Deron Williams scores 29 as Nets beat Knicks, 110-99

The buzz just wasn't there at the outset, certainly not one that mirrored the festive atmosphere that was the norm in the teams' previous eight meetings.

Nets fans kept waiting to explode but seemed unsure that things were going well enough, even though their team wasn't being threatened by the Knicks.

So leave it to Deron Williams to become a human alarm clock in the second half, awakening Barclays Center with some eye-popping drives to the basket. Williams scored 12 of his 29 points in the third quarter, propelling the Nets to a 110-99 win before a sellout crowd of 17,732.

Williams shot 10-for-15, hitting six of his final eight tries, and was efficient distributing and taking care of the ball. He had six assists and three turnovers.

"I just wanted to be aggressive," he said. "I thought the first couple of games we've played, I kind of died down in the second half. So I wanted my energy to be up in the second half. I felt like we needed somebody to kind of step up. So I just took it upon myself a little bit."

Williams' second half piggybacked Brook Lopez's solid first half, another good sign for the Nets (3-2). Bothered by his late-game fizzle Wednesday night, Lopez was a force with 20 points and nine rebounds. The 7-footer even got to the free-throw line 10 times, evidence that he was being much more aggressive.

That sort of offensive explosions by Williams and Lopez on the same night is a rarity, in part because of their injury-plagued seasons since the franchise moved to Brooklyn. Consider: Friday night's performance marked the first time the Nets' main inside-outside tandem has topped 20 points in the same game since Dec. 10, 2013. That had Lopez pondering the possibilities should that happen more frequently.

"It can be great," he said. "I think a lot of that had to do with injury as well. Deron was our spark plug tonight, and I'm not going to stop saying it. We played off our defense. Our defense was spectacular. It set the tone for the game and helped us play offense the way we did."

Effectively running their triangle offense remains a problem for the Knicks, who shot 41.1 percent and watched their best player's scoring struggles continue. Carmelo Anthony had 19 points but never got into a rhythm, shooting 5-for-20. With Anthony unable to get it going and backup point guard Pablo Prigioni sitting out with a sprained right ankle, they never had a chance.

"When you don't have the confidence or that flow or that rhythm on the offensive end, whether it should or not, it still trickles down to the defensive end," Anthony said. "It shouldn't have no correlation with one another. But right now it is. We're struggling offensively, and at times on the defensive end, it's affecting that as well."

The Nets shot 51.4 percent from the floor and led the Knicks (2-4) by 22 points in the fourth quarter. In the third quarter, the Nets shot 12-for-18 to the Knicks' 10-for-26. Williams led the way with 4-for-6 shooting.

"I'm going to take this one," Iman Shumpert said. "Deron Williams got to do whatever he wanted out there. I got to get better with controlling the ball after him coming off the ball screen. I didn't do a good job of that tonight."