ORLANDO, Fla. — It’s two games later than originally expected, but Jason Kidd will make his first regular-season appearance as head coach of the Nets Sunday night against the Magic.
“He can make his debut finally,” Deron Williams said with a smile after the Nets’ 101-100 victory over the two-time defending champion Heat Friday night in Brooklyn.
After serving a two-game suspension for pleading guilty to driving while ability impaired, Kidd will take the reins from assistant Joe Prunty, who served as acting head coach in Kidd’s absence.
“Definitely,” Williams said when asked if Kidd’s return meant things would return to normal for the Nets. “But I think our coaching staff did a great job of filling in for him. They’re going to be there no matter what. They did a great job, especially [Friday night]. … They made a lot of adjustments out there and did a really good job.”
The Nets snapped a 13-game losing streak against Miami, including nine straight games since LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined Dwyane Wade in South Beach.
It was a stat that most of this team had nothing to do with, as only Brook Lopez was on the team at the start of the 2010-11 season, but the Nets still thought it was important to bring that streak to an end.
“Deron told us that before [the game],” Kevin Garnett said. “I didn’t really know that stat. What they’ve done up until this point, up until this year, it doesn’t really matter. That’s history.
“I think we showed growth. We’ve got to grow from someplace. At some point you want to cut that 13, that, whatever the number was. We’re obviously trying to set a new creed here, a new culture, and I guess you start with getting bears and monkeys off your back, so this was a good one to get off.”
Williams said he was happy seeing his minutes jump from 22 in Wednesday’s season-opening loss in Cleveland to 27 on Friday, keeping him on track to have the limits removed when the Nets face the Magic, as Nets general manager Billy King said in a radio interview on Thursday.
“It felt good,” Williams said after scoring eight points, grabbing four rebounds and dishing out eight assists. “I got my minutes up. I’m just trying to get in the swing of things.
“My explosiveness isn’t there yet. I’m just not there. [I’ve] only had a couple of practices. … I feel like I’m in training camp right now. I’m going through all the soreness the guys went through a month ago. Once that passes it’ll feel a lot better.”
The NBA announced Saturday afternoon forward Andray Blatche was fined $15,000 for making an obscene gesture late in the fourth quarter Friday.