ORLANDO, Fla. — Avery Johnson has this dream. In it, the Nets coach sees his team practicing, playing games. With at least 12 health players. Not eight or nine or 10 with a couple maybes. Twelve.
Thirteen? Nice number. But don’t get greedy.
“I’m praying now,” said Johnson, whose Nets hit the All-Star break with a 10-25 record and visions of better, healthier and more competitive days ahead. “Maybe it’s too much to ask for, but I hope we can have 10 days after the break where I’ve got all 12 or 13 of our players healthy.
“We’ve shown some signs of life in what I’m calling the first half of the year, especially on the road. We’ve got to figure out how to play better at home.”
Health and victories at home? The guy wants everything.
If the Nets get something resembling health — full health is impossible because three wings are out for the year (Shawne Williams, Keith Bogans and Damion James) — then there could be happiness at home. And something beyond. Don’t laugh, but the Nets are talking playoffs.
Stop laughing. Yes, their players have missed a staggering 121 games to injury/illness/whatever and have been forced into 17 different starting lineups, making chemistry a joke. But the absurdity of the schedule eventually eases up.
From March 10-29, the Nets play nine of 11 games at home. Granted, it won’t mean much if they don’t improve on their 3-13 home nausea. But if they do and stay healthy, then the 6 ½ games separating them from the eighth playoff spot will seem less intimidating.
“We haven’t had a full roster this season and we’re not going to,” said Deron Williams, who is in the skills competition here tomorrow and the All-Star Game Sunday. “We are happy to hopefully get [guys] back and then we’ll be a better team.”
And then?
“We going to try to make a playoff push,” Williams insisted. “We’re not too far back from the playoffs, so it’s not over. We realize that. … We have to find a way to win at home, get some energy. Even though there’s not a lot of energy in the arena, we’ve got to make our own energy.”
Losing and lack of arena energy tend to go hand-in-hand. But with Brook Lopez back for two games from a broken foot and scheduled to start playing regularly after the break, the Nets envision what could be.
“We’ve got a group of guys who just want to go out there and play hard and play with a lot of energy. We can fill the basket up, no question. We have most of the roles filled,” Lopez explained. “Hump [Kris Humphries] brings a lot of energy … Deron obviously leads the team. There’s not much more I can say about him that hasn’t been said. I think we can do something very special.”
Johnson just wants to walk without crutches before the Nets run to the playoff race.
“It’s an unknown. We’ve shown flashes. I’d like to see us play really good on both ends with Brook in the lineup. We haven’t done that yet,” Johnson said. “We could have really solid expectations based on our roster, but it remains to be seen.”