For their longest stretch of the season together Tuesday night, the BrookDray Nets showed what they can do.
In a move long contemplated and finally realized with the help of some foul trouble on Reggie Evans, the Nets went with an alignment of center Brook Lopez and Andray Blatche, normally Lopez’s backup, moving over to power forward.
“It was good to finally be out there and try everything out,” said Lopez, who scored 26 points and had five rebounds in 32 minutes — and he sat the entire second quarter — of the Nets’ 108-98 victory over the Hornets at Barclays Center. “I personally wondered what it was going to be like a lot — if it was going to work, if we were going to have to work at it. It was good to be finally out there and test it.”
Oh, Brook and ’Dray had joined forces before — for a total of 60 minutes all season. Last night, they played nearly 13 minutes together, and the Nets were a plus-4 when the two teamed up. Lopez and Blatche ruled inside and opened up everything for the likes of Deron Williams.
“It spreads the floor,” said Blatche (18 points, 12 of them in the second quarter when his play kept Lopez on the bench). “You saw Deron kept getting to the rim because there’s nobody for them to come off. It makes my job easier in the paint. It makes (Lopez’s) job easier in the paint. It’s just another weapon we have.”
One that could be especially formidable in the playoffs when games slow down and size is needed in the half-court. Interim coach P.J. Carlesimo stressed how he has wanted to use it. He planned on it last night, especially with Hornets power forward Anthony Davis, last June’s top draft pick, providing matchup fits.
And it especially was a good time, given that the Nets get the lowest scoring return of any NBA team at power forward: 9.2 points.
“We were going to do it anyhow. I was going to put ’Dray in for the first big sub (of the second half) because we were having trouble with Davis,” Carlesimo said. “We wanted to look at it.
“Their interaction has always been good. They both can pass the ball decently. They did a little bit of everything. They scored, they rebounded and they had some assists.”
Lopez started the tandem’s third quarter scoring when he posterized twin brother Robin with a hellacious dunk that had Williams singing the “SportsCenter” theme.
“It makes a big difference having those two guys out there,” Williams said. “The whole team has to pay attention to where they are at all times. We can also throw it to either one of them on the block and let them go to work.”
So is this a staple, something for Sunday when the Nets play again?
“I never know what P.J.’s got up his sleeve. Who knows when we play on Sunday?” Blatche said.
fred.kerber@nypost.com