The Nets expected to have their big guy back Monday against the Sixers.
But expectations and reality are two different things.
“Brook is going to sit this one out,” Jason Kidd said Monday evening before the game. “Brook is a competitor. He wants to play. [But] for the medical staff and myself felt it was a risk. He wasn’t 100 percent. … He wasn’t moving as well I’d like.”
That certainly was not the way Lopez envisioned it going. Monday morning, Lopez was planning to play.
“I’m pretty sure. I think so. That’s the idea,” said Lopez, who first sat out Friday’s loss at Detroit with a sprained left ankle, before shootaround.
If it is just a two-game absence, not too heavy a price, considering the Nets were without Lopez for seven games after he sprained his ankle Nov. 15 at Phoenix.
Gradually, the Nets are getting whole again. Andre Kirilenko (back) and Jason Terry (knee) are still in the infirmary, but Lopez and Deron Williams finally appear set for some substantial time together. And the Nets plan to have Joe Johnson on Monday after he sat out Sunday’s practice with a cold.
But having Lopez is the big for a key stretch coming up against Atlantic Division opponents. Put it this way: Non-Atlantic Division teams have been breaking down and weeping for joy when they see Atlantic Division teams on the schedule.
“He brings a lot. He brings a dominant post player who obviously draws double teams and who can score at will, basically,” Johnson said of Lopez. “He makes everybody’s job easier, especially our offense because he draws double teams, he kicks out and we get wide-open shots.”
The Nets hope to have him back Wednesday at home against the Wizards. Lopez said this injury was not as debilitating as his first one.