The opportunity arose. And Troy Murphy answered.
Murphy had not played in seven straight games, and was inactive in the last six, but he put his Nets uniform on last night — and he got the call before the first period expired. Murphy entered the game at 1:45 of the first after rookie Derrick Favors picked up two fouls less than a minute apart. Murphy wound up playing 10 minutes, all in the first half, and had four points, three assists and one rebound in the Nets’ 98-96 win over the Blazers in Newark.
If that’s not quite what the Nets had in mind when they acquired him in a trade that cost them Courtney Lee, it beat having him sitting and watching all 48 minutes.
“It felt good to get out there. I’m happy we won,” said Murphy. “It’s really not that difficult. I worked very hard when I was away. . . . I just go out there and play my game. Do what I do, that’s it.”
Coach Avery Johnson, who said “Troy is in a position where he was brought in to do one thing [start at the four] and it hasn’t worked out,” added that he was more than pleased with Murphy’s effort last night.
“Murph was good. Murph was strong. He had a couple of assists,” Johnson said. “I thought he made a couple of strong moves to the basket, spaced the floor for us. We couldn’t get him back in the second half. I thought when he was in there he looked totally different than he did early on.”
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Reality TV star Kim Kardashian
, who has been linked to the Nets’ Kris Humphries
, sat courtside. . . . Terrence Williams
reported as planned to the Springfield Armor of the D-League yesterday. . . . The Nets, who had lost five straight against Portland dating to Nov. 21, 2007, shot .525. . . . Quinton Ross
missed his fifth straight game with a strained calf. He is due to return today to practice, which Johnson said Ross needs.
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Favors is being brought along gradually in the spotlight, but the Nets’ other first-round pick, Damion James
, is starting to get some attention, too. Johnson praised the rookie’s “energy and athleticism.”
“In terms of this year being a developing year, if I can now get him 12, 14, 16 minutes, that will be good as we move forward,” Johnson said.
James, who played 13 minutes last night, said he was pumped. He added that his goal, whether playing 2 or 4 minutes or 60 seconds is “to bring a lot of positives.
“If we’re at level eight,” he said, “I want to get it to level nine.”