Williams wins head-to-head with Paul News New Orleans Hornets

When Utah plays New Orleans, it's always going to be about Deron Williams and Chris Paul, two good friends who were drafted back-to-back four years ago and who played together on last summer's gold-medal-winning Olympic Basketball team. Even though Paul gets more national publicity and all-star accolades, Williams has usually gotten the better of Paul in head-to-head matchups and it happened again in the Jazz's emotional win over the Hornets Saturday night. The final stats show Paul outscoring Williams 24 to 20, but getting six fewer assists, 13 to 7 for Williams. But the key numbers to look at were in the decisive fourth quarter.

Williams made all three shots he took and score seven points, while handing out two assists, while Paul went scoreless, missing three shots with just one assists, playing the same minutes that Williams did. Afterward both players shrugged off the individual competition between to the two young point guards. "It's tough to guard him and he was scoring pretty easily on us in the first half," said Williams. "We had to make some adjustments to find the right pick-and-roll defense. We finally found something to slow him down and allow me to get over the pick and roll and stay in front of him better." When asked about the Jazz defense in the final quarter, Paul down played it, saying, "What did I take, three shots? All I know we were taking the ball out of the net. They were making shots. That's what happens." Going into the final quarter, the Jazz led the Hornets 84-76 and with Williams and Paul both on the bench each team managed just one basket over the first four minutes of the quarter. Williams and Paul both returned to the game with 8:28 left and Williams quickly went to work. First he sank a 20-footer from the top of the key and followed it with a 3-pointer from the top to stake the Jazz to a double-digit lead. Then after Mehmet Okur drove for a score, Williams hit Okur at the top of the key with an assist on a 3-pointer to pretty much put the game away with 4:37 left. Williams found Okur with another assist and then sank a 12-footer to close out the scoring in the final minute. Meanwhile Paul had two of his shots swatted away by Andrei Kirilenko in the final 90 seconds. He had more turnovers (2) than points and assists combined in the final quarter. For the second time this season, the Hornets had to play the Jazz a night after playing the Lakers in Los Angeles. In December, the Jazz won by 26. Paul said being tired is no excuse. "I don't believe in that fatigue stuff," said Paul. "They made plays ? Okur hit some big shots, D-Will hit a three and another shot. It wasn't fatigue, we just lost." Paul was also sympathetic to the Jazz organization for the loss of owner the day before. "The crowd was really into the game and the players, you could tell they really wanted to win it. We tried to come in here and steal one, but unfortunately we came up short," he said. E-mail: sor@desnews.com