Kris Humphries wasn’t around to engage in the latest round of hostilities with the Celtics in yesterday’s 93-76 loss, as the Nets power forward remained sidelined by a late-breaking “mild” abdominal strain and continued his midseason fall from grace.
Coach Avery Johnson said Humphries, who started the team’s first 18 games and 20 of the first 25 after re-signing a two-year deal worth $24 million in the offseason, will not make the trip to Milwaukee for tonight’s game against the Bucks, his third straight absence. Humphries then will be reevaluated.
Humphries’ injury was not mentioned when he sat out Sunday’s home win over the 76ers, with Johnson calling it a “coach’s decision.”
“He was healthy … he is fine,” Johnson said Sunday. “He’s not in the doghouse. We just had to try something else, and we’ll see how long we can go with it.”
After averaging a double-double the past two seasons, Humphries’ numbers are down to 7.1 points and 7.4 rebounds. The most memorable moment of his season came Nov. 28 in Boston, when he was ejected after being in the middle of a scrape with Rajon Rondo and Kevin Garnett, who tussled again yesterday while an amused Humphries watched from the bench.
This is the 58th day of the NBA season for Humphries, whose glossy-mag marriage to Kim Kardashian infamously lasted 72 days.
* The experimental pairing of Brook Lopez and Andray Blatche, after almost exclusively rotating at center this season, proved a mixed bag. They shared the court for roughly 12 minutes, registering a 0 plus-minus rating during a 5:26 spell in the first quarter and a +5 in the closing 7:13 of the third quarter, when the game was already out of hand.
Lopez scored nine of his 15 points with Blatche at the four. But Blatche played one of his worst games of the season, a mostly ineffective mix of six points, three turnovers and head-scratching attempts to facilitate the offense off the dribble.
* Celtics rookie Jared Sullinger, the portly Ohio State product (listed generously at 6-foot-9, 260 pounds) once pegged for the lottery who slipped to No. 21 in the draft, had his best game as a pro, piling up 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting with seven rebounds and a career-high 33 minutes. He was matched up against some of the Nets’ smaller frontcourts.
“Sullinger was wonderful, just such a smart player,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “When you watch him you don’t see a rookie, you just see a big fat guy playing basketball. He’s terrific.”
* After the game, Nets CEO Brett Yormark tweeted, “Nets fans deserved better today. The entire organization needs to work harder to find the solution. We will get there.”
A spokesman later said Yormark wasn’t referring to just the team’s recent performance, including yesterday’s loss, but several issues that cropped up during the day, including the microphone cutting out during the first part of singer Darlene Love’s rendition of the national anthem.
— Additional reporting
by Tim Bontemps.