Deron Williams’ 57 Points the Most in New Jersey Nets History

DWill put up some silly numbers against the woeful Charlotte Bobcats’ defense last night, and he says the explosion came out of necessity. Per the Star-Ledger: “On a night when his teammates struggled early on, Williams kept the Nets (12-26) in the game after they fell behind by 16 points in the first half. A late run by Williams, who had 17 in the half, helped the Nets get within 53-45 at halftime, and Williams scored 22 points in the third quarter to establish a new season high with 39. ‘Coach said we’d have (today) off, and I had an 11:39 a.m. tee time,’ Williams joked. ‘And he said we’d have off if we won. So I wanted to contribute. But no, we just … That first half was pretty pitiful from an all-around standpoint. We really couldn’t get much going, and defensively we were bad. Second half, I just made a conscious effort to come out a little bit more aggressive.’ Williams, who scored 50 points for Besiktas when he played in Turkey during the NBA lockout, noted that the Bobcats (4-31) did not double-team him on pick-and-rolls. He called that ‘refreshing.’ ‘I’m used to getting double-teamed on pick-and-rolls all year,’ he said. […] In the game, Williams shot 16-for-29 from the floor and 21-for-21 from the foul line (although he did miss one free throw that was nullified by a lane violation against the Bobcats, so he was able to keep the streak going). He eclipsed his previous scoring best (42 points) on an old-fashioned three-point play with 7:21 left to give him 45. He broke the team mark of 52 — previously shared by Mike Newlin and Ray Williams — when he hit two free throws with 2:34 left to give him 53 points. Williams surpassed Kevin Durant for the most points scored in a game this season (Durant had 51 points on Feb. 19 against the Nuggets) and the most since Kobe Bryant netted 61 on Feb. 2, 2009.”