Williams gets first All-Star nod with assist from teammates

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When the coaches' votes for All-Star reserves were due last Tuesday, the Utah Jazz stood in fourth place in the Western Conference at 26-18 and had won seven of their last eight games.

And so Deron Williams was named an All-Star for the first time.

Not that Williams wasn't deserving of an All-Star selection otherwise. As one of the best point guards in the game, he's been deserving of an All-Star selection for two years now. But sometimes, the timing just isn't right, especially with more than 12 players in the West deserving All-Star selections every year.

In 2008, the Jazz had won nine out of 10 when the coaches needed to submit their votes, but they were tied for sixth in the West and Carlos Boozer was averaging 22.5 points and 10.7 rebounds at the time. So Williams was a victim of the numbers game.

At the time of voting last season, the Jazz were in ninth place and Williams had missed 13 of their 45 games. So he missed out again.

This year, the timing was right, Williams was healthy and there's no doubt that he's one of the 12 best players in the Western Conference.

"When the voting was done, our team was streaking," Williams said Friday. "We were playing good basketball. We were fourth in the conference, which definitely helped. In previous years, we were down near the eighth spot. So definitely, the play of my teammates helped this year."

That's the thing. Utah's recent success, now 11 wins in 12 games going into Saturday's contest vs. the Nuggets, isn't about Williams. He's the team's best player, but his production has been pretty consistent all season. If this stretch of games is about anyone in particular, it's Andrei Kirilenko, who has been starting again for the last 11 games and shooting 65 percent in that time.

"AK's play is a huge reason why we're playing the way we are right now," Williams said. "He's playing like an All-Star right now and that's made a big difference for us."

But as good as Kirilenko has been, when the Jazz are playing well, it's because they're playing together. It's about the whole, not the parts. On Wednesday against the Blazers, Utah had 32 assists, with 13 of them coming from its starting forwards, Kirilenko and Paul Millsap. When Jerry Sloan's offense is clicking, there's not a more enjoyable team to watch in the NBA.

"The most important thing is we're having fun," Williams said. "We have a lot of confidence each other on both sides of the ball. We're helping each other on defense and then we're making the extra pass and everyone is getting involved on offense. And it's a lot more fun that way."

The Jazz are shooting a scorching 53 percent and scoring an ultra-efficient 115.2 points per 100 possessions in the 12 games, up from 48 percent and 103.8 in their first 36. They've also tightened up their defense, allowing their opponents to shoot just 43 percent during the run. In all, they're outscoring their opponents by 12.5 points per game since Jan. 9.

And Williams believes that it can get even better.

"I think it's the best we've played [in the last two years], but I don't think it's the best we can play," he said. "Everybody could get on the same page, and I still don't feel like we've done that. We've had two or three guys playing great for us and some other guys struggling, so once we get everybody together, we can be a lot better than we are right now."

It's just been four weeks, but the Jazz have quickly gone from 10th place in the West to third. And they can move to within a game in the loss column of the second-place Nuggets if they can beat Denver on Saturday.

With team success comes individual recognition, but Jazz general manager Kevin O'Connor knows that Williams never needed the validation that comes with his first All-Star selection.

"I'd much rather hang my hat on that he was chosen to play in the Olympics than I would on the All-Star team," O'Connor said, noting Williams' role on the U.S. squad that brought home gold from Beijing in 2008. "I don't think he has to explain why he didn't make it last year or the year before."

But those snubs mean that Williams will appropriately make his All-Star Game debut in his hometown of Dallas. Having played in the Rookie Challenge in each of his first two seasons and having won the Skills Challenge in 2008, this is Williams' fourth All-Star Weekend. He'll attempt to win his Skills title back from Derrick Rose on Saturday, having missed out on a chance to defend it last season because of an ankle injury.

In his previous three trips to All-Star though, Williams has never stuck around through Sunday, because didn't want to attend an All-Star Game unless he was playing in it. And of course, since he's finally playing in the game and since it's in his hometown, Williams has a pretty big guest list. So big that he's considering the idea of reserving a suite at Cowboys Stadium.

The rest of the Jazz will probably be using the weekend to get away from basketball for a few days, which is fortunate for Williams, because if he's trying to find seats for everyone that helped him become an All-Star, his teammates would need to be at the top of the list.



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