Deron Williams returned to action after missing the previous two games with a sprained wrist.  I guess playing in front of his old hometown and against a team like Dallas was too much to pass up.

Oh, and the Jazz needed him as well.

He didn’t appear to be suffering too many ill effects from that sprained wrist as he put up 20 & 9 tonight to lead the Jazz to a 111-93 win over the Mavericks.

He started out hot driving the lane for a layup and then hitting a leaning jumper off the glass.  He was also 3-7 from downtown.

After he was done scoring, he proceeded to dole out 5 assists in the fourth quarter to help hold off the Mavericks late in the  game.

He’ll have a couple days rest before the Jazz face the Heat on Monday.

Oh, and Vote Deron and Vote Nash to the right.

Popularity: 8%

Deron's 38 & 13 not enough.

As I wrote in the game recap, what a wasted performance by Deron Williams.  He continues to get better as the season goes on.  And when he turns in one of his best performances of the season, it all goes by the wayside because the Jazz can’t play D and hold one of the worst teams in the league offensively to under 100 points.

Deron had 19 of those 38 in the second quarter alone.  He’s not going to do that all game of course, but that would put him on pace for a 76-point outing.

He was stroking it from three in that second quarter going 2-2 and was 6-8 overall from the field.  Unfortunately he couldn’t knock down his last three attempt of the game that would have given the Jazz the win.

Johnny Flynn and Ramon Sessions couldn’t guard him all night.  Too bad Deron and the Jazz couldn’t guard Flynn who ended with a career-high of 28 and hit the game-winning shot.

The last week had seen the Jazz beat the likes of San Antonio, the Lakers, and the Magic which helps boost Deron’s name and gets him a few extra votes for the All-star game.  But it’s games like this that brings that down a notch and that’s too bad.  Some of the blame does fall on Deron and I’m sure he’d be the first to take it.  But playing for a small market team, the Jazz are going to have to start winning and winning a lot to make others take notice.

This should have been the cap on a glorious week and now just leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

Popularity: 13%

Explanation?

10 & 9 & 7 & 7.

Seems like a decent line until you realize that one of those 7s is for the number of turnovers Deron had last night against the Thunder.

His ten points also came on just 5/14 shooting.

Worst of all was that the Jazz were beat down at the ESA, somewhere that is suppose to be an almost automatic win for the Jazz.

I have to agree with what a lot of people are thinking and saying – It sure seems like Deron is trying too hard and forcing a lot of things.

Most noticeable is his 3.8 turnovers per game which would be a career-high.  He has 46 on the year and if he hadn’t missed a couple of games, he would almost be the league leader.  There are plenty of other great players that are high on the list like LeBron, KOobe, Nash, Wade, and Carmelo.  You’re bound to get a high number of TOs when you have the ball a lot.

But Deron’s turnovers seem to come when he’s trying to do too much and force things that aren’t there.

His FG% is also lower than it has been the past couple of seasons.  Some of the shots he is taking are outside of the offense.  It just looks like he’s doing too much and it’s hurting the team at times.

I don’t know if this has anything to do with trying to make the All-star team this year or not, I think it has to be in part though.  I know it will mean a lot to him to finally be an AS and to get to do it in Dallas.  He of course has had the recent medical issues with his daughter and there’s no telling what impact that has on his game.

But Deron, if you’re reading this, and hopefully not because I hope you’re not looking to a little fan blog influence you, just relax and let things come to you.  You’re going to make the All-star team.  Whether it be by the fans (hopefully) or the coaches, you’ll get in.

You’ve had the numbers in previous seasons to get there and you’ll have them again this year.  You’ve just needed some exposure (which is crazy that you haven’t had yet).

So have fun. We haven’t seen you smile in a while.

The rest of you, get voting.

Popularity: 18%

First off, great night for the Jazz as they ended their 10-year drought in San Antonio with a 90-83 win over the Spurs.  It doesn’t matter who was out, the Jazz got another win on the road and got back to .500 for the season.

Deron led all scorers with 21 points on 8-15 shooting.  He was on fire from behind the arc as well nailing 4-5.

