NBA

Plumlee picking up Garnett’s slack for Nets

Whenever the Nets were forced to play without Kevin Garnett earlier this season, either due to injury or as part of his maintenance program, the team struggled. The Nets won only two of seven games he was sidelined through the first four months of the season.

But things have been different during the last eight games, all of which Garnett has missed because of an ongoing battle with back spasms. The Nets have gone 6-2 in that stretch, and while Garnett may return Monday night against the Suns at Barclays Center, a big reason why the Nets have succeeded without him is because of how rookie big man Mason Plumlee has performed in his absence.

“He’s been great,” Nets coach Jason Kidd said. “He’s a rookie, so he’s going to have his ups and downs, but he’s accepted his role and he understands his role and he’s playing extremely well for us.”

In those eight games, including Saturday’s 101-94 loss to the Wizards in Washington, Plumlee has put up more than respectable numbers, averaging 6.0 points and 4.9 rebounds while shooting 62.9 percent from the field. He credits Garnett’s influence for helping speed up his process of getting used to being an NBA player.

“He makes everything happen quicker,” Plumlee said after finishing with eight points, three rebounds, two assists and a block Saturday. “When he says stuff, you don’t have to question the source. You just take it as the truth.

Plumlee stuffs the ball to pull the Nets to within three points of the Raptors on March 10.Paul J. Bereswill

“If he tells you, ‘This is how you guard a guy,’ this is how you guard a guy. He really speeds up the process for a rookie, and that’s why I’m playing right now.”

After getting consistent minutes during the first couple months of the season when the Nets were playing more of a traditional two-big lineup, Plumlee saw his minutes dip considerably at the start of the new year, going through an 11-game stretch in January when he didn’t play at all in six games and played five minutes or less in four others.

Because Garnett was the starter and Andray Blatche was playing behind him in the small-ball lineup, Plumlee mostly became a spectator, only filling in during a blowout or when Garnett needed a night off.

Since Garnett went out, Plumlee has gotten an extended chance to play in a season in which he has exceeded expectations after the Nets took him 22nd in last June’s draft.

“I think he’s hitting the mark, if not giving us a little more than we expected,” Kidd said. “When we talked about it in the summertime, you probably thought he would be in the D-League working on his game, playing a little bit here and there.

“But he’s starting for us and he’s responded to the challenge of starting as a rookie.”

Plumlee says the biggest reason he has been able to do so is the support he has received from the team’s veterans, including Garnett and Paul Pierce, as well as from Kidd.

“Paul has been great,” Plumlee said. “Those guys all give you confidence. If you have a guy that’s done it for so long that’s like, ‘Look, you can do this. I need you to do this and you can do it,’ it just gives you confidence.

“[Kidd] is the same way. …. Him saying, ‘All right, Kevin is out, you’re starting,’ that’s showing confidence. Really, it’s just filling that role they need me to. That’s the biggest thing. It’s not, ‘Oh, I need to wait a year or whatever.’ They need me now, so I have to be ready.”