Deron Williams grateful for a chance not to "wait and watch" in the corner

Deron Williams hasn't spoken much about his time in Brooklyn.  Doesn't want to, he said.  But Saturday night after he swished two off-the-dribble shots to help seal the Mavericks' 107-98 win over the winless Pelicans, he relented for the first time since he was bought out and stretched in July.

"Any time you can hit the last couple and kind of close out the game and put it out of reach, it makes you feel good," said Williams, who finished with a team-high 19 points. "I don’t like to talk about my time in Brooklyn, but a lot of times I was in the corner waiting and watching, so it felt good to just have the ball at the end of the game and be able to make a play."

That of course would seem to be a criticism of his last three coaches --P.J. Carlesimo, Jason Kidd and Lionel Hollins, all of whom chose Joe Johnson or Jarrett Jack to take the game winners, with generally positive results. Under Kidd, in fact, Johnson shot something like 90 percent on shots at the end of regulation or overtime.

He scored 16 points on 5-of-10 shooting, co-starring with Dirk Nowitzki, easily his best performance so far.  He had been troubled by nagging injuries in training camp and the first week of the season.  So far, he's averaging 14.0 points and 5.2 assists in 29 minutes, about what he did last season for the Nets, but he's shooting a lot better --44.8 percent overall and 38.9 percent from deep.

• Deron Williams 'definitely took a step in the right direction' in Mavs - Tim MacMahon - ESPN DFW