When the Nets last faced the Celtics, they were playing their best basketball of the season. Their victory in Boston on Nov. 28 came at the end of a stretch of four games in six days that also saw them pick up victories over the Clippers and Knicks, and left the Nets looking like one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference.
But as the Nets prepared to see the Celtics again today in a noon matinee at Barclays Center — the first of five nationally televised games on Christmas Day — the team isn’t in nearly the same form. It was in that Celtics game that starting center Brook Lopez suffered a sprained right foot that kept him out for seven games, helping contribute to a slide that has led to the Nets dropping eight of their last 12.
“We’re a different team right now,” Nets coach Avery Johnson said after yesterday’s light practice at the team’s facility. “During that time, we were playing like we had a lot to prove … we were on the road, we felt we were an underdog.
“[But] somewhere along the way, we started to feel a little differently about ourselves and Brook got injured, and right now it’s not like we’ve been on a crazy roll or some winning streak. We need [today’s] game just as much as they do.”
The other difference in the Nets from that game and their rematch today is the role Kris Humphries will play. When the two teams last met, the projected starting lineup of Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Gerald Wallace, Humphries and Lopez was playing well and the team was rolling to wins over quality opponents, with Humphries playing a large role.
Humphries was right in the thick of things that night in Boston when he wound up getting ejected late in the first half. His foul on Kevin Garnett led to Rajon Rondo shoving Humphries into the stands and resulting in a melee along the baseline, a move that earned Rondo a two-game suspension and fines for Humphries, Garnett and Wallace.
Now, though, it’s a different story. Humphries didn’t step onto the floor once in Sunday’s win over the 76ers in Brooklyn, a decision Avery Johnson said was strictly based on changing some things up. Yesterday, however, Johnson said Humphries had been feeling some discomfort in his abdominal muscles, and may not be available at all for today’s game, one he was likely to see little or no time in either way.
“You know what, Hump’s been great, and it’s just a cycle of the season,” Avery Johnson said. “We’ll see where we go from here.”
With Humphries benched on Sunday, the Nets saw plenty of success from their newly deployed small starting lineup, which featured Keith Bogans at small forward and Wallace at power forward. The Nets as a group were universal in their praise for the ball movement and flexibility the new look provided them, allowing them to have better spacing with the addition of another 3-point shooter in Bogans, while also allowing Wallace to take advantage of his ball-handling and passing skills against bigger defenders.
“I think we’re a little more versatile,” Deron Williams said of the new lineup. “We can switch a lot more on defense, we can become a little quicker and I think things open up a bit more with Gerald at the four.
“He’s such a great passer for that spot, and then when he gets the rebound he can push it like a guard, and that gives us a lot as well.”
But it was one thing for the Nets to deploy that lineup against Philadelphia, which uses its own small lineup with Thaddeus Young at power forward. Wallace admitted it’s a different kind of challenge when he’s matched up against a player like Garnett, who is listed as four inches and more than 30 pounds heavier than Wallace.
“I’ve got to take advantage of [my quickness],” Wallace said with a smile. “That’s probably the only thing I have on him.
“He’s six inches taller than me, weighs more than me … so I’ve just got to use my quickness and hope my quickness outdoes his age.”