BROOK’S BIG SHOT
Lopez’s move might push Nets into playoffs
BROOK LOPEZ has a pregame routine that he seems to rarely deviate from.
The warm-up includes gathering a pass from an assistant coach in the lane and practicing an odd-looking shot.
It’s not quite a jumper or a layup or a hook shot, although it does have elements of each.
Instead, Lopez takes the pass and sort of launches it quickly from his shoulders in a sidearm motion, balancing the ball on his right hand and flipping it up as if he was playing a game of hot potato with the ball.
The shot has been called a “runner” or a “tear drop.” And it seems to always go in.
In the past four games, when Lopez, 26, has basically put the Nets on his wide shoulders and willed them into the playoff conversation, this odd-looking motion has played a starring role.
In fact, the shot that put the Nets (3040) ahead for good on Wednesday in Charlotte was a quick flick of Lopez’s wrist in the lane from seven feet away off a pass from Deron Williams with 23.1 seconds left. A key part of Lopez’s offensive repertoire this season has been this strange-looking runner, which he has added to an already impressive battery of post moves and outside shots.
“His touch right now near the basket is off the charts,” Williams told reporters following Wednesday’s 91-88 win pulled the Nets to within a half-game of eighth-place Boston for the final playoff spot in the East.
Eight of Williams’ 14 assists were to Lopez, who finished with 34 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks in perhaps his finest performance of the season.
“We just need to keep feeding him in pick-and-rolls and exploiting it whenever we have a chance,” Williams said.
Over the past four games, Lopez has been dominant, averaging 30.8 points, 9 rebounds and 3.5 blocks a game, while averaging 36.8 minutes per contest. During that span, he is also shooting 65.8% from the floor.
And with Thaddeus Young injuring his left knee against Charlotte, Lopez will almost certainly have to keep up his hot play if the Nets are expected to make the playoffs for a third straight season.
An MRI on Thursday revealed a left knee strain for Young, who has been listed as out against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in Friday’s home game and doubtful Sunday against the Lakers, according to the Nets, who did not practice on Thursday.
With just 12 games left in the regular season, Young’s injury couldn’t have come at a worse time, even if the diagnosis might have been more grim.
Young appeared to do greater damage when he tangled legs with Gerald Henderson in the third quarter and his knee buckled.
But after Young went down with 4:58 left in the third quarter, Lopez kept hammering the Hornets, scoring 16 of his 34 points.
“Brook carried us,” Nets coach Lionel Hollins said afterward.
His entire performance, including with his deflection of Charlotte’s final inbounds pass that kept the Hornets from attempting a potential-game-tying three, provided the seven-footer with a degree of redemption in the final seconds.
Just moments before, Lopez had turned the ball over on a careless in-bounds play with 3.2 seconds left, giving the ball back to Charlotte.
“It might have looked like I was point shaving,” Lopez kidded, according to the Associated Press, “like I made a call to my Uncle Huey in (Las) Vegas.”
HONOR E D : Five basketball players who have been selected to play in the McDonald’s High School All-America game will be honored before Friday’s Nets Cavaliers game. Brianna Fraser (South Shore HS), Samantha Fuehring (Immaculate Conception, N.J.), Marina Mabrey (Manasquan HS, N.J.), Isaiah Briscoe (Roselle Catholic HS, N.J.) and Cheick Diallo (Our Savior New American School, L.I.) will all be participating in the event April 1-2 in Chicago.