CHICAGO – Brook Lopez was back in the starting lineup for the second straight game Saturday night against the Bulls.
Lopez, who had missed seven games with a sprained right foot, started again for the Nets after playing 23:50 in Friday’s double-overtime win over the Pistons in Brooklyn, finishing with nine points, four rebounds and three blocked shots.
The 7-footer was again expected to be limited to about 24 minutes, as Johnson rolled out the same starting lineup of Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Gerald Wallace, Reggie Evans and Lopez.
“He’s medically cleared to play in back-to-back games right now,” Nets coach Avery Johnson said before the game. “We talked to Brook, he feels great, so we’ll put him out there and see how he feels and see how he moves with the intent of him playing the same amount of minutes.”
Lopez suffered a pair of injuries to the same foot last season, which cost him all but five games. That has led the Nets to be extremely cautious with his recovery, but he was deemed ready to go last night.
“We’ve gone through all of our systems and checks and been really, really conservative, but, again, everything that we’ve checked out it seems like there’s no signs of danger,” Johnson said. “We’ll give it a go. He’s excited about it, and we’ll just go from there.”
The Nets immediately saw the dividends of having Lopez back in the lineup against the Pistons. While he was rusty on offense, he had a big impact defensively, blocking three shots and nearly getting a couple others.