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Deron Williams, the Brooklyn Nets' franchise point guard, forgot to show up against the Miami Heat on Thursday night in a pivotal Game 2, where the Nets were looking to even their Eastern Conference SemiFinals series at 1-1.
Williams was held scoreless, on 0-of-9 shooting from the floor with seven rebounds, six assists and two turnovers in 37 minutes. He finished with a +/- of -18. How bad was this performance, in a 94-82 losing effort?
Deron Williams goes 0-for-9 and finishes scoreless for the first time in his playoff career (60 games) #Nets
— Mike Mazzeo (@MazzESPN) May 9, 2014
Yup, the first time in 60 games he was held scoreless.
To the Heat's credit, they played fantastic defense on Williams, who tried at times to get to the basket, but for most of the second half Williams was a complete non-factor. There were times where he walked the ball up the court, dumped it off to either Joe Johnson or Marcus Thornton and then took himself out of the play. He was timid, passive and completely out-matched. He was not the franchise player the Nets needed him to be. Not even close.
Tweets
"Brook Lopez had a better game tonight than Deron Williams." - Bill Simmons
— Tom Lorenzo (@TomLorenzo) May 9, 2014
Deron Williams, P. Pierce & Joe Johnson scored a combined 26 points tonight - or 2 points less than Roy Hibbert scored last night by himself
— Tommy Beer (@TommyBeer) May 9, 2014
Deron Williams was scoreless in 36 minutes tonight. 1st time in his entire career (708 games) he played at least 15 minutes yet didn't score
— Tommy Beer (@TommyBeer) May 9, 2014
"Every move we've made since we acquired Deron, was made because of Deron." #Nets official to @Ian_OConnor in his last column
— Mike Mazzeo (@MazzESPN) May 9, 2014
In the Nets’ biggest game of the season, Deron Williams was a $100 million dud: http://t.co/H0lKIUfqBO
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) May 9, 2014
If Deron Williams can't be convinced to be aggressive now, in this situation, it's clearly just not going to happen. Inexplicable.
— Howard Megdal (@howardmegdal) May 9, 2014
Deron Williams missed two wide-open 3s, a wide-open 2, blew a fastbreak and had two weak layups blocked. That's not Heat D. That's on him.
— Sean Deveney (@SeanDeveney) May 9, 2014
Deron Williams Shots
1st Quarter: 0-for-1 (missed a 3-pointer)
2nd Quarter: 0-for-4 (missed two jumpers, missed two layups)
3rd Quarter: 0-for-1 (missed a 3-pointer)
4th Quarter: 0-for-3 (missed a jumper in the lane, missed two layups)
Post-game Comments
Kidd on Deron: "I thought he had some great looks. He set the tone. He was attacking. We look for him to bounce back in Game 3." #Nets
— Mike Mazzeo (@MazzESPN) May 9, 2014
Kidd on DWill cont: "He had 7 rebounds and 6 assists. We look for him to bounce back in game 3, but overall I thought he was good."
— Rob Abruzzese (@RobAbruzzese) May 9, 2014
Deron Williams on his performance: "Just couldn't buy a bucket. Didn't get to the FT line either. … I'll definitely be thinking about it."
— devin kharpertian (@uuords) May 9, 2014
- Deron Williams scoreless as Heat beat Nets in Game 2 - Jeff Zillgitt - USA Today
- D-Will wilts in Game 2, and Heat take a 2-0 lead over Nets - Ken Berger - CBS Sports
- Scoreless in Game 2, Nets' Deron Williams continues to disappoint - Sean Deveney - Sporting News
- Thursday NBA grades: The Nets need Deron Williams and… - Kurt Helin - NBC Sports
- D-Will, Nets fail to match Heat's star power - Ohm Youngmisuk - ESPN
- Brooklyn Nets Deron Williams disappears during Game 2 - Mike Mazzeo - ESPN New York
- Deron Williams comes up small for Nets in a big spot - Neil Best - Newsday
- Deron Williams held scoreless as Nets go down 2-0 to Heat - Tim Bontemps - New York Post
- $100 million, 100 seconds, & zero to show - Devin Kharpertian - The Brooklyn Game