NBA Scores & More: Deron Williams Ignites As Nets Beat Knicks, Warriors Drop Clippers

Over the last couple of weeks, Jeremy Lin has made many a foil and many a fool of his opponents. His and the New York Knicks' incredible streak may have blurred the fact that this all started on Feb. 4, when Lin came off the bench to lead a comeback over the New Jersey Nets. One person who absolutely did not forget about that is Deron Williams. Based on the way he played Monday night, it seems likely that he spend the previous 15 days thinking about nothing but that game and tossing darts at a cut-out of Lin's face. Williams, who got burned by Lin throughout that loss a couple weeks ago, single-handedly dismantled the Knicks with a career-best outing from downtown. His 38 points, including eight three-pointers, led the Nets to a 100-92 win and produced the prevailing storyline in a game that had plenty others to offer.

The major storyline for the home team was one of New York's first games as a nearly-whole squad. Though several bench players were missing, the Knicks had Carmelo Anthony back in the starting lineup, Baron Davis making his debut off the bench, and J.R. Smith playing his second game with the team. Would Melo mesh with Lin? With Amar'e Stoudemire? Would Baron Davis help off the bench? Would Smith prove to be more reward than risk? The answer: Uh, maybe? A little?

The Knicks rushed out to a double-digit lead in the first quarter, moving the ball beautifully in front of a raucous crowd, but things kind of fell apart from there. Melo looked pretty rusty after two weeks on the sidelines and the rest of the Knicks struggled to find and execute open looks. More importantly, the defense caved to an otherworldly outside performance by the Nets and surrendered an exceedingly physical -- often downright nasty -- battle inside.

New Jersey's three-point shooting started as a flurry of uncontested threes by Williams and DeShawn Stevenson, but by the second half, it was all Williams, all net, all the time. It got absurd. Williams hit a career-high eight three-pointers and had 18 points of his 38 in the third quarter alone. In that third, he went from canning open looks to drilling pull-up heat checks over and through defenders. Had he not gotten in foul trouble, Williams might well have avenged his way to 50, but even with an early exit, the damage was down. Deron's outing was part of a 15-31 outside performance by the Nets, and anything that didn't come from outside the arc fell into the hands of Kris Humphries, who harassed the Knick front line to no end and finished with 14 points and 14 rebounds. The Nets went up by as much as 19 in the second half and, despite small runs, never really seemed threatened.

New York's loss dropped them back below .500 but, with a Boston loss, actually moved them to 7th in the Eastern Conference. The Nets moved to 10-24 with the win.

Visit Nets Daily for more on New Jersy and Posting and Toasting for all things Knicks.

Coming into Monday night's game between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Golden State Warriors, the Clippers were 4-2 in games decided by three points of less, and the Warriors were 1-6 in the same situation. So with the Clippers leading by two, 97-95, with possession and less than three minutes to go, you had to like L.A.'s chances. Instead, the Warriors scored the final nine points of the game to pull off the exciting 104-97 victory.

Monta Ellis scored 32 points to lead the Warriors, but the real hero for Golden State may have been second-year pro Ekpe Udoh. In his first start of the season filling in for a flu-y Andris Biedrins, Udoh had the kind of game that might keep Biedrins on the bench for a long time. Averaging four points per game on the season with a season-high of 11, Udoh scored 10 in the first quarter to help the Warriors get out to an early lead. He finished the game with a career-high 19 on 9-14 shooting to go along eight rebounds and two blocks.

Doing his part, Ellis was simply amazing. He shot 11 for 20 from the field, without an easy shot in the bunch. He was perfect from the line (6 for 6) and from behind the arc (4 for 4) and every shot he took was contested (except the free throws). David Lee had 24.

After blowing late leads against Portland and Memphis in the last week, it had to feel good to the Warriors to secure the win in the final minutes for once. Brandon Rush's three-pointer with just over two minutes left gave the Warriors the lead at 98-97. After a Chris Paul miss, Ellis hit a tough runner in the lane. Paul next got his shot blocked, and then fouled Stephen Curry, who made both free throws. A Blake Griffin turnover on the Clippers next possession with 40 seconds left effectively settled things.

For Paul it was a complete reversal of his recent performances. Against Portland and San Antonio in his last two games, he's started poorly, but came on strong in the fourth quarter. Monday night, he had 20 at halftime -- and finished with 24, including zero points on four shots in the decisive final period. Griffin was nearly unstoppable in the post against the undersized Warriors -- but he also battled foul trouble all night, and was limited to just 29 minutes of playing time. He finished with 21 points on 10 shots, and 9 rebounds. Mo Williams scored 22 off the Clippers' bench, making 6 of 8 three-pointers, while making just 2 of his 8 two-point attempts. It was that kind of game.

The closing seconds of the first half featured one of the more bizarre sequences you're likely to see. With the Clippers up four and in possession with 40 seconds left in the half, Golden State Coach Mark Jackson called for his players to intentionally foul DeAndre Jordan, a strategy the Clippers suspected he might employ against their poor free throw shooters. Paul overheard the instruction to foul, and put up a half court shot as the whistle was blowing -- which went in. The officials ruled that the basket did not count -- though neither Paul nor Vinny Del Negro seemed quite convinced of the reasoning. Jordan made one of two free throws, and on their possessions, the Warriors scored a Curry three. Now with 15 seconds left, the Warriors went to foul Jordan again, and Paul again launched a long shot from the hip figuring their was nothing to lose -- only for some reason, the whistle didn't blow, and the Warriors took the rebound and scored the final basket of the half, tying the game and giving the Warriors all the momentum heading into halftime. The hack-a-Shaq strategy has never worked so perfectly -- though in a most unconventional manner.

