Deron Williams: Nets feel they're better than Heat
Deron Williams (left) has yet to beat the Heat as a Net. (Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images)
The Nets have dropped 13 consecutive games to the Heat, including three lopsided losses last year and nine defeats in a row overall since LeBron James joined Miami in 2010. But Deron Williams likes new-look Brooklyn's chances against the two-time defending champions this year.
"I don't know if we felt we were a better team than the Heat last year," Williams told ESPNNewYork.com. "And so I think in order for us to be able to beat them this year, we have to feel like we are a better team and we can beat them. And I think we do."
Williams and the Nets (0-1) -- who added Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Jason Terry and Andrei Kirilenko in the offseason -- can start to show that's the case when they play host to the Heat (1-1) on Friday. The bad blood between the teams is already boiling. In an Oct. 18 preseason game, Pierce delivered a hard foul to LeBron James. "That's going to [be] our identity," Pierce said afterward. "It's a message to the league."
Before that game, James suggested that Pierce, Garnett and Doc Rivers were perhaps a little hypocritical for leaving the Celtics one year after they criticized former Boston guard Ray Allen for signing with the Heat. Garnett fired back, saying LeBron should “worry about Miami.”
