Deron Williams goes off as Nets take down Lakers 108-102

The Nets took a tough loss to the Warriors last night, but looked to turn their fortune around against a struggling Lakers team that can't seem to win at the Staples Center anymore. It was a somewhat historic night, as the Nets signed Jason Collins to a 10-day contract, making him the first active openly gay player in any of the four major North American sports. Besides that, Brooklyn hoped to get back to the winning ways without letting the media onslaught distract them. Tonight's win puts them back into the sixth seed in the East after dropping down to the eighth seed last night.

Paul Pierce and Deron Williams were the Nets' offense in the first half, combining for 35 of the teams 63 first half points on 12/19 combined shooting. This is a pleasant sight after the way Pierce couldn't hit a shot against the Warriors. His seven first half field goals were more than double what he made in the game against Golden State.

For Williams, he's continuing a string of games where he's looking like D-Will again. He has recently put up games of 19 points against the Jazz and 20 points against the Warriors. This looks like the start of yet another strong post-all star break for D-Will, but he needs to continue putting up numbers for the Nets to win games.

The Nets shot 57.9 percent from the field in the half including 50 percent from behind the three point line, and it was a beautiful display of D'Antoni defense as the Nets outscored the Lakers 63-47 at the half. The Brooklyn lead was 20 at one point, but the Lakers' ability to score would show up eventually. The Nets' defense was shaky at points, but they didn't let any Lakers crack double figures in the half. Jason Collins saw four minutes of playing time in the half, and posted a +7 in those minutes. His defense was what we expected it to be, and he played productive basketball.

Brooklyn had a bad third quarter, and let the Lakers cut the lead all the way down to six, but Mirza Teletovic hit a couple of threes to put the Nets' lead back up to 12 headed into the fourth quarter. With Andray Blatche struggling and allowing any Lakers center to have their way in the paint, Brooklyn began to collapse again in the fourth quarter. To everyone's surprise, the Nets' defense took a leap when Jason Collins entered the game in the fourth quarter. Brooklyn began to pull away again, and they would finish the game strong to pull off the win.

Deron Williams led all scorers with 30 points, but also dished out seven assists, five rebounds, and had a career high six steals on the defensive end. Paul Pierce added 25 points of his own and grabbed seven rebounds. Andrei Kirilenko got the start tonight and finished with a double-double of 10 points, 10 rebounds, and also grabbed six rebounds and four steals of his own.

After their hot shooting in the first half, the Nets cooled off in the second half. They shot 47.4 percent from the field in the game while the Lakers shot over 50 percent. The allowed Pau Gasol to put up 22 points on 8/12 from the field, and Jodie Meeks to put up 19 points on 7/12 from the field.

With Kevin Garnett, Shaun Livingston, and Marcus Thornton out for the Nets, we started to see a bit off depletion in this one as we saw Marquis Teague pick up minutes throughout the game. The depth wasn't there for the Nets and we saw the bench really struggle against the Lakers' bench. Thornton has yet to make his Nets debut because of food poisoning, so hopefully he'll be back for Wednesday's game in Portland.

Final Score: 108-102 NETS
Most Disappointing Stat of the Game: Andray Blatche 2/10 from the field.
Promising Stat of the Game: Deron Williams with six steals.
Scariest Moment of the Game: Lakers cutting the Nets' lead to four.
Best Moment of the Game: Jason Collins entering the game to become the first openly gay NBA player to play in an NBA game. 

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