CHICAGO — Not only do the Nets have to try to win one of the next two games inside the United Center to regain homecourt advantage over the Bulls, but they will have to do so with one of their key players carrying an injury.
Joe Johnson, who had 17 points on 6-for-18 shooting in the Nets’ Game 2 loss to the Bulls in Brooklyn Monday night, sat out of practice yesterday with plantar fasciitis in his left foot, and was called a game-time decision for Game 3 tonight.
“I’m all right,” Johnson said. “[It’s] a little sore, but it kind of just is what it is at this point. I just have to fight through it.
“I’m a little sore, but I’ll be able to give them what I’ve got.”
Regardless of how the Nets are listing Johnson ahead of tonight’s game, Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said he is planning on seeing Johnson in the starting lineup tonight.
“Oh, he’ll play,” Thibodeau told reporters. “Don’t worry.”
Johnson said he aggravated the injury when he came down awkwardly after hitting a corner 3-pointer late in the first quarter of Monday’s 90-82 loss. He missed four games during the regular season with what the Nets described at the time as a “sore left heel,” but Johnson said the injury has developed now into a full-blown case of plantar fasciitis.
“Yeah, [it’s frustrating], because it’s at the point of the season that it is,” Johnson said. “This is what we play the regular season for, and we fought so hard to get to this point and to have a little nagging injury like this is tough, but it’s part of it.”
Equally frustrating for Johnson and the Nets is the fact they tried to manage his minutes late in the season, and felt like the injury was under control entering the playoffs.
“It’s unfortunate, but it’s part of it,” interim coach P.J. Carlesimo said. “Injuries happen, and hopefully he’s going to be OK, and if not, other guys have got to pick it up.”
Ironically, Johnson is now dealing with the same injury that has hobbled Bulls All-Star center Joakim Noah down the stretch of the regular season and into the first round of the playoffs. But when the comparison was brought up, Johnson was quick to point out the differences in the ways both he and Noah have to compensate for the same injury.
“It’s a little different for me and Noah,” he said. “I’m chasing guys off screens, penetrating, cutting. … He’s a big man, so it’s a lot different.”
If Johnson is either limited by the injury or unable to play in Game 3, it would rob the Nets of one of their top offensive weapons. If that is the case, Carlesimo said the way to make up for his scoring punch is through a group effort.
“It’s more about other people stepping up,” Carlesimo said. “We’ve had other people step up. If Joe’s unable to go, then Deron, I won’t have to say anything. … Deron will be more aggressive offensively.
“Other guys, collectively, have got to do it. It’s not like one guy’s got to go, ‘Joe can’t play, he’s not 100 percent, so somebody’s got to get his 20 points.’ That’s unlikely to happen. It’s more likely to be by committee.”