Brook Lopez is netting results as Brooklyn chase down a play-off spot

A few weeks ago a revival of their season seemed unlikely, but the Brooklyn Nets have managed it, winning six of eight to move within touching distance of the East’s final play-off berth with 10 games to play thanks to Brook Lopez.

After trying to trade him for several seasons, the Brooklyn Nets are now happy to have Brook Lopez around still. Jason Szenes / EPA

The Brooklyn Nets looked as dead as King Tut three weeks ago.

A five-game swoon left them with a 25-38 record, which is puny even in the Eastern Conference. The best that could be said of them was that they were not as hapless as their Manhattan neighbours, the New York Knicks.

A revival seemed unlikely, but the Nets have managed it, winning six of eight to move within touching distance of the East’s final play-off berth with 10 games to play.

It is not as simple as this, but a significant factor in the late push has been “putting the Brook back in Brooklyn”.

Brook Lopez is a 7-footer with soft hands and a marvellous shooting touch, but the Nets, being the Nets, have spent the past few years trying to trade their best player. Team executives were angry, at the February 19 trade deadline, when the Oklahoma City Thunder pulled out of a deal that would have brought the Nets point guard Reggie Jackson in exchange for their 26-year-old centre.

It may have been one of the best things not to happen to the Nets in a while.

Lopez was returned to the starting line-up this month, and he has been nearly unstoppable for the past five games, averaging 28.6 points and nine rebounds per game as the Nets won four, including one over LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Lopez is the sort of player whose efficiency can be overlooked. He does not make sensational plays and his is not a dominant personality. But give him his touches and he will score with ease from 15 feet and in, and he makes his free throws. His career scoring average is a tick under 18 points per game. He is not known as a great rebounder or defender, but he does more than occupy ground near the rim: he is 10th in the NBA in blocked shots per game.

He is even more impressive in advanced metrics; he ranks 18th in the league in “player efficiency rating”, just ahead of Kyrie Irving and Jimmy Butler, just behind Marc Gasol and Carmelo Anthony, suggesting that the Nets don’t recognise a good player even when he has “Brooklyn” on his uniform.

Team officials seem preoccupied with his recent injury history. After playing every game in his first three professional seasons, the Stanford alumnus missed nearly all of 2011/12 with a broken foot. He came back strong the following season, earning an All-Star Game appearance, but foot and back problems limited him to 17 games in 2013/14. He has been healthy this season, appearing in 61 of 71 games, but the Nets started slowly, perhaps because they were giving lots of minutes to the geriatric Kevin Garnett, and Hollins benched Lopez in favour of the more rugged but clumsier Mason Plumlee. The Nets traded Garnett last month, which created space for Lopez, who is back doing what he has done in the past for the club. Lionel Hollins recently said: “Brook has carried us.”

They are in the thick of a four-team battle for the right to meet the Atlanta Hawks in the first round of the play-offs. It is not the NBA championship that Russian owner Mikhail Prokhorov promised for 2015, when he bought the team five years ago, but a play-offs appearance would be their third in succession.

Lopez holds an option for the fourth season of a US$61 million (Dh224.1m) contract, and his departure via free agency would leave a void much larger than 7 feet. Do not be surprised if the Nets offer to extend his contract. Building around a 7-footer in his prime usually is a good first step to becoming an elite team.

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