Nets Win Their Third in a Row Despite an Injury to Lopez Deron Williams wove through the Los Angeles Clippers and dizzied them with his dribbles. His cuts and feints elicited whoops and delighted gasps from the Barclays Center crowd. In his second game back from a sprained ankle, Williams looked sharper and more confident Thursday night than he had in months and led the Nets to a 102-93 win. The Nets improved to 8-14 and stretched their season-best winning streak to three games. "You can see the energy has picked up, the pace has picked up," Williams said, "and I think I have a little bit to do with that, but I can't take all the credit. We're playing well right now as a team. We're moving the ball. We're helping each other out. We're talking. We're having fun. The fun was momentarily spoiled, though, when Brook Lopez tumbled to the ground during the third quarter. He had to leave the game, and the Nets said he had a sprained left ankle. He was forced to miss seven games last month with the same diagnosis. Lopez accompanied the team to Detroit after the game, but it was not clear if he would play against the Pistons on Friday. "Last time I twisted it, it felt much more severe," Lopez said. Losing Lopez would be a big blow. Before and after Thursday's game, Coach Jason Kidd singled out the Nets" health as the biggest key to the team's recent success and the factor most necessary to sustain it. Andrei Kirilenko and Jason Terry - two injured reserves - both appear far from ready to play. The Nets had to dwell on the good things from Thursday's game, then, like the continued resurgence of Williams, who improved his personal career record against Chris Paul, the Clippers" star point guard, to 15-5. Several years ago, the two were often labeled the best players at their position, but the link faded as Williams struggled to stay healthy the last two seasons. It was an entertaining sight, then, as the two took turns directing traffic, zooming across the crowded floor and unspooling pinpoint passes. Williams finished with 15 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists, imbuing the Nets" offense with drive and purpose. Paul had 20 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists. "He's a guy who kind of sets the table - you saw that throughout the game tonight," Kidd said of Williams. You had some of the top points guards out there on the floor on both sides. Williams's supporting cast made the difference. Andray Blatche put together a complete performance, scoring 21 points and grabbing nine rebounds off the bench. Joe Johnson scored 21 points and went 4 for 7 from 3-point range. Lopez, before he was hurt, had 16 points and 7 rebounds. Blake Griffin struggled for the Clippers, scoring 12 points on 2-for-8 shooting and collecting 11 rebounds. Paul Pierce, who is wearing a protective glove to shield a fractured bone in his shooting hand, played his second consecutive game as a substitute, with Alan Anderson slotted into the starting five. The game was just the fifth of Pierce's career in which he came off the bench. Kidd said before the game that he did not know how long the arrangement would last but that he liked the leadership Pierce brought to the reserve group. With Pierce assuming the ball-handling duties in the second quarter Thursday, the second unit began to erase the Clippers" 25-20 first-quarter lead. Pierce, who finished with 10 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists, spurred the Nets with his passing and drained a transition 3-pointer with 8 minutes 17 seconds left in the first half that tied the game at 31-31. An 8-footer from Blatche less than a minute later gave the Nets their first lead. "I'm playing my part in this," Pierce said. That's what it is. I'm trying to lead the second team. We've developed some chemistry with that unit. Williams took over from there, scoring 12 of the Nets" final 16 points in the first half. Just before the intermission, he sent Paul the other way on a crossover, right to left, and finished a floater at the hoop. The Nets" 36-point second quarter gave them a 56-44 advantage at halftime. If the duel between Williams and Paul provided one subplot to the game, and Lopez's injury a second, the reunion of Clippers Coach Doc Rivers with Pierce and Kevin Garnett provided another still. The three spent several years together with the Boston Celtics and won a title in 2008. On Thursday, Garnett interrupted his meticulous pregame routine to run over to the visitors" bench and give Rivers a hug. Rivers was emotional Wednesday during his first game back at Boston's TD Garden, but he said seeing his longtime players in Brooklyn was just plain fun. Pierce went over to Rivers at one point and joked that he knew all his plays, and Rivers, Pierce and Garnett shared a laugh after the final buzzer sounded. "They will be in the playoffs, and they will be very difficult by the end of the year," Rivers said of the Nets. As Williams and Lopez showed Thursday, getting healthy and staying healthy may be the key to that.