At The End Of The First Quarter Last Night, Deron Williams Had Made More Threes Than The Wizards Had Field Goals

A few mind-blowing stats from Deron Williams's record-setting shooting night, in which he hit nine threes in one half (the record) and 11 overall: At the end of the first quarter, he had hit 8/9 shots, and was 7/7 from downtown. The Wizards, at that point, were six of 24 from the field, and had missed all six of their three-point tries. At one point, the score was 22-2, and Williams had hit six threes. He had hit three times as many threes as the Wizards had points. (How about Greg Anthony calling the threes "fool's gold" at about the 30-second mark in the video above, when Williams had only made a few?) The Wizards, who had an especially bad shooting night irrespective of Williams's brilliance, have a way of making excellence look downright God-like by comparison.

Here's his first-quarter shot chart, courtesy ESPN Stats & Info [click to expand]:

Williams also only played 10 minutes in the first, so the damage could have been worse—a fact that hit home when he sat for another seven minutes after the first quarter, came back, and promptly made his eighth three. As the second half wound down, AP basketball writer Brian Mahoney tweeted this:

Literally seconds later, Williams hit his ninth three. At the end of the first half, the Wizards still hadn't hit from deep. Deron Williams and the Washington Wizards went to the locker rooms tied, 33-33. The Nets were up 26. Then Williams hit his tenth three about a minute into the second half. John Wall was understandably mystified:

Then, at the end, the game devolved into hacking Reggie Evans. He missed five consecutive free throws, and the shooting ledger was balanced in Brooklyn.