At one point last night, Carlos Boozer and Tim Duncan had more assists than Deron.  That changed in the fourth though as D-Will handed out 6 dimes to finish with 10 on the night.

Deron’s now right at 20 & 1o for the season along with 5 boards a night.

Now you need to do your part and go vote.  Use the form at the left, text “Deron Williams” to 69622 right now.  With Steve Nash having a huge year and Chris Paul getting votes, we’re going to need a big push.

Popularity: 12%

Back on Track

A lot more fun when we win! All it took was 48 min! Now I can stop being a craby patty as my daughters would say….. Now make it 2 in a row

That was Deron’s tweet last night after the Jazz took down the Spurs by a large margin, 113-99.  The win was an all around good effort from everyone on the team.  Boozer was back for at least a game with 27 & 14.  Whether you want him traded or whether you want him with the Jazz, he has to play like he did last night.

Deron had 27 & 9 & 7 last night, a great rebound from the Dallas game a couple nights ago.  Rebounds has always been an area on the stat sheet that’s been a little low when compared to some other MVP-type guards.  But if you know the Jazz system, rebounding for the guards isn’t as big of a priority.  And when you have Boozer, Millsap, Okur, etc, you’re not bound to have many opportunities anyway.

But he seems to have made a bit of an effort to bump that up.  He’s averaging 5 a game early in the season when 3.3 has been his previous high.  So we’ll see if that keeps up.

Here are his current stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com,

The Jazz will welcome the Kings into town tomorrow night before they head out on a east-coast roadie.

Deron makes two of the top 5 from last night,

Popularity: 16%

Where's T-Mac to jack up an inefficient 30 shots a game when you need him?

18 & 8. I should just leave it at that and then you could go to sleep with visions of Deron dunking on people’s heads.

Unfortunately, those 18 points came on 20 shots and the Jazz went down hard to the Rockets, 113-96.

A call that went against Deron early in the fourth seemed to rattle him and the team a bit and it was all downhill from there. He drove and appeared to get fouled by Battier on the way up. Deron came down on another Rocket that may or may not have been called correctly as a charge. That was one of a few calls where Deron didn’t get the whistle he wanted.

It sure seems like the Jazz are going to go as Deron goes. He never got in a rhythm and neither did the rest of the team.

The Jazz and Deron will turn right around and play in Dallas tomorrow night. I’m just hoping the Jazz can keep it competitive.

Popularity: 15%

D-Will vs. The Beard

For three quarters it looked like Deron was going to have to put the team on his back again if they were going to have a shot at beating the Clippers at home.  The team hadn’t played any meaningful defense at that point.

The Clippers scored 60 points at the half and it looked a lot like whoever had the ball last was going to win.

Deron finally got a breather to begin the fourth quarter.  Jazz fans held their breath as just a couple days ago the Denver Nuggets built a huge lead to start the 4th quarter when Deron was on the bench.

Thankfully, the Jazz were able to ride Paul Millsap for the fourth quarter on the way to a 111-98 win.

A win makes Deron’s stats look that much better.  He had 17 & 7 at the half keeping the Jazz close.  He only had just 4 & 2 in the second half, but it wasn’t as needed as the rest of the team picked up the slack.  Even still, he finished with 21 & 9 (if you haven’t done the math already).  Add to that 4 rebounds and just two turnovers.  I’ll take that.

The only thing more you could ask for to start the season would be to have the Jazz 2-0.  So early in the season, Deron is averaging 24.5 & 11.  Great start.

Next game Monday vs. the Rockets.

Popularity: 22%

Deron dominated all night. Too bad the Jazz couldn't hold on.

Deron had a great start to his 2010 All-star campaign.  He dominated Carter all night long on his way to 28 points and 13 assists in his first game of the season.  He was 9/15 from the field including 2/3 from behind the arc.  I’d like to see those turnovers come down though.  He had 5 last night.

Too bad it came in a losing effort as the Jazz fell to the Nuggets 105-114.

Next up are the Clippers as the Jazz head home to the much more friendly ESA.

Popularity: 35%