Deron Williams is averaging 22.1 points per game over the Nets’ last nine games, a stretch that has seen the team go 5-4 and inch within a game-and-a-half of the final playoff spot in the East.

“My teammates are really encouraging me that I need to be aggressive and pretty much told me I need to score for us to be successful,” said Williams. “I averaged 20 points last year so it’s not that I don’t score. It’s just the way I was going about it. I like to get people involved and that’s how I get my confidence. But it wasn’t really happening early so I kind of [reversed] that role [to] score first.”

Williams is enjoying the run after suffering through a 2-9 start to the season.

“We’re playing better as a team,” Williams said. “Now we’re kind of consistent. We were making a lot of mistakes and it seems like nothing was really going right for us and I just kind of let that get me down. My spirits are a lot better now. We’re playing with a lot of energy. That’s helping everybody, not just myself but everybody. ... We’re a totally different team than we were a month ago.”