After Williams finished with eight points and eight assists during Utah's 116-90 victory over New Orleans, Paul said, "It's not a one-on-one game. It's the Jazz versus the Hornets, like we always we say."

Williams and Paul entered the NBA as the third and fourth picks in the 2005 draft. Utah traded up to get the No. 3 pick and, mostly because the Jazz took Williams ahead of Paul, a rivalry has developed between the two young stars who were teammates on Team USA at the Beijing Olympics.

But it is a friendly rivalry -- one both players would prefer the media not follow quite so closely.

"We're great friends," Paul said. "We talk all the time -- all day, every day. [Basketball] is just a game."

In this game, it looked like New Orleans might be able to shake off some understandable weariness.

Playing their fourth road game in six nights -- and just 24 hours after an emotional 116-105 win over the Western Conference-leading Lakers -- the Hornets jumped to an early 18-9 lead.

"I thought we had a lot of energy in the first quarter," said coach Byron Scott. "Then it seemed like we didn't have anything left."

After taking a 33-29 lead into the second quarter, the Hornets crumbled. They managed only 13 points in the next 12 minutes, when New Orleans went 2-for-13 from the field.

"That second quarter, they really jumped on us," said Paul, who had 17 of the Hornets' 46 points at halftime. "They got a lot of easy buckets in transition and, when you let a team like this get easy buckets, then they really get rolling."

Paul, who dropped to 2-9 in head-to-head games against Williams and the Jazz, refused to blame the schedule-maker for contributing to this defeat.

"I don't think we are a team of excuses," he said. "We should never come in and say, 'OK, we won last night [so] we can rest tonight.'"

Scott credited the Jazz for taking advantage of the Hornets' less-than-ideal schedule.

"... That's a very good team over there," he said. "We said that from the beginning. They beat us every which way you can. They killed us on the boards. They got fast break baskets. We shot the ball poorly after the first quarter and we took our lumps. That's the bottom line."

New Orleans' leg-weariness showed up mostly on defense. The Jazz scored 80 points over the final 2 1/2 quarters.

"They play a physical style of Basketball," Scott said. "But they are a very good transition team, too. They take advantage of turnovers and long rebounds after missed shots. They have four or five guys running every time."

luhm@sltrib.com

Up and down

Results from the New Orleans Hornets' just-completed four-game swing through the Western Conference:

Opponent Result

at Portland W, 92-77

Paul: 17 points, 11 assists

at Denver L, 105-100Trailed by 26 in the first half

at L.A. Lakers W, 116-105West: 40 points, 11 rebounds

at Utah L, 116-90The Jazz shoot 51.9 percent

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