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SALT LAKE CITY -- The NBA announced Monday that Jazz guard Deron Williams was named the Western Conference Player of the Week for games played from Monday, December 7, through Sunday, December 13, marking the second straight week a Jazz player has received the award (Jazz forward Carlos Boozer won for Nov. 30 - Dec. 6).
Williams averaged 21.8 points, 11.3 assists and 4.3 rebounds. During the week, the guard led the Jazz to a 3-1 record picking up wins against San Antonio, Orlando and the Los Angeles Lakers. His best game came against the Magic in a come-from-behind victory on December 10 when he scored 32 points, dished 15 assists and grabbed a career-high tying eight rebounds.
Williams currently ranks third in the league in assists (10.1) and is one of only seven players in the NBA to rank among the top 20 in both scoring and assists. Williams is the only player among the top 20 in scoring and top five in assists.
This is the second Player of the Week award for Williams (last on March 9, 2009) and the 45th overall for the Jazz. The Jazz is the only team in the league to have won two Player of the Week awards this season, and it is the first time the Jazz has taken back-to-back awards since Karl Malone won NBA Player of the Week on March 16 and March 23, 1997. The NBA Player of the Week award became the Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week honors prior to the 2001-02 season.
Here is a closer look at the week's highlights for Williams:
Deron Williams, Utah Jazz
December 7 vs. San Antonio: Tallied 17 points, 11 assists and three rebounds in a 104-101 win over the Spurs.
Detroit's Rodney Stuckey was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week. Other nominees for Western Conference Player of the Week were Dallas' Dirk Nowitzki, Houston's Carl Landry, Memphis' Rudy Gay and Zach Randolph, Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant, Phoenix's Steve Nash and Portland's LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy.
