The Nets will play their first regular-season game in Brooklyn in three days.
But in order to get to Thursday’s game, the team will have to weather the impact of Hurricane Sandy on the metropolitan area.
“I think guys have got more butterflies about Sandy,” Nets coach Avery Johnson said with a laugh following yesterday’s practice. “Once that passes, I’m sure obviously the game is on their mind. But that’s the first thing one of my guys said … his family hasn’t been through anything like a terrible storm before.
“That’s normal for a guy to have that on his mind, but as a coach, I’ve got it all on my mind.”
If it does nothing else, the storm wreaked havoc with the Nets’ practice schedule. Originally, the team was scheduled to have yesterday off, with a trip to the 9/11 memorial followed by a scrimmage at Barclays Center on tap for today.
But because of the impending inclement weather, Johnson switched the practice schedule, holding practice at the team’s facility in New Jersey yesterday and giving them today off.
And while they likely won’t get another chance to be inside their new home before Thursday’s opener, Johnson was happy with what he saw from his team during its extended scrimmage.
“I thought it was good,” Johnson said. “It was very competitive. We were able to get in three full quarters, and that’s basically about everybody playing 32 minutes, 30 minutes, which is good.”
Yesterday also saw the return of Deron Williams to the court, after the Nets point guard missed practice Friday and Saturday after getting an injection to help with his case of synovitis in his left ankle, while Josh Childress again sat out with a sore left ankle.
Williams looked fine moving around on his ankle, and was happy with the way he and the team looked in practice.
“I felt great,” he said. “My ankle feels good.
“I thought we did a lot better today execution-wise as the game got going. There was a little rust the first couple minutes, but then we picked it up defensively.”
* Williams, who spent the summer playing with James Harden on the U.S. Olympic team, was surprised the Thunder chose to deal Harden as part of a package of players to the Rockets for Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb and draft picks.
“We talked about it a lot this summer,” Williams said. “It was a topic of discussion a lot this summer, whether they were going to pay him or not.
“He’s a great player. To lose him means a lot to that team. I don’t think that trade helps the Thunder.”