ORLANDO, Fla. — The wait for the results from the X-rays of Brook Lopez’s right foot couldn’t have been longer for Avery Johnson.
“It felt like a year,” the Nets coach said before last night’s 98-86 Nets win over the Magic. “It felt like a year. I’m sitting outside and I’m looking at my phone and once we got the news of where it is … that was really good news for us.
“We caught a break, and hopefully he’ll be able to get back, and hopefully once he gets back we won’t have any other setbacks.”
It was an equally long wait for Lopez, who during the 2011-12 preseason, suffered a stress fracture in the fifth metatarsal in his right foot against the Knicks. That injury knocked him out for the first 32 games, then he re-injured it after five games and missed the remainder of the season.
“It wasn’t fun,” Lopez said of this week’s injury. “I was worried, but [Nets athletic trainer] Timmy [Walsh] took care of me. … We’re just thankful the whole issue was in a different area.”
Lopez, who injured the foot in the third quarter of Wednesday’s win in Boston, said he already was feeling better, but wasn’t sure how long it would take him to get back onto the court.
The Nets immediately decided to hold him out of last night’s game and tonight’s in Miami, and said he would be re-evaluated Monday in New York by team orthopedic surgeon Dr. Riley Williams and team foot and ankle consultant Dr. Martin O’Malley.
* Reggie Evans grabbed 10 rebounds against the Magic, marking the fifth consecutive game he did so coming off the bench. He became the first player in the NBA to accomplish the feat this season, and the first since Miami’s Udonis Haslem did so in January.
Evans also became the first Net to do so since Jamie Feick did it in seven straight games in December 1999. Evans is leading the Nets in rebounding with 8.7 per game.
* Last night’s win was the Nets’ 11th of the month, breaking the franchise record. It also was the first time the Nets have won as many as 10 games in a month since March 2006. The team’s 11-4 record also marks the best start in franchise history, eclipsing the previous best of 10-5 that was matched several times, last in the 2002-03 season.