Just when it looked like the Brooklyn Nets’ nightmare season might be turning around, they were hit with their biggest blow yet.
Brook Lopez will miss the remainder of the season after breaking his right foot, according to multiple reports. That’s the same foot Lopez broke in 2011, when he played just five games in the Nets’ final season in New Jersey. He had a screw placed in the foot and has had occasional problems with the foot and ankle ever since, including this season, when he missed nine of Brooklyn’s first 26 games.
Gary Tanguay of CSNNE initially broke the news of Lopez’s injury.
[tweet https://twitter.com/Gary_Tanguay/status/414399716475297792 align=’center’]
The Nets (9-17) have not had the type of season they envisioned when they acquired Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Jason Terry to put around Lopez, Deron Williams and Joe Johnson this summer. Pierce, Williams, Terry and Andrei Kirilenko have all missed time with injuries, and Johnson missed Friday’s game for personal reasons. Garnett also has operated on a strict minutes restriction. The Nets are 3-3 since Williams’ return, including a win over the Clippers, which suggested the Nets might not be buried in the Eastern Conference after all.
Losing Lopez is the biggest loss of all, however, and the Nets’ slim odds of making any noise in the East just got even slimmer.
