LOS ANGELES — While the teams around them battle for positioning behind the Heat in the muddled Eastern Conference standings, the Nets are one of the few not dealing with a debilitating injury to one of their key players.
Though the Nets have made it through the season relatively unscathed when it comes to injuries, they are currently trying to get Joe Johnson and his sore left heel back to 100 percent as they enter the final few weeks of the regular season.
“I feel pretty good,” Johnson said after the Nets moved to 2-0 on the Circus Trip with their 113-96 win over the Mavericks in Dallas. “I think, for me, my heel kind of stiffens up a little bit when I sit, but that’s part of it.
“I’m still able to go out there and be in the game.”
Johnson has been able to go out there for the Nets after sitting out four games since the All-Star break to give his sore heel some rest, but the Nets’ shooting guard hasn’t been playing at quite the level he was earlier this season.
In 11 games since the break, Johnson’s numbers are down across the board. He’s playing a little more than three fewer minutes a game — which is understandable, given the Nets’ desire to keep him fresh for the playoffs and take pressure off his heel — and is shooting less overall, scoring fewer points (13.6 per game, down from 17.0), while shooting worse from the 3-point line (35.7 percent, down from 38.4) and getting to the line fewer times a night (1.0 attempts per game, down from 2.6).
His assist numbers are up — in part from being able to handle the ball and allow Deron Williams to come off screens for jumpers. That was something the Nets did plenty of in Wednesday’s win, when Johnson had five assists and Williams exploded for 26 second-half points and finished the game with 31.
“[Williams has] been in rhythm since the break,” Johnson said. “Every time he shoots, you think it’s going in, so it gives me a chance to kind of bring the ball up and be a playmaker a little bit, and get him off the ball because he’s a great catch-and-shoot guy.
“[I can] get him some easy looks, so I was glad he was able to get into a rhythm and hit some big shots.”
There also is going to be less pressure on Johnson to score on nights such as the one the Nets had in Dallas, when his nine points went virtually unnoticed alongside the production from Williams and Brook Lopez, who finished with 38 points and 11 rebounds.
“It was great,” Johnson said. “I think Brook pretty much carried us in the first half and in the second half D-Will got hot. Sometimes it’s not going to be everybody’s night. You’ve got to feed the hot hand and Brook and Deron were hot tonight.
“When you have two guys in rhythm the way Brook and Deron were, it’s hard to beat any team like that,” Johnson said. “When our defense is clicking and our rotations are on point defensively, that’s all you can ask for on the road.”
Brooklyn clinches playoffs
By virtue of the 76ers’ 101-100 loss in Denver Thursday night, the Nets clinched a playoff spot in their first season in Brooklyn.
“Making the playoffs is great for our fans and the organization,” general manager Billy King said in an email. “Now we need to continue getting better as a team.”
It is the first playoff berth since the 2006-07 season for the Nets, who spent more than $330 million during the offseason to revamp and overhaul their roster.
The Nets (40-28), who have won six of their last eight games, are in fourth place in the Eastern Conference, one game behind the first-place Knicks in the Atlantic Division.