Deseret Morning News <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">He did not start. But oh did Deron Williams ever finish. Looking every bit the part of the No. 3 overall selection in the most-recent NBA draft, the former University of Illinois star guided the Jazz to a 93-82 victory over Dallas in a Delta Center thriller that not only opened Utah's 2005-06 season but also offered the first chapter in ? if Wednesday night was any indicator ? what could prove to be quite a storied career. Williams merely came off the bench to score 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the field in 26 minutes, including a spectacular 61-foot 3-pointer that beat the third quarter-ending buzzer and ignited a fourth-quarter Jazz rally. The final-period comeback was directed by Williams himself, and starred 27-point game-high scorer Mehmet Okur. "He played OK," Jerry Sloan said of Williams in an understated manner one could only expect from the grisly Jazz coach. "For his first game, I thought he was under control and knew what he was doing," Sloan added. "A couple of times he did get a little confused ? but that's be to be expected." Trying to sell "OK" to a well-below-sellout Delta Center crowd of 18,249, however, might be a little like trying to convince Jazz fans that those two characters known in these parts simply as Stockton and Malone were merely decent. "He was huge for us," Okur said. Williams' heave from well behind the halfcourt line ? punctuated with a flick of the wrist only the most ultraconfident of shooters can pull off ? electrified an anxious spectator base that endured a trying 26-56 season in 2004-05.</div> <div align="center">Source</div>
