Brooklyn Nets point guard Deron Williams was a super-sub on Monday against the New York Knicks, and D-Will says he’s happy to come off the bench for now. Per Newsday:
After missing five games, he came off the bench — marking the first time he’s done that in nearly eight years — and had 13 points, three assists and three rebounds in the Nets’ 103-80 win over the Knicks at the Garden.
Williams, who said he would have no problem continuing to come off the bench, slid back into a key role on a team that is 7-1 in 2014, and his revival gave the Nets an emotional jolt.
“It gives us a huge boost because we need Deron,” Paul Pierce said. “No matter how we’ve been playing, at the end of the day, if we are going to make some noise here in the East, we need what he’s able to do. You saw what he was doing before he got injured. We need that Deron to come out here, be aggressive, be a facilitator and really lead.”
Being unselfish didn’t hurt, either. Williams, wanting to step in as seamlessly as possible, said he suggested to Jason Kidd that he be used in a reserve role Monday. The Nets had been rolling without him, riding Joe Johnson’s hot hand, and the last thing he wanted to do was mess with their chemistry. So he came off the bench for the first time since February 2006, when he was with the Jazz. “Just because we’ve been playing so well with that lineup, why shake things up?” Williams said. “It doesn’t matter if I come off or start or whatever. I think the way Joe’s been playing the first quarter, first halves, I don’t want to disrupt that.”
