NBA

Nets star exacts revenge on Lin

Once upon a time — the time being Feb. 4 to be exact — there was this guy from Harvard, undrafted, seemingly unwanted, and he went out and, against an All-Star point guard, ignited an international craze known as Linsanity. So while Jeremy Lin became a world-wide phenomenon in the fairy tale, victim No. 1, All-Star Deron Williams, waited patiently.

For last night.

“It started on me. We definitely had this one circled. The whole team did. I personally did because it stuck in my mind, it all started on me,” said Williams.

“I’m a competitor. So when somebody says they destroyed you, and you watch the tape and you don’t feel like you got destroyed, you circle those types of games,” Williams added.

And last night, Williams was the destroyer. He was that good. He scored 38 points, 18 in a breakaway third quarter, 12 of those in a masterfully brilliant 1:23 streak when he outscored the Knicks, 12-1, to put the Nets up by 18. Williams fouled out with 3:07 left but provided enough of a cushion for his mates to take home a 100-92 victory.

“The last person I saw shoot like that was Gilbert [Arenas] in his prime,” teammate DeShawn Stevenson said of Williams. “He showed he’s an All-Star.”

By being utterly dominant, doing everything, including hitting a career high eight 3-point shots, three of them in that brilliant 1:23 streak of the third quarter when coach Avery Johnson admitted “we really took control” of the game.

Before the game, Williams wandered away from his locker for a bit and teammates knew what was up.

“He’s chillin’,” said Anthony Morrow, who stressed that Williams did not need to be reminded — again — how Lin took off against the Nets. “He’s extremely competitive.”

“You saw it. I knew he was going to come out like that. He’s a competitor. He just came out there and did what he had to do,” said rookie MarShon Brooks (18 points). “I get real hyped out there. So when I see him just start taking the game over like that, he doesn’t need the hype, but he’s got that look in his eye. He’s real quiet.”

A “silent assassin,” Cavaliers coach Byron Scott called him earlier. So Williams had been quiet through all the Linsanity. He admitted at one point he didn’t care because he focuses only on the Nets.

“No, not at all. Not at all,” he said, but he did praise Lin. “He’s an amazing story. He was going to be cut and to come out and play the way he did against us and to keep it going the way he has? Even tonight he had a great game.”

But not nearly as good as Williams did.

“Deron was special. We really wanted to attack their point guard position,” Johnson said as his gang played a third game in three nights — beating the Bulls and Knicks on the road. “We wanted to get their point guard involved and not allow him to rest.”

Lin couldn’t.

“No doubt he came out with an aggressive mentality,” said Knicks forward Amar’e Stoudemire. “Deron played out of his mind.”