Deron Williams has looked like a different player since the All-Star break, and says he has a secret weapon that has helped make it happen.
“Secret stuff,” he said with a smile before Tuesday’s Nets practice. “Double secret stuff.
“I’m working with an osteopath. He’s been manipulating my bones, moving stuff around.”
It’s only been three games, but Williams has been superb, averaging 23.0 points and 6.7 assists while shooting nearly 50 percent from the field. It’s a similar jump, at least so far, to the one he had after the All-Star break a year ago.
Williams said he’s feeling as good as he did the second half of last season.
“It’s rhythm,” Williams said, when asked if health or rhythm was more influential in his recent turnaround. “I’ve been working with this guy who has been helping me out, doing some stuff with my ankles. It’s a combination of those things.”
Williams even looked like he tried to go up for a dunk during Sunday’s win over the Lakers, which he finished with 30 points, seven assists, five rebounds and a career-high six steals, and admitted he was going to try to before getting fouled on the play.
“I can dunk,” he said with a smile. “I’ve been able to dunk for a couple of weeks. I was going to dunk [Sunday], but [the defender] jumped a little higher than I did.”
Out of the many phone calls, text messages and emails Jason Collins has received since signing a 10-day contract with the Nets Sunday and debuting as the first openly gay player in the four major American sports, one stood out.
“I got a text message last night from Billie Jean King,” Collins said before Tuesday’s practice. “She’s back from Sochi, and with all that’s happening with the loss of her mother, she was great. It was really nice to hear from her.
“It was very meaningful, and I very much appreciated it.”
Collins, who said the feedback from everyone has been “overwhelmingly positive” outside of a few instances on Twitter, admitted the past few days had been a whirlwind for him. But he said he was looking forward to getting the focus back onto what he’s able to do on the court — play defense, commit hard fouls and set solid, effective screens to get his teammates open.
“I have no idea,” he said when asked when the focus would be solely on basketball. “That’s kind of up to you guys. That’s not up to me.
“And with regards to the media, there’s only so many ways you can write the story. There’s only so many ways you can talk about the off-the-court stuff until the focus really is on basketball and how the team is doing.”
In an unusual move for a player on a 10-day contract, such as Collins, the NBA began selling jerseys Tuesday at the league’s retail store in Manhattan, as well as on NBAstore.com.
Collins will wear No. 98, as he did last season in Boston and Washington, to honor the memory of Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student who was murdered in 1998.
He wore No. 46 in Sunday’s game, however, because the Nets didn’t have time to get a No. 98 jersey prepared for him.
In addition to Collins, who participated in his first practice as a Net Sunday, Brooklyn also got a pair of guards back.
Shaun Livingston (bruised tailbone) and Marcus Thornton (food poisoning) practiced, with Livingston listed as a game-time decision for Wednesday’s game against the Trail Blazers, while Thornton fully expected to play.
Livingston landed hard on his tailbone late in the first quarter of Saturday’s loss to the Warriors in Oakland, staying in the game before exiting early in the second and not returning.
“I feel a lot better,” he said. “The plan is to get up and down a little bit, see how it feels, and then hopefully be ready to go tomorrow.”
As for Thornton, he participated in his first practice as a Net since being traded for Reggie Evans and Jason Terry last week. After initially being forced to watch practice last Friday in San Francisco because Evans and Terry hadn’t completed their physicals, Thornton got a bad case of food poisoning from a bowl of lobster macaroni and cheese that kept him from playing over the weekend.
“Terrible timing,” he said with a smile, shaking his head. “Terrible timing. Hopefully it’s all the way gone and I’m ready to practice today.”