SALT LAKE CITY — So resolute were the Nuggets in their intent to shut down Deron Williams during Friday night’s playoff game that it created an inevitable quandary for the Utah Jazz.
If not Williams, whom?
Williams led all scorers with 33 points when the Jazz stole Game 2 of the first-round playoff series at the Pepsi Center. Friday he finished with 24 points and 10 assists. On paper, Utah’s 105-93 victory looks straightforward and bloody.
But in the first half, the Nuggets played Williams so tight that he managed five points. The Jazz missed five of its first 15 shots, allowing Denver to open an 11-point lead.
“If they want to try to trap and want to try to take me out of the game, we have plenty of guys on this team that can score,” Williams said after Friday’s morning shootaround.
When 6-foot-8 reserve forward Paul Millsap entered the game, the EnergySolutions Arena applause was more for the man he was replacing, Kyrylo Fesenko.
If not Williams, Millsap?
A lumbering but athletic power forward, Millsap is noted for defensive pluck and fearless rebounding. In Game 3, however, he was the unlikely spark off the bench who led Utah’s comeback. In 18 minutes in the first half, Millsap scored 18 points and inhaled eight rebounds.
“When Paul came in the game, we started getting some stuff,” Utah coach Jerry Sloan said.
His baskets came on flashes to the hoop, second-chance putbacks and nifty post moves. He made all nine of his attempts in the half.
Millsap scored 15 points in Game 1 and 18 in Game 2. But en route to perhaps the series’ most pivotal performance, on Friday Millsap for the first time showed flashes of dominance.
“They were trapping Deron, so we tried to pick them apart in the post,” Millsap said.
He finished the game with 22 points and 19 rebounds, but his second-quarter eruption swung the game and helped the Jazz claim momentum in the best-of-seven series. Millsap re-entered the game with 5:05 left in the third, this time to thunderous appreciation of his earlier contribution. For an encore, there was no tide for him to turn.
By the time he entered, Utah had built a 12-point lead that stretched to as many as 23.
Any satisfaction the Nuggets glean from their early containment of Utah’s star point guard is countered by the knowledge that the Jazz has proved effective at compensating. Suddenly, Denver faces the quandary.
If not Williams, whom?
