WILL TO WIN: Ever since a New Year’s Eve blowout loss at San Antonio, Nets point guard Deron Williams (above) has been on fire, improving on all his season averages and leading red-hot Brooklyn on a six-game win streak. (
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Less than 24 hours after the Nets saw their miserable month of December end with a 31-point blowout loss to the Spurs, Deron Williams sat in a tiny gym in San Antonio on New Year’s Day and said he hadn’t been playing like the elite point guard he and the Nets expected him to be.
“I think I can be,” Williams said that day. “But I’ve just got to figure this thing out.”
Starting with the Nets’ win in Oklahoma City the following day — the victory that kicked off the six-game winning streak they carry into tonight’s game against the Raptors in Brooklyn — Williams seems to have figured everything out, putting his disappointing first two months behind him and playing the way he did when he established himself as one of the league’s top floor generals.
Over the past six games, Williams is averaging 19.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 8.3 assists per game — all significantly higher than his full-season averages. In addition, he’s also shooting at a much higher percentage both overall (46.8 percent) and from behind the 3-point arc (48.3 percent). He also has gone a perfect 31-for-31 from the free-throw line this month.
“When he’s confident, we’re a confident team,” said Joe Johnson, who had 20 points in Sunday’s 97-86 win over the Pacers at Barclays Center. “And it just goes to show he’s leading us in the right direction.”
Confidence has been an issue for Williams this season. He has talked at various junctures about how several things, including lingering injuries and ineffective play, have shaken it at times.
But Williams said after Sunday’s game that he has plenty of confidence right now, both in his own play and in the way he and his teammates have rallied together to go on their current streak.
“We’re having a lot more fun,” Williams said. “I think you can just see it on our faces. We help each other out on defense, we’re able to get stops and get out and run and swing the ball, share the ball, get open shots. … That’s a fun way to play basketball.
“That’s the way we want to play, and when we’re doing that, we’re successful.”
Before Sunday’s win, interim coach P.J. Carlesimo said he wasn’t sure that Williams should play with a bruised right quad, the latest in a serious of lingering bumps and bruises the point guard has played through this season, but that Williams wanted to give it a go.
Williams went out and proved that was the right decision, finishing with 22 points and nine assists, including scoring four points and dishing out four assists in the fourth quarter to spur the Nets to the 17-0 run that gave them the lead for good.
After the game, Williams admitted he has changed his practice habits as the season has progressed, deciding to take more days off in order to try to give himself more energy during games — a decision that clearly has paid dividends.
“I’ve been a lot smarter about it. It’s one of those things where, ‘Do you want it in practice, or do you want it in the games?’ Because of that, my ankles feel better [and] my wrist feels better,” Williams said with a smile, before turning around and knocking on the wood in his locker for good luck. “That’s a big key for me. Just going through my head, it feels a lot better and more confident, because I know I’m not as injured, and it doesn’t affect you and weigh on you.”