The ghost of Deron Williams materialized Tuesday night in Portland, as the 31-year-old floor general pulled off a vintage 30-point, 8-assist performance.
D-Will’s big night pushed the visiting Dallas Mavericks to a come-from-behind 115-112 overtime win against the Trail Blazers.
Wesley Matthews, in his return to Oregon, got a nice hand from the crowd and finished with 18 points in the victory.
Per the Star-Telegram:
Deron Williams scored nine of his game-high 30 points in overtime and played a season-high 45 minutes while making 11-of-17 shots. It was the best game of the season for Williams, who also contributed eight assists, six rebounds and two blocked shots on two straight possessions by Portland with under a minute left in regulation.
“He’s one of the best players I’ve ever coached and I’m really happy to see him out there having fun playing the game and competing at a high level,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “That’s what he should be doing. He’s really getting a feel for what’s needed in our system. He knows of his importance to the team on the one hand, and on the other hand we have pretty good balance.”
Wesley Matthews, playing in his first game in Portland following five seasons with the Blazers, led the comeback with an offensive rebound put-back basket. Williams then blocked C. J. McCollum’s jumper and forced a 24-second shot clock violation. […] “It wasn’t easy, and we didn’t expect it to be,” Matthews said. “This team, they’ve got talent and they play hard above anything else. We knew we were going to have our work cut out for us. We didn’t play with the right intensity for the full 48 minutes against Sacramento and paid the price for that.”
