NBA

Nets’ Wallace puts best foot forward

Avery Johnson never was shy about proclaiming the Nets’ need for a starting small forward. Consider that in the first 45 games this season, at the starting small-forward spot, the Nets were outscored 682-to-231, or 10 full points a game, 15.2 to 5.2.

“Last in the league,” Johnson said flatly.

But in two games with Gerald Wallace starting — and Wallace is the first to admit he is many times clueless on the court — the Nets have held a 38-18 scoring edge at there starting three. He scored 27 last night in the Nets’ 105-100 defeat to Cleveland.

“We’ve been wanting production from our three position like this all year,” Johnson said. “We got it tonight and we got it offensively.”

And again, from a guy who is virtually reading the plays off his wrist tape.

“I felt good out there. I still was kind of pressing in situations where they call plays and you can hear Coach Johnson over there yelling at me to go there, go here and do this. I think that’s probably going to happen for another week or two. Hopefully I can get the plays down and understand them,” said Wallace, who doubles at four as well.

“It’s difficult for me because as soon as I think I’m learning a play at the three, he’s throwing me in at the four and then I’m trying to figure out when and where I’m going to go. It’s kind of tough in that situation. Hopefully we just make it through the season with pick-and-rolls and Deron and Coach Johnson yelling at me the way they do,” Wallace said.

***The Nets’ locker room was a down place — and not just because Deron Williams left without comment.

“It was a game we really wanted, a game we really needed. But once again we didn’t execute very well down the stretch, and they did,” said MarShon Brooks (10 points, but 3-of-10 shooting: 15 of 49 in his last five games, .306). “It’s the same way we felt two days ago when we lost, which was down. We felt like we had the game, and we let it slip away.”

***Team sources said the Nets were not interested in J.J. Hickson, released by Kings. Cavs coach Byron Scott had Hickson in Cleveland: “When he was here the thing we always talked about was the defensive end of the floor and not thinking about offense all the time.”

***Jordan Farmer missed his third straight game with a sore groin for the Nets who hope to have him tomororw . . . Tristan Thompson, the Cavs pick at No. 4 last June, made only his second start. And he made the most of it: he had a personal high 27 points and 12 rebounds, one off his high . . . Johnson on the 55-37 rebounding discrepancy. “You’re not going to win many games when you get out-rebounded, 55-37, and when you give up 21 offensive rebounds. That’s not a good recipe for success.”

***Brook Lopez on getting past the trade deadline: “I made it. Yeaaaaa!” Lopez did not want to be traded to Orlando (or anywhere). And Johnson feels that any damage possibly done when Lopez name came up has been smoothed over.

“It’s already been mended,” Johnson said. “If your name is mentioned in trade rumors, we tell our guys, ‘Look at it as not so much an insult, but a blessing that other teams want you.’ It’s part of the nature of this business. It’s Billy’s job and ownership’s job and my job to continue to improve this product from where it was June 10th of 2010. We’re not there yet. It’s just part of the process. It’s not really an insult. I think if you take it as an insult, if you’re a big guy, then whenever you’re out on the floor, then get 15 rebounds and protect the paint and dunk on people.”

Lopez is headed for restricted free agency as the Nets did not pick up the option to extend his contract in January. It was all part of the keep flexibility plan.

***Gerald Green said he wants to stay a Net next year and signing through this season only was a mutual agreement: “Definitely mutual,” Green said of his veteran’s minimum deal after a pair of 10-day contracts. “I’m not going anywhere and hopefully they don’t want me to go anywhere and I’ll be here.”

***So what was worse, being outscored 30-17 in the first quarter or 23-12 in the last 6:45?

“The finish always feels worse,” said Kris Humphries. “I think as a team we felt like we had the momentum and we were doing the right things to win.”

***The Nets’ playoff hopes are growing increasingly dim. But they keep hope. For the most part.

“I just walked in the door. My thing is you always compete until you’re officially eliminated out of the playoffs but now [seven] games back with 19 games, that’s tough,” admitted Wallace.

And with the task so tough, the games can be tougher. Williams learned that last season.

“It’s hard to — I don’t want to say get up for games because, of course, you want to win every time you step on the floor — but when you’re trying to make the playoffs, it’s motivation to play harder and try to climb the standings,” he said.

So hope is the best ally.

“We still say we’ve got a shot at the playoffs … A couple teams mess up and we get on a streak again and we’re right there,” Anthony Morrow said.

***Johnson will never toss in the towel — OK, maybe if they’re 15 out with 10 to play. But Johnson sees a lot of goals to be accomplished in the final 20 games.

“More than anything, we’ve got to establish some sort of identity,” Johnson said “so when we come to the gym, I know what to expect. Are we going to be a defensive team, an offensive team a balanced team? We’ve got to try to establish some sort of identity and I know that’s challenging, especially without Lopez in there but we still can get close to establishing something so as we move forward. We can have some sort of purpose and identity and style of play.”