WASHINGTON – Paul Pierce could miss Friday night’s game against the Wizards after skipping the Nets’ morning shootaround with an undisclosed illness.
Nets coach Jason Kidd said Pierce began feeling ill Thursday night, but the hope had been he would recover in time to be ready for shootaround.
“We’ll see,” Kidd said when asked whether Pierce would play against the Wizards. “We’ve got plenty of guys to step up and take that position. Right now we’re planning on Paul playing. We’ll see how he feels, but if we have to make that adjustment, we will.”
Alan Anderson or Andrei Kirilenko would be the logical replacements for Pierce in the starting lineup if the future Hall of Famer is unable to play.
Pierce has been excellent this season, averaging 15.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists in just under 28 minutes per game.
Kevin Garnett says that he’s preparing as if he’s going to play in both halves of the Nets’ first back-to-back set of the season, which begins Friday night in Washington before the Nets return to Brooklyn to square off against the undefeated Pacers on Saturday.
“That would be the assumption,” Garnett said when asked whether he would like to play in both games. “Until he tells me differently, I’ll prepare and be ready for back-to-back games like always.”
Garnett’s status in back-to-backs has been a topic of discussion since Kidd said during his press conference before the start of training camp that a possible plan was for his power forward to sit out half of each of the 20 back-to-back sets the Nets have on the schedule. Garnett later said at media day the conversation between the two about the subject “didn’t go too well.”
But the Nets have strictly monitored Garnett’s minutes, and he’s currently averaging 22 minutes a night through the first four games.
“That’s pretty much what we talked about, and I’m under the impression that that’s what it is, and I’m not gonna make a stink or a fuss about it,” Garnett said. “I’m just trying to give this team whatever I can.”