Williams, though, did hasten to add this: "There's some fast guys in the league. But he's definitely one of them. Quickest hands."

Asked for a comparison -- the hands, the long arms, the solid defense -- Williams offered up two rookies, Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook and Miami's Mario Chalmers.

"But neither of those guys are proven like he is," Williams said of the starting point guard on last season's NBA championship team.

And, oh, did Rondo ever do some proving later Monday night.

He merely scored a career-high 25 points, pulled down nine rebounds, dished five assists and made three steals -- helping atone for his six turnovers -- in Boston's 100-91 win over Williams and the Jazz.

Said Williams afterward: "A lot of it was pick-and-rolls. But he's definitely quick. Hard to stay in front of."

Added Jazz coach Jerry Sloan: "Rondo puts some pressure on you defensively with his ability to push the ball up the floor. They caught us a lot of times napping, and he would push it and get an easy basket."

It's nothing new to the Celtics.

Still, some in Boston continue to be amazed by certain Rondo shots -- like his crazy last-minute, English-driven, over-the-back reverse layup, made off a drive right into Williams and Jazz power forward Paul Millsap.

"Yeah," Celtics coach Doc River deadpanned, "we worked on that this morning."

But seriously ...

"No, that was terrific," Rivers said. "I mean, you know, when he finishes, he's really good. And he puts more English on the ball than Minnesota Fats at times."

A pool reference, on a night Olympic gold medal-swimmer Michael Phelps was in the house to hock Subway sandwiches.

Nice.

"Sometimes they don't go in, and that's when I get mad at him," Rivers said. "And when they go in, I love him."

Rivers is not alone.

"Just when we think he's out here messing around or whatever, we get in practice and you don't think he has a chance of making a layup and he'll put a little English on it," said star forward Kevin Garnett, who is one of Boston's much-ballyhooed trio, along with Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. "That's his game. Paul told me never to play that man in H-O-R-S-E, and I had to learn the hard way. He's real good at using the backboard, really good with the English. He makes it easy."

Or hard, depending on one's perspective.

"He knew he was a quicker player than Williams," Pierce said, "and any time he gets in the lane, he's difficult to guard, especially when he's finding guys.

"He can give you a little bit of everything, the way he creates and causes havoc in transition. ... He's like a blur out there."

Tonight, when the Jazz visit New Jersey here, another fuzzy-focus point guard -- Devin Harris, who had a game-high 34 points when the Nets won late last month in Utah -- could keep Williams busy again.

But Sloan is Rondo-quick to say that Harris is hardly the Jazz's only concern.

"Stopping Harris? We've got a lot of people to stop," he said. "How are we gonna stop (Vince) Carter? You have to have everybody competing hard to try to do that." E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com