NBA

Nets’ Williams hits record 9 first-half 3-pointers

When the Nets convinced Deron Williams to re-sign during free agency last summer, they had nights like this in mind, nights when he would lift the crowd inside Barclays Center to its feet with his play, and lift his team to a win.

Williams did that, and then some, against the Wizards, finishing with a franchise record 11 3-pointers — one shy of the NBA record — and a season-high 42 points to carry the Nets to a resounding 95-78 victory in front of a sellout crowd of 17,732 in Brooklyn.

“I just got hot,” Williams said with a smile afterward.

Williams got so hot — starting off the game a perfect 8-for-8, including 7-for-7 from 3-point range, and finishing the game 11-for-16 from behind the arc — that he blew out two separate pairs of shoes, one in each half.

He’d better order more.

Williams wasted no time getting started, hitting those first eight shots and finishing the first quarter with 23 points, single-handedly outscoring the Wizards and giving the Nets a 38-14 lead. He finished the quarter 8-for-9, with each shot he made sending both his teammates and the crowd into bigger and bigger states of delirium.

It reached a crescendo when Williams received a pass from Reggie Evans following a Brook Lopez blocked shot and raced up the right side of the floor. From the moment the ball hit his hands, his intentions were clear, and he soon was pulling up from the right wing and draining a 25-foot bomb that gave the Nets a 22-2 lead with 7:19 remaining in the first quarter.

“That was a heat check,” Williams said. “Think I should’ve shot another one after that, too. Joe [Johnson] told me I should’ve when I got back to the bench.”

As the first half wore on and the Nets already had the game in hand, the sole focus of everyone in the building was how long Williams would be able to keep up his shooting spree. Every time Williams brought the ball past half court, a collective energy began to build as fans hoped he would rise and fire once again. It even got to the point where the crowd would boo Williams every time he passed up even a remote chance to shoot the ball.

“I thought they were going to boo me one time because I didn’t shoot it,” Williams said. “I might have had a shot and passed it down to Joe and they were kind of [upset].”

He still managed to give them plenty to look at, though, as he got to the rim for some layups while also knocking down two more 3-pointers to set the NBA record for a half with nine. He nearly pushed it to 10 when he got an open look from the top of the key at the end of the second quarter, only to see it go just long off the back rim and send the Nets into the break with a 59-33 lead.

Williams finished the half with 33 points — tying his previous season-high — while going 12-for-15 from the field and 9-for-11 from 3-point range.

“I really thought he was going to go for about 60,” Johnson said.

For as loud as the crowd got for Williams, though, they got even louder in support of Reggie Evans in the fourth, when the Wizards employed a “Hack-a-Reggie” policy to send the poor-shooting big man to the foul line 10 times.

Evans went 3-for-10 — but sank the final two — eliciting a huge roar from the crowd and a standing ovation when he sat a few minutes later.

“It was exciting,” said Evans, who had 24 rebounds. “I was happy. I was mad on the inside, but I was enjoying the moment whether I missed or made it. I was just excited.”

But other than that brief moment, all eyes were focused on Williams to see how many records he would topple after the break. Williams set the franchise record with his 10th 3-pointer when he opened the second half with one, passing Vince Carter’s old mark of nine, and then hit the 11th with 1:39 remaining to pull within one of the NBA record.

He got a wide-open look at No. 12 on the following possession, but it went long, one of the few shots that didn’t go down for him.

“I’m just happy we won,” Williams said. “That’s the main thing. If I’d done this in a loss, it definitely wouldn’t have meant anything.

“All the records are good … [they’re] good stories to tell your kids and grandkids when you get older. But I’m just after one, and that’s a championship.”