It’s no secret the Nets have had their fair share of injuries this season. One, however, has had the biggest impact, in both a literal and figurative sense.
With 7-foot center Brook Lopez out since undergoing surgery in December to repair a stress fracture in the fifth metatarsal of his right foot, the Nets (8-18) have lacked a go-to presence in the post.
With his replacement, Mehmet Okur, also sitting out recently with back spasms, the Nets have one of the league’s smallest starting frontcourts in 6-foot-9 Kris Humphries and 6-foot-9 Shelden Williams.
“It’s tough,” point guard Deron Williams said after yesterday’s practice ahead of tonight’s game against the Pistons at Prudential Center. “The best defensive teams are the teams that have big guys in the middle. We don’t have that.”
That disadvantage has been made apparent repeatedly in recent games as the Nets have been forced to go up against one formidable front line after another. Over the weekend, the Nets were victimized by Timberwolves backup center Nikola Pekovic (27 points, 11 rebounds) and Knicks center Tyson Chandler (17 points, nine rebounds) on back-to-back nights, sending the Nets to a pair of narrow losses.
“They’re both power forwards and, a lot of times when you’re playing two power forwards and playing against these true centers, you give up a lot of size inside,” Nets coach Avery Johnson said. “There are other nights where we are a little undersized at both the four and five, but because those guys have such big hearts and work so hard, they make up for it.
“Shelden has really helped stabilize our defense, but there are going to be nights where you’re playing against guys like [Lakers center Andrew] Bynum, Pekovic, Chandler, Tim Duncan, Dwight Howard [when] we’re going to be in a bind inside because of our size.”
One way the Nets have attempted to counterbalance that lack of size inside is to go even smaller, playing Shawne Williams, currently the team’s starting small forward, at power forward.
That puts more pressure on Humphries, seventh in the NBA going into last night with 10.4 rebounds per game, to continue to grab every loose ball, but he’s more than willing to take on the challenge.
“I’ll take my chances up against any guy under the bucket,” he said.
Nevertheless, Humphries said he thinks the Nets need to do a better job of taking advantage of the team’s strengths when they do go to a smaller lineup.
“When we do that, Shawne can rebound, but maybe he can’t take up as much space as a normal big guy would under the bucket, so we’ve got to make up for it,” Humphries said. “We haven’t done a great job, as players, of recognizing the strengths of what units we have in and attacking that.”