NBA

Deron powers Nets’ new offense past 76ers

Deron Williams hit his shots when it counted.

The star point guard may not have had a great shooting day overall against the Sixers, finishing 5-for-11 from the field, but Williams hit a 3-pointer with 1:04 left and a layup with 40.5 seconds remaining to lift the Nets to a 95-92 win over the 76ers in front of a sellout crowd of 17,732 at the Barclays Center. The victory snapped the Nets’ three-game losing streak.

“I hit some shots, the 3 and then the layup, some shots that we needed and at a crucial time,” said Williams, who finished with 16 points, six rebounds and five assists. “Hopefully that can get my confidence going a little bit.”

After Williams expressed his opinion following Monday’s practice the Nets (14-12) needed to have more movement in their offensive sets, the team took advantage of the three-day break between Wednesday’s loss to the Knicks at the Garden and yesterday’s game to examine their offense and make some changes to it.

Coach Avery Johnson spent all day Friday installing some new motion sets that could better suit his star point guard’s game, and they worked almost to perfection in their first unveiling in game action. That was particularly true at the end of the game, with both the 3-pointer and layup coming out of the new sets Johnson had installed.

“We were 7-for-8 on that play [in the game],” Johnson said. “It was just good that we got a lot of movement, a lot of continuity. We didn’t have a our passes deflected. … Guys just trusted the offense.

“It hasn’t been many times this year that we’ve made four times on a particular halfcourt offensive play, so it was fun to watch and that was a big, big 3 that Deron made.”

The win saw the Nets return to a lot of the principles that had carried them to an 11-4 record through November, a performance that earned Johnson the NBA’s coach of the month honors. The Nets took care of the ball yesterday, committing only nine turnovers, and got away from their overreliance on 3-pointers. They also were able to hold a lead for virtually the entire game after an 18-0 run in the first quarter put them up 22-12.

Most importantly, they were aggressive in attacking the basket, which helped them earn a 30-10 advantage in free throw attempts over the Sixers as well as getting them 44 points in the paint. That was especially evident from Williams, who passed up several potential shots on the perimeter in order to attack the basket, either to get shots or set up his teammates.

“Early [in the game] I didn’t want to settle for 3s,” Williams said. “I’ve been having a lot of open 3s, and shots that I can normally make, and right now they’re not falling. I want to try to put the ball on the floor until it feels better.”

The Nets also avoided the third-quarter woes that have plagued them virtually all season, thanks to a red-hot shooting performance from Joe Johnson, who finished with 10 of his team-high 22 points in the third quarter.

Johnson went 4-for-5 from the field in the third and scored the Nets’ final eight points of the quarter, including two long 3-pointers in a row to end the period. The last shot came from 31-feet away with a hand right in his face as the quarter ended.

“When the ball was swinging to me, I was just catching it and just shooting it,” Joe Johnson said. “That last one I had shot, I’d made a couple so I was pretty confident in shooting from deep. … I didn’t want to take too many dribbles to where I was taking a rushed shot, so I took my time and took a pull-up 3, and it just went down.”

A pair of missed foul shots from both Williams and Johnson in the final minute, coupled with some late 3-pointers from Philadelphia’s Jrue Holiday, who finished with a game-high 24 points and nine assists, and Dorell Wright made things a little closer than the Nets would have liked.

But after their recent struggles, the Nets were happy to get a win.

“We just needed to get back on the winning track, especially in our building,” Williams said. “This was big for us tonight.”

tbontemps@nypost.com