CHARLOTTE — when Deron Williams missed 12 of the 15 shots he took against the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night, Nets coach Avery Johnson preferred to focus on the job his point guard did in quarterbacking the team to a win.
But when Williams ended up taking just nine shots in Friday's loss in Boston, Johnson on Saturday admitted that maybe Williams was feeling the effects of a nagging leg problem he picked up in the All-Star game last weekend.
"It could be a problem," Johnson said of Williams' being bothered by soreness in his left foot and right calf. "And then I just need to get him more shots."
Speaking after the Nets' light practice at UNC-Charlotte, Johnson said he doesn't see the same explosiveness in Williams he did before the All-Star break. Naturally, the coach is hoping the leg gets better with treatment and Williams' explosiveness returns. the Nets, Johnson said, are better when Williams is aggressively looking for his own shot first.
Williams — who admitted the right calf, strained in the All-Star game, is bothering him — said he tried to be aggressive early against Boston. But the Celtics trapped him, he said, and he wasn't getting the foul calls he expected from the referees. so he became more passive.
"We're not coming off certain things, and when I get trapped, we've got to learn to make the other pass so that they can't (trap me)," he said. "we still try to force it.
"But it'll come," he said. "And I'll be more aggressive."
Kris Humphries is troubled by a left calf injury, which has been bothering him since the Feb. 20 game against the Knicks, the third game in three nights for the Nets.
"you know, the front of my leg was hurting in the Milwaukee game," which was the second of the three games, he said. "Then in New York, I pulled something in the back of my leg.
"I think it was just playing a ton of games. Over the All-Star break, it felt better. I felt it a little bit in the Dallas game, but when I'm out there, no excuses."
Humphries, who had six points and five rebounds against Boston, didn't practice Thursday. He was asked if he thought he might have to miss a game one of these days — the Nets have four games in five nights beginning Tuesday in Miami.
"I don't know," Humphries said. "We're treating it as many times as we can and just staying after it, so it's one of those things where this season is condensed, and things you might (normally) be able to play through, sometimes you have to take time off with, because of how many games there are. But I'm not looking to do that, I'm looking to play (tonight against the Bobcats) and keep working."
Colin Stephenson: cstephenson@starledger.com; twitter.com/Ledger_Nets
Nets' Deron Williams hindered by ailing calf
