BROOK SMART: Brook Lopez looks for an opening against the Kings’ DeMarcus Cousins during the Nets’ 99-90 win over the Kings on Sunday. The Nets face the Lakers tonight in Los Angeles, looking for their sixth consecutive victory. (AP)
LOS ANGELES — Not long ago, the Nets would never have been considered to be a marquee opponent for any team, let alone the NBA’s marquee team in the Lakers.
Yet that’s exactly the case tonight, as the Lakers host the Nets in a nationally televised game, and one that the Nets have their fair share of stars to match up against the star-studded opponents.
For Nets coach Avery Johnson, it’s the product of spending two years waiting for the Nets to make their move to Brooklyn, and the overhaul of the franchise that went with it off the court. That was followed by the summer shopping spree that saw the team completely overhaul its roster and vault itself into a place alongside the contenders in the Eastern Conference.
“That’s what we wanted,” Johnson said. “We wanted the big stage and everything that goes with it. I’m glad there’s a lot of hype about the game, whether it’s about two teams, whether even individual matchups … I like it.”
It’s also another chance for the Nets to see how they stack up against an elite opponent. So far this season they’ve had two chances to test themselves against teams considered to be at the top of the league. In the first, they got blown out by the Heat in Miami on Nov. 7. In the second, they edged out the Celtics at home last week.
“We’ve got to play,” Gerald Wallace said. “We had a test early in the season against Miami, and we didn’t really match up well against them. They’re obviously the defending champs … We’ve got a test [tonight] against the Lakers, who are one of the top contenders in the Western Conference.
“We take these games as a measurement to see where we are early in the season, and see what things we need to work on as a team and get better.”
For the Nets, tonight’s game also is a chance for them to stretch their winning streak to six, something the team hasn’t done since March 2006.
“[This game’s] meaningful in that we’re on a pretty good roll right now, and we want to continue it,” Joe Johnson said. “It’s really not about who we’re playing. It’s about how we play and how we execute at both ends of the floor.”
And then there’s the matter of facing Dwight Howard for the first time since the superstar center — whom the Nets spent all of last season pursuing in the hopes of pairing him with Deron Williams — was dealt to the Lakers over the summer. That also means it’s the first time Brook Lopez — who heard his name bandied about in trade proposals for Howard all of last season — will get a chance to face Howard since the speculation about his future mercifully came to an end with the four-team deal that sent him to L.A.
“It’s always fun,” Lopez said of getting a chance to go up against Howard. “He’s a good challenge for me, and it’s always an exciting game.”
But while Lopez said he wouldn’t have any additional motivation for his individual matchup against Howard tonight, his coach said he wouldn’t be surprised if Lopez did.
“I think he’ll be pretty fired up,” Avery Johnson said of Lopez. “He’s been fired up here recently. Whatever happens, it won’t be because he’s not fired up and ready to play.
“We knew the potential was there for him to block shots. Now he’s starting to solidify what we believed in him. So we need him to block shots and be more of a presence in the paint … He’s trying to do everything we ask him to do.”