Where has this Deron Williams been for the Nets?

BROOKLYN — Lionel Hollins strode into the press conference before Game 4 between the Brooklyn Nets and Atlanta Hawks and didn't wait for a query to deliver his first bit of information.

"Good evening everybody. To answer the first question, my starting lineup is the same," the Nets coach said, addressing a question few around the Nets could have imagined coming up: Who is the team's starting point guard, Deron Williams or Jarrett Jack?

Then again, much of what had transpired in the series' first three games defied reasonable expectations as well, in the case of both Williams and Jack. Things had devolved so much with Williams that Hollins felt the need to aggressively defend him at shootaround between Games 3 and 4.

For Williams, whose time in Brooklyn has combined a few sustained periods of greatness amid a pastiche of humbling moments, the series with the Hawks represented a new, difficult low. He shot 26.9% from the field through those first three games, averaging six points per contest. After Game 3, he described frustration over a range of nagging injuries. But his performance certainly hadn't transcended those maladies, and Williams didn't play for the entirety of the fourth quarter in Game 3.

Instead it was Jack, an unlikely hero for the Nets. Not only does he play backup to Williams, he isn't even a prototypical point guard.

But Monday night, Williams didn't just show up. He tapped into the Williams the Nets thought they'd acquired back in 2011, the Williams signed to a max contract, the Williams who can make this supposedly lopsided matchup into a series. He finished with 35 points, the Nets were 120-115 winners, the series was tied 2-2, and the Hawks were left scrambling for answers to a franchise player who arrived just in time.

"When your coach comes out and defends you, it definitely means a lot," a visibly relaxed Williams said following the game. "It says a lot about how much he cares, not only about me, but about this team and our players."

Hollins spoke after the game about the way defending Williams had "unified our team", and it was notable that far from an internal rivalry, Williams cited one of his biggest cheerleaders as Jack.

"I've had a lot of support," Williams said. "Not only from my teammates, but important people in my life. Jarrett's definitely talked to me a lot about keeping my head up, being aggressive. I do have a tendency to get down on myself pretty hard, pretty quick. He definitely told me I was due for one, that the law of averages was gonna work itself out."

To say this game surprised virtually everyone in the building (except possibly Jack) isn't an understatement, whether the fans who booed Williams early in the contest following a turnover, or even Williams himself.

"Honestly, before the game, when I was shooting in the back, I was just hoping I could get through the game," Williams said on a night he played nearly 46 minutes. "I was definitely sore, but once the game started, adrenaline kicked in, I felt pretty good. Hopefully I'll feel good after the 45 minutes. That'll be the tell."

In Game 3, with Williams hobbled and ineffective, it had been Jack who ran the offense, scoring just five points in 28 minutes, sinking a single field goal, but tallying eight assists. With Jack at the point, the Nets ran off an 18-0 run that allowed them to take control of the game.

"He's just playing well," Hollins said when asked about Jack's success in the series. "Every series is different. I'm sure he's spent a lot of time down in Atlanta. He's got a home down there. And he's probably played a lot against these guys at home in the summer. And he probably knows them, and knows what he can do also." Hollins seemed to recognize that his summer house theory was a bit thin. "There's no explanation for it. I don't know. I can't figure it out, I'm just happy that he's playing well."

But of course the Nets aren't built around Jack. And even talking about him was an apparently fraught prospect for Hollins on Monday night, before the game.

"That's a tough question for right now," Hollins responded to a query about what makes Jack a good fit for the Nets right now, and it was impossible to miss the discomfort Hollins felt praising the man whose play had made Williams an afterthought in the series. "I haven't really thought about it like that. I like his pace. I thought last game, what he did better was, he made plays. Usually, he just shoots the ball. But he made plays, which was huge with the way that they play us. That was more important than shooting ... he got the ball to the other side, and activated our offense, and activated our defense."

Early on, Williams did plenty to address his critics, repeatedly attacking the basket after sinking two early threes. Still, the Nets offense stalled until Jack entered with three minutes left in the first, content to hang back and do things like drop a bounce pass into Brook Lopez just inside the foul line, in a perfect spot to drop a shot over the defense.

And the Nets really came alive in the second when Williams sat. Jack keyed a 7-0 run to begin the period, punctuating it with a skiball-type layup shot to force the Hawks to call timeout.

Still, the Hawks continued to shoot well for the first time in the series, and extended to a 76:64 lead with 3:32 left in the third. At which point, Hollins turned not to Williams or Jack, but to both of them. He'd done that periodically throughout the season, but with Jack off the ball, Williams running the point. He reversed those roles Monday night, and it may have saved his season.

"We needed a change," Hollins said. "We were stagnant, and we were down 12, and we just started making steals, making threes ... it's just something where your gut says, 'What else is there to do?' "

First, Jack quickly drove down the floor and found Bojan Bogdanovic for a three. After an Atlanta miss, Jack countered with a pull-up jumper. The lead had been sliced to seven. The difference in Brooklyn's energy and execution was unmistakable.

The Nets opened the fourth with Williams and Jack on the floor. On the first offensive possession, Williams drove awkwardly to the hoop and missed a layup while teammates stood around. The offensive board was knocked by Thaddeus Young to Jack, who quickly swung the ball around to Bogdanovic, eventually yielding a three in the corner to Williams.

Soon after, the game was tied at 85. At that point, Jack had a plus/minus of plus-14. Williams had a minus-2. But together, the Nets seemed to have found the formula Hollins has been searching for all season, this time with Jack as point guard and facilitator, Williams off the ball.

At that point, Utah's Deron Williams reappeared. A drive to the hoop. A long three, then another. Jack remained on the floor, but Williams took over the game.

"He put us on his back and we followed him to the finish line," Jack exalted when it was over.

Once Hollins subbed Jack out of the game, though, the offense sagged. Jeff Teague moved around Williams with abandon. Still, Williams hit an unlikely three late in a rough offensive possession, then found Brook Lopez. The Nets found just enough offense to take a late lead, but Williams drove into the teeth of the Atlanta defense and missed a contested baseline fadeaway with enough time to set up a final Atlanta possession.

In overtime, the Nets found ways to score somehow — a dropped Bogdanovic ball fell into the hands of Lopez, who scored an old-fashioned three-point play. And once Williams' 34th and 35th points sealed the game, the series breathed with new life. Williams, written off, has a best-of-three to prove himself a better player than the critics who buried him have said he is. And in Jack, he appears to have a perfect complement to get the job done.

"You know, people are always gonna say something," Williams said. "I figured that out early in my career, and it's gotten worse as the years have gone on. You can't make everybody happy. I don't think anybody can."

Williams might be surprised how many people he'll make happy, or at least silence, with more games like that one.

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