MIAMI — Kevin Garnett said after playing in his first game in over a month Saturday in Philadelphia, he was going to follow the medical staff’s plan for his return from back spasms, and to “stay tuned.”
Well, it turns out he’ll be tuned out for Tuesday’s showdown with the two-time defending champion Heat. Coach Jason Kidd said Monday Garnett will return to the lineup Wednesday in Orlando.
“That’s part of the plan of what we kind of talked about,” Kidd said. “He won’t go [Tuesday], but he’ll go on Wednesday.”
Garnett participated in practice Monday and had no setbacks from his successful return to the floor against the 76ers after missing the previous 19 games with back spasms.
“[The plan] is to build toward something and to build toward something bigger,” Garnett said, “Not just [Tuesday], but for [the] postseason and to finish off this season.”
Rookie Mason Plumlee is expected to start for Garnett, as he did during Garnett’s time away from the team, a stretch in which the Nets went 14-5.
While Deron Williams has played quite well over the past several weeks, his assist totals this season remain down, as he’s averaging 6.3 per game — 5.8 since the All-Star break.
Williams said the reason is simple: He has the ball in his hands less than in his Utah days — when he had double-digit assists four straight seasons — because of the players he’s surrounded with in Brooklyn.
“In Utah, they relied on me a lot to create other people’s shots,” he said. “We have a lot of guys on this team that can create their own shots, so it’s completely different.”
And while Kidd said during the summer he hoped Williams would get back to those kind of assists numbers this season, he’s quite happy with how his floor general has played as the Nets have surged up the standings in the Eastern Conference.
“I think he’s been great,” Kidd said. “He sets the table, he gets everybody in their place, so I think he’s done a wonderful job.”