Nets center Brook Lopez will miss at least another three games due to a strained lower back. The Brooklyn big man — in the conditioning portion of his rehabilitation program — said he'll be reevaluated Saturday and still hopes to play Sunday against the Pistons.
Lopez suffered the injury lifting weights before practice on Dec. 7. The injury has already cost him four games, and will cost him Tuesday's game against the Heat, Wednesday's trip to Toronto and Friday's clash in Cleveland against LeBron James and the Cavaliers. But being able to return at least for running and conditioning work Monday buoyed his hopes.
"It was good," said Lopez, who suffered a fluke injury during a routine workout he'd done many times before. "I didn't do a lot. I spectated a ton. But I got conditioning in. My back's a little sore right now, but I felt good.
"It was no new exercise, something I've done every day. It's unfortunate. It drives me up the wall, drives me crazy, but it happened. So we're working to get back on the floor. It's frustrating, but you've got to keep going, keep working to get better and obviously play it safe, make sure I'm healed for good so I can be out there for my teammates.''
The rub is, Lopez's teammates have actually been better without him; they're 14-19 over the last two seasons with him in the lineup.
Lopez, who has a $16.7 million option for next season, had found his stride, averaging 19.7 points and 10.3 boards in the three games before hurting his back. But the Nets' ball movement was stellar in dishing out 54 assists in their last two games, both wins. By contrast, Lopez has a dozen assists all season.
"I've seen what they're doing out there, talked to the coaches about the changes they've made, so obviously you've just got to get back in and jump in. But knowing what we're doing definitely helps a lot,'' said Lopez, adding with gallows humor, "[The passing] has been working well, so I'm not going to go in there and try to mess anything up.''
Point guard Deron Williams acknowledged the adjustments the Nets have made without Lopez on the floor, but professed confidence Lopez can fit in seamlessly when he does return.
"Just because he comes back doesn't mean we've got to stop passing the ball," Williams said. "We have to share the ball, move the ball around, and still feed him at the same time. We don't have that same post presence when he's not out there, so we're a little more spread out, more pick-and-roll based, so we do play different when Brook's not out there.
"We can run a little bit more, play a little faster. But I don't see it being a problem when he comes back. … We've had games when he's out there that we passed the ball really well.''
To that end, coach Lionel Hollins wanted Lopez at practice Monday, even if only as a spectator soaking up the adjustments Brooklyn had made.
"He didn't do anything today," Hollins said. "We didn't really do anything, but Brook wasn't planning on practicing today. It's just getting to that point where I'd like to have him in the gym seeing what we're doing. Things are changing all the time in the season, and when you're injured and you're out, when you come back it's a foreign team to you.
"As he starts getting healthier and nearer to playing — and I don't know when he's going to play — I wanted him to come out and the changes are little nuances that we're doing on plays. It's nothing major, but they're different from what we were doing when he was here.''
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