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| Deron Williams' return to game action from an ankle injury was resounding success |
Finally, the Nets play a game in which they take a lead in the first quarter and hold said lead throughout the contest until the final buzzer sounds. Would it be a coincidence that one of Brooklyn's few such games this year occurred when point guard Deron Williams returned the Nets' lineup after a long injury absence? Nope, certainly not.
Deron, who missed his team's last nine games (three wins and six losses) with a sprained ankle, was in the starting lineup this evening versus the Celtics, and definitely didn't disappoint. He got through 37 minutes of playing time without any visible fatigue, scored 25 points on 10-for-16 shooting, and only committed two turnovers (with his seven assists, good for a nice 3/5 assist:turnover ratio). D-Will, even with the rust accumulated after a long stretch between games, looked comfortable in the offense and got his teammates as many great scoring chances as himself.
He also moved incredibly well on the floor, accounting for much of Brooklyn's 10 fastbreak points with quick drives down the floor right to the hoop for a nice finish. It's not very often a guy coming off an ankle injury can run circles around athletic defenders like Avery Bradley and Jordan Crawford, but that's exactly what Deron did in the Nets' win over Boston tonight in Brooklyn.
Williams was a major reason the Nets ever got the lead in the first place, as they were down by five early on in the first quarter due to a combination of horrific close-out defense and some missed open shots. However, a Deron drive and subsequent free throws helped his team fight back from its early deficit to tie the score midway through the quarter, and end it on a 16-2 run, which gave Brooklyn an 11-point lead it would basically maintain until the game ended.
Some other observations I had from the game: Paul Pierce also returned to the lineup (hand), but came off the bench and had to wear a glove on his shooting hand. Clearly, the glove impeded Paul's shooting ability in this one, as he missed all three shots he took from the field (all of which were open). He did, though, grab seven rebounds–some when the Nets' lead was suffering a bit–and was solid on defense, a point reinforced by his +7 rating…..Andray Blatche was really effective off the bench as well, putting up a +14 rating in just 20 minutes. Blatche committed some dumb turnovers early on, but found his shot as the game progressed and also helped out on the glass and nearly garnered a double-double (11 points and nine rebounds). He was constantly left open from 15 feet by the Celtics, and constantly made them pay by hitting his shots….Kevin Garnett may have played his best game as a Net against his former team, hitting half of his ten shots for 11 points and grabbing nine boards to boot. KG was finally knocking down his trademark 18-footers, which can't really be defended well when he's making them….Alan Anderson was another role player who served a big role in this win, as he went 6-for-7 shooting for 15 points, and hit some highly clutch jumpers to keep the Nets in control of the game…..Brook Lopez was totally unstoppable again, especially because the undersized Celtics had no one to guard him effectively. Brook scored 24 points on highly-effiicient 10-13 shooting. Whenever he was fed the ball down low, it went through the hoop. When combined with his statistics from last game (Saturday's win over the Bucks), Lopez is an astounding 21-26 from the field in his past two games. That's 80.7 percent from the field if you wanted to know…..Last point: With Pierce's return, Mirza and Reggie Evans both got DNP-CDs for this game. Looks like Jason Kidd has made his rotation, and it only has nine guys right now.
Looking Ahead
The Nets stay in Brooklyn to take on the Los Angeles Clippers at Barclays, on TNT, Thursday night to go for their third-straight win.
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