When you need a win, there’s no better opponent than the Bobcats.
The Nets took advantage of their hapless opposition Friday night, jumping out to a 33-15 lead after the first quarter and never looking back, picking up a much-needed 97-81 victory in front of a sellout crowd of 17,732 inside Barclays Center in the team’s first game following the firing of head coach Avery Johnson.
“I think guys understood what we’ve got to do and understood what happened,” Gerald Wallace said. “I think Coach Avery getting fired kind of hit guys in the face as to the situation we’re in right now. Our backs are against the wall … we played great team defense, we moved the ball really well, and we did it for 48 minutes.
“We’ve just got to carry it over. This happens all the time, where we have one good game. We’ve got to continue to put games together now.”
The Nets (15-14) put together a complete performance against the Bobcats (7-22), who have now lost 17 consecutive games, including holding Charlotte to under 39 percent shooting from the field and outrebounding the Bobcats 43-36.
But, most importantly, the Nets received excellent games from their big three of Deron Williams, who had 19 points on 7-for-14 shooting, Joe Johnson, who finished with 16 points and four assists, and Brook Lopez, who had 26 points, 11 rebounds, three blocks and two assists.
“I thought we just played with more energy,” Lopez said. “We really trusted each other defensively … we had each other’s back. Offensively, the ball was really popping. It was moving.”
* After Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov said at halftime that interim coach P.J. Carlesimo could have an opportunity to keep the job, Carlesimo said afterward it wasn’t anything he had put much thought into.
“Honestly, if I had a choice of somebody else getting the job or me, I’ll think about it but I’ll probably pick me,” Carlesimo said with a smile.
“It really isn’t something you’re thinking, because I don’t have a good sense of what’s going on.
“I think they’re still looking at it, and my job is I’m an assistant who’s minding the store, and we’ll see what happens.”
One potential candidate who wasn’t shy about expressing his desire to replace Johnson was Mike Dunleavy. The Brooklyn native and former coach of the Lakers, Bucks, Trail Blazers and Clippers made that clear on his Sirius/XM radio show yesterday, calling the job a “premier one” in the NBA.
“First off, I’m from Brooklyn, so if ever given the opportunity to coach a team from Brooklyn it would be a dream come true,” Dunleavy said.
There also were multiple reports of the Nets being interested in eventually speaking with Kelvin Sampson, who has become a well-respected NBA assistant with the Bucks and the Rockets, for whom he currently works over the past several seasons. When Rockets coach Kevin McHale left the team last month to be with his sick daughter, Sampson coached the team for 13 games, compiling a 7-6 record. He is a former college head coach at Washington State, Oklahoma and Indiana, where he was eventually forced to resign due to NCAA violations.
Yahoo! Sports also reported that former Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy had interest in replacing Johnson, but likely wouldn’t be willing to interview for the job with an interim coach in place. That is a policy Van Gundy has adhered to in the past after the Knicks interviewed Phil Jackson while he was coaching the team in an interim role.