NBA

Nets could sign Knicks castoff Balkman

CHICAGO — Nets coach Avery Johnson has not tried lately to hide his desire for an upgrade at small forward. He already has started five different players at the position this season, and the search could lead to Renaldo Balkman, waived when the Knicks signed J.R. Smith.

NBA sources confirmed the Nets have some interest and are researching Balkman and the possibility of adding the 6-foot-8, sixth-season veteran out of South Carolina out of South Carolina.

The Nets’ need has been glaring. Consider the Nets ended their 97-85 upset of the Bulls yesterday having been outscored on the season at the starting small forward position, 500-188, or 15.6-5.9 per game. And that included a whopping 57-0 in two games before yesterday when DeShawn Stevenson was scoreless against the Grizzlies’ Rudy Gay (25 points) and the Pacers’ Danny Granger (32 points).

“It’s not easy. You look at the small forward position in our league, they just don’t get enough attention,” Johnson said. “While everybody glorifies over the center position and having these dynamic point guards, you look at it whether it’s Miami with [LeBron] James or [the Bulls’ Luol] Deng here or [the Mavericks’] Shawn Marion,“All of the teams that really doing well and making deep playoff runs, you really have to have length and size and athleticism at that position,” Johnson said.

But the coach could not have cared less yesterday about Stevenson’s offense — he made a pair of 3-pointers, one a Bulls rally-killer midway through the fourth. Johnson had nothing but praise for Stevenson holding Deng to 14 points.

“Stevenson’s defense on Deng tonight was outstanding, and that’s why we’ve been missing Stevenson so much,” Johnson said.

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Though Brook Lopez was declared ready to play tonight, not all the news about Nets centers was favorable. Johnson said Mehmet Okur, who missed his 13th straight game — he last played in Philadelphia on Jan. 25 — suffered a setback and will be “out until after the All-Star break.” The Nets hope Okur can resume non-contact practice Feb. 28 in Dallas.

“Obviously, he’s been getting a lot of different injections in his back, different procedures, had a little bit of a setback, so we’re going to just kind of take it easy with him between now and the break with the hopes of that practice that we have in Dallas, right before we play the Mavericks after the All-Star break, that he can come back and participate, the non-contact part of that practice,” Johnson said.

The plan is to build Okur’s strength with a possible return against the Celtics on March 2.

The Nets scored more points in yesterday’s first quarter (34) than they had in two previous first quarters against Bulls this season combined (32). Chicago outscored the Nets, 28-18, on Jan. 23 here and 35-14 on Feb. 6 in Newark.

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The game began a grueling back-to-back-to-back set for the Nets and came in the middle of a five-games-in-six-nights stretch. Johnson wanted to keep his starters’ minutes down, but three went at least 42 minutes, one went 36, another 33.

“I didn’t have a choice,” he said. “Our bench was struggling.” At the beginning of the second quarter, I was trying to give [Kris] Humphries and Deron [Williams] a blow, but we had to get them back in,” Johnson said. “Because the look in their eyes, they really looked like they wanted to win this game, and I didn’t want to deprive them. So I had to call a [20-second timeout] and get them back in the game. But they were tough-minded all game. The Bulls made a little run there, and we held them off, fortunately.”

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Jordan Williams was part of Lopez’s tough workout on Friday. He was deliberately physical with Lopez, who had the scratches to prove it.

“He’s getting his swagger back,” Williams said. “He looks really good, really confident. His post moves are good. He’s a real smart player. You’ve got to rough him up a little bit. Just get a little physicality with him, move him around a little bit and try to get him used to the bumps and stuff like that, like he hasn’t been used to in a while. Just help him out any way I can, try to be a good teammate, that’s all.”

Lopez is up 10 pounds, to 275.

“He’s so big. He really is a big guy,” Williams said. “He was hard to stop. He really is.”

Lopez said he has no worries about playing on the surgically repaired broken right foot.

“I’m very confident in how everything went and I’m confident in the moves I’m making with it now. I’m just excited to be back out there,” he said. “It’s fantastic. I’m excited actually to be on the bench, hang out with the guys and everything and then be on the floor with them as well.”