Deron Williams

Deron Williams will come off the bench for the second straight game against the Orlando Magic, Nets coach Jason Kidd announced before the game, with no definite timetable for his return to the starting lineup.

"We'll just take it one day at a time," Kidd said of Williams's return.

Williams sat out 16 days with a sprained left ankle before returning to the roster January 20th, in a 103-80 victory against the New York Knicks. He underwent platelet-rich plasma therapy and cortisone shots in both ankles to help ease the pain.

With Williams coming off the bench, Shaun Livingston, Alan Anderson, Joe Johnson, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett will start once again; the Nets are 5-0 when they start that lineup.

Williams said after the victory over the Knicks that the demotion was his idea: "We've been playing so well with that (starting) lineup, why shake things up?"

Williams played 27 minutes Monday night, shooting 4-10 from the field.

Deron Williams is most definitely not cut from Allen Iverson's cloth.

Not many max-contract players like coming off the bench, and fewer would suggest it themselves, but Williams is one exception. After a little over two weeks off to rest after a sprained left ankle, platelet-rich plasma treatment in both ankles, and cortisone shots in both ankles, Williams elected to come off the bench for the first time since February 2, 2006.

"We've been playing so well with that (starting) lineup, why shake things up?" Williams explained after the team's 103-80 victory over the Knicks. "It doesn't matter if I come off, start, whatever. The way Joe (Johnson)'s been playing in the first quarter, first half, I don't want to disrupt that."

Johnson scored 20 points in the first half, 15 with Williams on the bench. Johnson finished with a team-high 25 points.

The conversation with Kidd to bring Williams off the bench was easy, according to Williams. With a game tomorrow against the Orlando Magic, it's not clear if they'll continue to bring him along slowly, though Williams was open to the idea. "Why not?"

"I've never been a person to care about that type of thing," he later added. "It's not a big deal."

(Don't tell Iverson.)

He & the team will evaluate how he feels tonight and tomorrow morning before proceeding.

With Williams's decision to come off the bench, Shaun Livingston and Alan Anderson stayed in the lineup, next to Joe Johnson, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett. The Nets are 5-0 when they run out that lineup, and 7-1 overall in 2014.

Williams played 27 minutes, a fair portion of them in garbage time in the second half. He finished with 13 points, three rebounds, and three assists on 4-10 shooting.