P.J.’S plan a watershed, Lopez dunks Cavaliers
ONE OF THE KNOCKS on Brook Lopez under Avery Johnson — and there were plenty of them — was that the 7-footer strayed too far from the basket, negating his size and power while magnifying his inability to handle double teams.
P.J. Carlesimo, the interim coach who may be on borrowed time depending on Zen Master Phil Jackson’s decision, came up with a clever way to correct these problems.
Carlesimo, according to Deron Williams, told players to refrain from passing Lopez the ball if he’s posting up farther than 12 feet from the basket. Lopez responded with a seasonhigh 35 points and 11 rebounds, getting easy looks under the basket to lead the Nets to a 103-100 victory over the Cavaliers Saturday night at Barclays Center.
“We’ve been on him about posting up closer to the basket,” Williams said. “I think he took that as a challenge and you see him getting deeper position.”
Lopez saved the Nets from an embarrassing defeat, because the Cavs surged late and nearly tied the game on Kyrie Irving’s three-point attempt as the final buzzer sounded. It wasn’t pretty or dominant, but the Nets improved to 2-0 in the Carlesimo era.
Now the honeymoon is over.
Carlesimo had his lunch with the Russia ns on Saturday, leaving his impor-tant first impression on Mikhail Prokhorov. Whether or not Jackson or some other target accepts the billionaire’s money, the schedule gets harder for the Nets.
Victor ies over the Bobcats and Cavaliers — who have a combined 14-48 record — transition to games at San Antonio and Oklahoma City. “These two games we were supposed to win,” Williams said. “So now we have to go win two that most people don’t think we can win. So we have to play better than we did tonight, for sure.”
Lopez getting hot is a good sign. The center was playing well in November when the Nets climbed to the top of the division, but he sprained his foot on Nov. 28 — coinciding with Brooklyn’s nosedive. Lopez is averaging 27.3 points and 10.7 rebounds in his last three games. “He hasn’t been right. He’s getting better as he’s been going along,” Carlesimo said. “If you looked at how he played tonight, and you look at how he played for a big chunk of November prior to the injury, he wasn’t the same guy.”
Williams scored 15 points on 5-for-12 shooting and had seven assists. Joe Johnson added 15 points on 13 shots. His two free throws gave the Nets a 103-100 lead with 5.4 seconds left, just before Irving’s shot over Reggie Evans rimmed out. Brooklyn beat the Cavaliers at Barclays Center for the second time this season.
Before the game, Carlesimo had a twohour l unch with Prokhorov i n midtown that, according to the coach, was dominated by conversations about food and heli-skiing. GM Billy King and Dmitry Razumov, who is Prokhorov’s point man in Brooklyn, also attended. At the Greek restaurant, Prokhorov relayed his lofty ambitions.
“He said he wants to win a championship, that he’s willing to do whatever it takes to win a championship, that he’s got a good understanding of our team and the NBA. And that if we keep winning games, that would be good,” Carlesimo said. “He definitely prefers winning.”
It’s easy against teams such as the Cavs when Lopez is getting the ball close to the hoop. Carlesimo’s job will get a lot tougher in the next two games.