SALT LAKE CITY (Ticker) -- The Utah Jazz seem to be doing just fine at point guard.
With Carlos Arroyo sitting out, backups Maurice Williams and Raul Lopez each scored 10 points to lead the Jazz to an 83-76 victory over the Houston Rockets.
When John Stockton retired during the offseason, many thought the Jazz would struggle to find a replacement. But Utah's trio of young point guards has played well.
A second-round pick, Williams has played sparingly but contributed six rebounds and four assists in a season-high 26 minutes.
"It's a great opportunity for me," Williams said. "I'm always ready to play. I've never been nervous in my life. If I make mistakes, it's just a mistake I'm gonna make." "They did a good job," Rockets guard Steve Francis said. "They moved the ball, they scored some points. Out of respect for their starting point guard, Carlos Arroyo, they're pretty much like a three-headed monster, so they're pretty much going to get the same play out of all the guys."
Lopez chipped in five assists.
"It was a good win against a good team," Lopez said. "I think we played really hard in the second half."
Andrei Kirilenko led the Jazz with 23 points as they improved to 7-1 at home.
Yao Ming paced Houston with 20 points and 10 rebounds. He made 14-of-16 free throws but shot just 3-of-15 from the field. Cuttino Mobley added 14 points, but Francis was held to 13 and committed eight turnovers.
"If you want to play defense against a player like Steve Francis, you need the help of the whole team," Lopez said. "Sometimes it's hard to play 1-on-1 defense against a player like that."
A 3-pointer by Eric Piatkowski got Houston within 71-70 with 3:39 remaining, but the Jazz answered with a 12-3 run and built an 83-73 cushion with 29 seconds left.
Houston did its best shooting in the first quarter when it shot 40 percent (8-of-20) but trailed, 20-19. The Rockets struggled from the field thereafter.
"You have to give credit to the defense, but we can do some better things offensively as well," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said.
Van Gundy's team shot 26 percent (5-of-19) in the second quarter and led 34-33 at halftime. Houston finished at 33 percent (25-of-75) and was outscored in the paint, 40-20.
"There were a lot of bad shots," Francis said. "I'm definitely not trying to degrade Utah's defense, but we pretty much hurt ourselves with a lot of the shots that we took. There was a lack of ball movement early in the game that destroyed us."
Utah guard DeShawn Stevenson shook off a neck injury and scored nine points.
Utah won three of four games with Houston last season and has taken 13 of the past 14 meetings at home.
