ATLANTA — With just over 10 seconds remaining on the game clock, Deron Williams had an opportunity to salvage yet another untidy individual performance, to silence for just a moment all the talk that his game has become too passive.
The Nets were down by 2 points to the Atlanta Hawks, who elected to chase Williams off the 3-point line when the ball reached him in the left corner. So Williams eluded a closing defender with a fake, took a quick left-handed dribble to the baseline and rose up from 16 feet away, all alone, to shoot.