When Nets general manager Billy King spoke earlier this week about Deron Williams’ struggles this season, he referenced the injuries and struggles Carmelo Anthony endured last year with the Knicks.
Though King didn’t mean it in this context, there is another parallel to the Knicks from last year without Anthony that has appeared during the two games Williams has missed while resting his ailing ankles: Williams’ teammates have stepped up in his absence.
The Nets (31-22) got huge contributions from the roster last night on their way to a 119-108 win over the Nuggets in front of a crowd of 17,251 inside Barclays Center, sending the Nets into the All-Star break on a two-game winning streak.
“When you’ve got a key guy out, it motivates guys to step up and play a little harder,” said Joe Johnson, who finished with a game-high 26 points on 10-for-19 shooting. “Guys who haven’t played that much tend to come in and play big minutes and be successful.”
After the Nets got blown out of Barclays Center in the second half of Sunday’s lopsided loss to the Spurs and hearing the news that Williams would miss the final two games before the break after receiving platelet rich plasma treatment on both ankles, it seemed certain the Nets would enter it on a down note.
Instead, they recovered from a late deficit to pull out an overtime win Monday in Indiana, and then used a blazing-hot night shooting the ball to surge past the Nuggets and give the Nets two of their more impressive victories of the entire season.
“We knew we needed these two games,” said Gerald Wallace, who finished with eight points, nine rebounds, five assists and three blocked shots. “The Washington game we kind of laid down and they kicked our butts, and San Antonio we didn’t take advantage of what we should have and gave two games away.
“Our main thing was we wanted to go into the All-Star break on a good note, and these were two must-win games.”
The Nets were efficient offensively, shooting 54.7 percent from the field, including an impressive 59.3 percent (16-for-27) from 3-point range. But while they were hitting a ton of outside shots, they also made sure to take advantage of their size and strength — something they have failed to do time and again this season when playing against smaller, athletic teams — allowing them to get to the foul line 30 times and outrebound Denver 37-29.
The Nets were red-hot the entire game. They shot a blistering 64.7 percent (11-for-17) from the field in the third and went 5-for-8 from 3-point range. They opened the third with an 18-4 run and stretched their lead to as many as 20.
During that quarter, Joe Johnson led the way with 15 points and C.J. Watson — who finished with 25 while filling in for Wiliams — chipped in with nine, including eight straight.
“I thought we played well the entire game, but in that third quarter we played great defense, we did the things we needed to do [offensively] and opened it up,” Nets interim coach P.J. Carlesimo said.
Add it all up and, after already going through a season’s worth of ups-and-downs to this point, the Nets enter the All-Star break in fourth place in the Eastern Conference. With Williams set to return after the break, they have a chance to put together a run to move higher up in the standings once play resumes next week.
“We’re capable of being one of the top teams,” Johnson said. “We understand that. We’ve shown that. We just need to get some consistency going in the latter stretch of the season.
“We want to position ourselves to make a big push. I’m sure the guys will come back focused.”