OPINION

By Steve Greenberg

updated 7:52 p.m. ET May 5, 2008

It's somewhere between a bang and a squish, the awful sound that's created by a 3-point shot that hits the backboard and only the backboard. Paul Millsap would rather hear that sound in his sleep than suffer the indignity of what's coming next. "You got NO aim with that!" shouts Deron Williams, who is walking onto the Utah Jazz practice court, still hiking up his shorts.

Millsap, a second-year power forward who is several feet outside his range, gives it another go: Ronnie Brewer grabs the rock and starts to dribble out for his own warm-up shot, but Williams orders him to a halt: "Ball!" the 23-year-old point guard demands, and Brewer dutifully obliges. Before Millsap can slink away, Williams fires it back out to him. Another miss. And another. And another, Williams shagging all the while. This will not end until Millsap drains one, which he does on his eighth attempt.

"Hey," Williams says on this March morning, eyeballing the regular-season stretch run and, of course, the playoffs. "He may have to make one of those for us someday."

The Lakers are in town the following night, and Ronny Turiaf is giving Carlos Boozer fits with his size, strength and aggressiveness. Boozer sets a high screen, pins Turiaf on his back and thunders down the lane, but Andrei Kirilenko swings the ball out to Brewer instead. "Come on, Andrei!" the 26-year-old Boozer roars. While a dismayed Kirilenko looks down at the floor, Boozer quickly circles around off the left shoulder, meets Brewer's pass on the other side of the lane, crashes to the goal and scores, drawing a foul on Turiaf. On the way to the foul line, Boozer stops and embraces Kirilenko.

The Lakers win the game, but that one play speaks loudly to the onrushing excellence of the Jazz, who — like the Spurs with Tony Parker and Tim Duncan, the Hornets with Chris Paul and David West, and the Pistons with Chauncey Billups and Rasheed Wallace — are contending for a championship on the backbone of stellar leadership and sublime play from the point guard and power forward positions.

What Kobe Bryant is given credit for individually — making his teammates better — Williams and Boozer are doing with a don't-you-dare-overlook-them flourish. "I don't think they're afraid of responsibility. They're willing to take responsibility win or lose," says Jazz general manager Kevin O'Connor. "That's not something you often see in young guys in this league."

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Until they bring rings to Salt Lake City, Williams and Boozer never will rate with John Stockton and Karl Malone. Maybe Williams, who drives down John Stockton Drive a couple hundred times a year, would say that's obvious. Except that he wouldn't. His favorite point guard: Jason Kidd. His take on Jazz fans: "They didn't retire with John and Karl. They're hungry for a championship just like we are."

Williams studied with Stockton in the latter's hometown, Spokane, Wash., as a rookie in 2005. Boozer keeps in regular contact with Malone via phone calls and text messages. But neither of the all-time greats has ever laced 'em up as a tutor to the heir of his franchise throne.

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