MIAMI — When Jerry Stackhouse leapt into the air and tried to dunk over Joel Anthony with 38 seconds left in the first half of last night’s 102-89 loss to the Heat, it was hard to believe it wasn’t a 28-year-old Stackhouse in his prime, not the 38-year-old version that has become a key cog in the Nets’ rotation.
“I was gonna bang that thing,” Stackhouse said with a smile, after he scored a bucket and nearly dunked on the play.
It was just the latest moment in a stunning resurgence for Stackhouse, who entered the season expected to be in more of a player-coach role than that of a key rotation player. But Stackhouse has excelled since he entered the rotation Nov. 9 in Orlando, averaging 7.3 points on 49.1 percent shooting.
He had been hitting 53 percent of his shots from behind the 3-point line entering last night’s game, but the Heat made a concerted effort to drive him off the line, and he finished 0-for-3 on 3-pointers.
But the veteran took advantage of Miami’s aggressiveness to get defenders up in the air multiple times, leading to several open mid-range jumpers as he finished the game 4-for-8 with nine points.
“I knew that the way I’ve been shooting the ball they were gonna run me off the line,” Stackhouse said. “I still had a couple opportunities from the line that I thought I should’ve knocked down … that’s how it goes sometimes. We got some good looks and didn’t knock them down.”
* It looks as if Brook Lopez will miss at least three games with a ligament sprain in his right foot.
Lopez, who suffered the sprain Wednesday against the Celtics, sat out Friday night’s win in Orlando and last night’s loss. But coach Avery Johnson said yesterday Lopez will need to practice before returning to the court and almost certainly will not practice tomorrow, when he is set to have his foot reevaluated.
“That would be a miracle,” Johnson said. “We’ll see.”
If Lopez is unable to practice tomorrow, it likely means he will miss Tuesday’s game in Brooklyn against the Thunder. Johnson did say his center was feeling a bit better.
“We’ll keep treating him, and I think the conservative approach is the way to go with Lopez,” Johnson said. “We just don’t want any setbacks.”