To sum things up, pretty much everyone’s hurt.
The Nets injury report was littered with names Monday evening, as expected, ahead of the team’s meaningless game against the Wizards in Brooklyn. Deron Williams (left knee contusion), Joe Johnson (sore left heel), Keith Bogans (tight lower back), Reggie Evans (sore left shoulder), Brook Lopez (mid back contusion) and Jerry Stackhouse (stiff neck) all sat out of Monday night’s game.
After Sunday’s loss in Toronto eliminated the Nets from any possibility of claiming the third seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, it made Monday night’s game, along with Wednesday’s against Detroit, meaningless. So, as the Nets wait to find out whether they will play either the Hawks or Bulls in the first round of the playoffs, which will open either Saturday or Sunday in Brooklyn, they gave virtually all of their key contributors the night off.
The one player who was a bit of surprise entrant into the lineup was Gerald Wallace, who had sat out of the previous two games with a lower left leg contusion that he suffered last Wednesday in a win in Boston. But the Nets wanted to get Wallace back into the swing of things before the playoffs begin, and planned to play him a limited number of minutes.
With their entire starting five from Sunday’s game sitting out, the Nets instead started C.J. Watson, MarShon Brooks, Gerald Wallace, Kris Humphries and Andray Blatche against the Wizards.
tbontemps@nypost.com