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SALT LAKE CITY: Point guard Deron Williams tied a season-high with
20 assists as the Utah Jazz beat the Dallas Mavericks 116-110 in a
key Western Conference match up on Monday.
“It was a great game, another game that felt
like a playoff atmosphere,” said Williams, who added 17 points.
“Any time you play a Western Conference opponent, everybody right
now is fighting for their lives and fighting for a playoff spot.”
After watching the Mavericks erase a 20-point
deficit, the Jazz rode a 16-0 fourth-quarter run to rally back for
the victory, their 16th straight at home, 3 shy of a team record.
Two nights after dishing out 19 assists in a
road win over Memphis, Williams outdid himself, making Dallas’
newly acquired star point guard Jason Kidd look old in the process.
Of course, it didn’t hurt that Williams’
teammates weren’t missing. Jazz All-Stars Carlos Boozer and Mehmet
Okur were a combined 11-for-12 in the first half alone as Utah
exploded for a 25-6 lead over the first six minutes of the game.
However, another former All-Star was taken out
of the equation early on. Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko, one of six
Jazz players who average in double-figures in scoring, left the
floor just five minutes into the first quarter with a right hip
injury after being taken down on a flagrant foul by Mavericks
forward Dirk Nowitzki.
Kirilenko laid on the ground for several minutes
before finally getting up, knocking down a pair of free throws and
then getting escorted to the locker room. Initial x-rays were
inconclusive, but he was taken to the hospital during the game for
further observation.
From then on, Nowitzki, the league’s reigning
MVP, was loudly booed every time he touched the ball.
Meanwhile, two-time NBA champion Sam Cassell is
set to sign with the first place Boston Celtics, the Boston Globe
reported in Los Angeles.
The veteran point guard will travel to Boston
Tuesday for the official announcement, said his agent David Falk.
The Los Angeles Clippers put him on waivers last week.
“He had some personal business he had to
attend to in Baltimore. There was a death in the family,” Falk
said. “But he will be on his way up there when everything is done.
He is really excited.”
Cassell, 38, had been petitioning the lowly
Clippers for a trade or a contract buyout in recent weeks, moves
that would allow him to join a championship contender.
“He’s a proven player,” Celtics coach Doc
Rivers said. “We’re just going to wait and see where he fits in
on our team. He’s coming in with the right frame of mind and he
just wants to help. He knows how to play. He’s terrific at the end
of games. He can still really play.”
A 15-year veteran, Cassell won two championship
rings with the Houston Rockets in 1994 and 1995. He will join a pair
of former teammates in Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, whom he played
alongside in Minnesota and Milwaukee, respectively.
-- AFP
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