Utah Jazz: Ronnie Price and Co. fill in admirably for Deron Williams

SALT LAKE CITY — Deron Williams was on the EnergySolutions Arena court pre-game on Wednesday night, taking shots left handed. He wasn't horrible, either, but he is a natural right hander and with his right wrist sprained, he was forced to sit out the game against the Memphis Grizzlies.

But that left the Utah Jazz with just one true point guard with any NBA experience.

In the end, it didn't really matter as the combination of Ronnie Price, a rookie making his NBA debut, Ronnie Brewer and Andrei Kirilenko were able to get the Jazz into their offense well enough for Utah to end a three-game losing streak with a 117-94 victory.

"It feels good to win after the last few games we've played," said Price, who started in place of Williams despite having a sore left shoulder himself.

Price filled in admirably, scoring a season-high 14 points with six assists in 25 minutes on the floor.

"Ronnie Price came in there and played awesome," is how teammate C.J. Miles put it.

But he was only one part of the story. Sundiata Gaines played nearly 21 minutes in his first-ever NBA game after being signed to a 10-day contract on Tuesday out of the D-League. Gaines didn't have a strong shooting night — making just 1-of-7 shots — but he gave a strong effort considering he had only one shootaround to get acquainted with the Jazz offense and his new teammates.

"When a guy gets hurt another guy has to step up and fill in," said Price about he and Gaines. "To Sudiata's credit, he had to come right in and play some minutes tonight. We're happy to have him here."

Said Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, "Having Deron out of the game was a huge concern, but I thought Ronnie (Price) and Sundiata did a good job trying to hold us in there."

Brewer, meanwhile, dished out a career-high 10 assists while playing outstanding defense and getting four steals.

"Ronnie Price and Ronnie Brewer got our defense going and we just took off," said Jazz forward Carlos Boozer. "We got layup after layup after layup and it started with those two. It was so much fun. It's great when you play like this."

Kirilenko also spent some time as a point guard getting the Jazz into its offense. He finished with a fine all-around game with 12 points, six rebounds, four steals and three blocked shots.

"We had three or four different guys run the point guard tonight," said Boozer. "We moved the ball a little bit better.

"We had more spacing and we moved the ball great. Guys hit shots. Guys were aggressive and guys knew they would have the chance to touch the ball. It was fun."

e-mail: lojo@desnews.com