The loss was the first time the Clippers have lost consecutive games since December 29, and it drops them to 19-11. The Warriors improve to 12-17 with the win.

For more on the Warriors, put yourself in a Golden State of Mind. To follow the Clippers, visit Clips Nation.

In its 103-92 win on Monday, the Los Angeles Lakers got off to the fastest of fast starts and rode solid play from Kobe Bryant the rest of the way to outlast a Portland Trail Blazers team that shot 12-23 from three point range.

The fast start began with the Lakers pounding the ball inside to Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol, grabbing seven offensive rebounds and attacking the paint for 20 first quarter points there while the Blazers shot falling away from it in the first quarter, missing 14 of 17 shots. Portland only scored seven points in the first quarter, their worst quarter of the season.

By the time the game was 15 minutes old, the Lakers had a 37-7 lead and it didn't look like Los Angeles was going to let Portland score again, having shut them out for an 8-minute stretch to get that big lead. Steve Blake helped Los Angeles stay ahead in the second quarter by blasting four 3-pointers to give the Lakers a 22-point lead going into the half.

Portland had begun to chip away at that big 30-point lead and in the third quarter the lead erosion continued as the Trail Blazers knocked down seven of nine 3-point attempts, outscoring Los Angeles by eight for the quarter to cut the lead to 14.

In that quarter, Portland was more patient and got great shots, as it was not just one person who got hot for the Blazers, but five different players who hit threes. LaMarcus Aldridge had eight of his team-high 18 points in the third. Also with 18 on the night for Portland was Nicolas Batum, who had four blocks as well, some of which came in transition on Matt Barnes.

In the fourth, the lead would get to down to 10 with seven and a half minutes left, but then Mike Brown put the starters back in and Kobe made two nice shots to keep the lead at bay and get the bench cleared in the last two minutes.

Kobe wrapped up his night with 28 points on 13-26 shooting. Bynum pulled down 19 rebounds to go with his 14 points. Gasol had 16 points and 12 rebounds and Steve Blake ended with 17 after his hot second quarter.

At Blaze'rs Edge there were little moral victories involved with Portland's comeback:

The Portland Trail Blazers can dig themselves out of many self-imposed holes, but a 30-point second quarter deficit against the Los Angeles Lakers was just too much. Despite a somewhat ho-hum comeback, the Lakers easily held on in the fourth quarter to add to the Blazers' road woes.

For more from the Lakers perspective, check out Silver Screen and Roll.

The Boston Celtics got another look at life without Rajon Rondo on Monday night against the Dallas Mavericks, and things did not go well. With Rondo serving a two-game league suspension without pay for throwing the ball at the chest of an official on Sunday in a game against the Detroit Pistons, Boston turned in a clueless offensive performance. Accordingly, they never led at any point in a 89-73 road loss to the Mavs. Paul Pierce still managed 20 points on 7-13 shooting and Ray Allen added 15 more on 6-15, but without Rondo and Kevin Garnett (family reasons) the Celtics shot just 39.2 percent as a team and turned the ball over (16 times) almost as often as they assisted each other (17). No Rondo, no big problem.

Dallas didn't shoot much better as a team (40.4 percent), but they protected the ball well (8 TOs), moved the ball effectively (26 assists) and rode a solid night from Dirk Nowitzki. His game-high 26 points came on a middling 10-24 shooting, but Dirk's game-high 16 rebounds marked the most by the star big man since Jan. 13, 2010. The Mavericks secured a double-digit advantage midway through the second quarter that never fell back to a single figures and peaked at 26 in the final period, so a lot of the most interesting bits from the game involve milestones hit by Mavs veterans.

Avery Bradley picked up the start in place of Rondo, and although he scored well enough in 33 minutes of action (12 points on 6-11 FG), the second-year player failed in his role as a facilitator and creator (two assists). When Michael Pietrus leads the team with a measly four assists and the entire squad combines for 18 points in the paint, the backcourt has clearly failed to do its job. The pressure consequently heaped on Paul Pierce forced him to press a bit and fumble away five turnovers in the process. In a way, it's fitting that on the night he hit a season-high in points, Avery Bradley's most significant moment game came when Dirk Nowitzki blocked his layup attempt early in the first quarter -- it was Dirk's 1,000th rejection of his career.

Blocks aside, Nowitzki hit his biggest milestone of the night on a free throw capping a three-point play in the first quarter when he moved up to the No. 20 rank for all-time scoring leaders in NBA history, passing Robert Parish's mark of 23,334 points. After securing his new spot in league history, Dirk added 14 more points in the second quarter to push the Dallas lead to 44-33 at the half, and Jason Kidd passed Michael Jordan's 2,514 steals for the No. 2 spot on the NBA's all-time list, as the Mavs cruised to a win.

Zone looks from Boston in third quarter led to the highest scoring period for Dallas, and then starters for both teams moved to the bench for most of the fourth quarter. In the final frame Jason Terry capped off his solid 16-point, 6-assist night with pair of assists and a handful of points to keep the game firmly out of reach. Monday's contest marked a rare night where everyone on the floor for both teams, except for Nowitzki and Terry, played a mediocre-or-worse game. Unfortunately for the Celtics, many of their performances skewed towards the "or worse" option. Perhaps Jason Terry put it best in his post game comments:

"They were two men down without Rondo and K.G., so a different ball club. They tried to junk up the game and I thought we did an excellent job of being patient and getting what we wanted on the offensive end."

For more on these two teams, visit CelticsBlog and Mavs Moneyball.