For several weeks, the pain was evident. No doubt about it, the Nets’ Joe Johnson was fighting soreness, specifically tendinitis, in his right knee.
“I’ve just been grinding through it trying to do whatever I can to help this team but it’s something I felt if we kept working on it, it would go away,” Johnson said before the Nets’ 108-102 triumph over the 76ers Monday night at Barclays Center. “But it hasn’t gotten any better.”
Next step? Well, before panic, there is rest.
And that was the option for Johnson, along with Andrei Kirilenko (calf) and Andray Blatche (hip). Johnson said he hopes this is a one-game hiatus and he’ll be able to return Thursday, when the Nets host the Spurs.
In the five games before facing the Sixers, Johnson played like a guy with an achy knee, averaging 9.6 points on 36.4 percent overall shooting, including 35.2 on 3-pointers. Hardly numbers worthy of Johnson’s seven-time All-Star status.
“It just feels like it’s not getting better, it’s tendinitis in my knee and it’s like I’ve been on one leg,” said Johnson, who has undergone X-rays and assorted tests that revealed inflammation but no structural damage.
Still, the gimpy knee has developed a potentially nasty side effect for Johnson, who was replaced in the starting lineup against the Sixers by Alan Anderson.
“Now my foot was starting to hurt a little bit on my left leg so I don’t want to get to a point where I’m compensating, and now I’m hurting something on my left leg and it lingers over throughout the playoffs or the next few weeks,” said Johnson, who had missed only one other game this season — also against Philly, on Dec. 20, a Nets overtime defeat.
“We’ve done X-rays, everything’s good,” said Johnson, who suffered from plantar fasciitis in his left foot in last season’s playoffs. “Docs told me the only thing that’s going to help this is rest.”
So rest he got Monday.
“It’s been bothering him for some time but Joe is one not to complain. We thought we’d give him a night off,” said Jason Kidd, named Eastern Conference Coach of the Month Monday. “We’ll re-evaluate him (Tuesday).”
With the All-Star Game two weeks away, Johnson insisted that was “the least of my worries … I’m just doing the necessary things I need to do to stay on top of and calm this tendinitis down so I can get back out there as soon as possible.”
And the Nets (21-25) are trying the same approach with him, Kirilenko and Blatche, who missed a second straight game.
Kirilenko sat for his 29th contest this season. In games he has played, the Nets are 12-5 (.706). Without him, they are 9-20 (.286).
“AK is a basketball player and he does all the little things,” Kidd said. “He’s an energy guy, rebounding getting steals finding the open guy and also being able to knock down a shot, get a layup or get an easy basket. He does all the little things.”