On a night full of positives for the Nets, even injury news wasn’t as bad as initially feared.
Gerald Wallace took a hard fall after blocking a shot late in the fourth quarter of the Nets’ 107-100 season-opening win last night over the Raptors at Barclays Center, and landed hard on his left leg.
Wallace sprained his left ankle on the play, and was taken back to the locker room for X-rays, which were negative. He was listed as day-to-day.
“That’s big,” said Joe Johnson, who finished with 14 points, five rebounds and four assists. “Gerald’s a blue-collar worker, a hard-working guy that we love and need on this team, and we need him to play. Hopefully he’ll rest it up and feel a lot better on Monday.”
Before Wallace (10 points, six rebounds) left the game, he was involved in a couple of key plays down the stretch. First, he drove to the basket and drew a foul, making one of the two free throws, then cut down the lane and found Brook Lopez for an and-one layup that sealed the win.
“With Gerald, we like him to quarterback our offense,” Nets coach Avery Johnson said. “He’s a good passer, and he’s one of our best passers at getting hockey assists. He’s not always going to get the assist, but he’s always going to move the ball to the right guy.”
* Deron Williams is the face of the Nets. Now he also will go down in history as the first player to score in the history of both the Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center.
“I was at a local restaurant,” Johnson said, “and [someone] said, ‘Coach, who are you going to run the first play for?’
“I said, ‘Hey, just look at the roster.’ ”
After Brook Lopez won the opening tip from Raptors rookie Jonas Valanciunas, Williams drained a 14-foot jumper from the left wing just 18 seconds into the game.
“It felt good,” said Williams finished with 19 points and nine assists. “I was definitely happy about it, looking back on it.”
* It was a monumental night for the Nets franchise, but the same could be said for Keith Bogans.
Bogans was active for the first time since fracturing his left ankle, as well as completely tearing his deltoid ligament, after an awkward landing in a game against the Detroit Pistons on Feb. 5.
“This is one of the best feelings I’ve had in a long time,” he said before the game. “After all I went through, getting back out on the court I’m just excited. I feel like a kid again. … I’m almost overexcited.”
After Johnson said he would limit Bogans’s minutes, the reserve didn’t see the floor last night until late in the game, as he continues to deal with lingering soreness in his right knee throughout training camp.
But considering everything he had gone through to make it back on the court from an injury that, at one time, he thought could be career-threatening, he has no trouble being patient.
“That’s going to happen,” he said. “I’m just trying to get back to 100 percent, get my body to feel right. … That’s the main thing.”