tonight."

Williams added an old-fashioned three-point play a few minutes into the second quarter and looked like he might outscore the Rockets by himself. Until, that is, he was sent to the bench with seven minutes remaining in the half after picking up his third foul.

"If I wouldn't have gotten in foul trouble, I probably would have had more," Williams admitted. "I was feeling good in that first half. The second half I was able to come out and get everybody else involved. And guys started hitting shots and it was kind of contagious."

Players on both teams noticed the extra fire in Williams' eyes.

Houston guard Kevin Martin, who was recently traded from Sacramento and had 32 points, said Williams "came out really looking to attack" and pointed that out to the Jazz point guard.

"I was, like, 'You're feeling it tonight, huh?' And he was, like, 'You know, I just had a bad game last night,' " Martin said. "And great players in this league, that's what they do — have a bad game the night before and they come out looking aggressive.

"And," Martin continued, "he was hitting tough shots, and that's why he's an All-Star."

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