Deron Williams put down his first dunk of the season in the team’s 108-95 win over the Phoenix Suns Monday night, but there was some debate in the locker room over whether his dunk — which hit the rim and rattled before going down — was a legitimate dunk.
“We’re trying to debate if that was a dunk,” coach Jason Kidd added. “You have to ask him if it was a dunk. He doesn’t want to say it was a dunk.”
The team joked with Williams after the game in the locker room that it wasn’t. “It was a dunk, not a flush,” rookie Mason Plumlee, the team’s most prolific dunker, said. “There’s a difference. … I’m going to give it to him. He’s gone up about three times now with great courage.”
“No comment,” Shaun Livingston said with a sly smile.
Williams laughed it off. “Coach (Kidd’s) supposed to have your back, man. I can’t do nothin’ but shake my head. He’s supposed to say something, like ‘I’m proud of him, it’s a monumental moment,’ something. He was never a dunker in his day, either.”
He added it was nice to get his first one. “Especially after the one in Washington.”
Dunk or no dunk, Williams scored a game-high 28 points, hitting 11 of 13 shots from the field and adding four assists, three rebounds, and three steals, arguably putting together his best all-around offensive performance of the season.
“When he’s playing like this, it’s fun to watch,” Kidd added.
