Brook Lopez Sitting Out Brooklyn Nets Opener
By Phil Watson
Mason Plumlee will reportedly start at center for the Brooklyn Nets Wednesday night, meaning Brook Lopez isn’t ready yet.
The Brooklyn Nets are apparently going to start the 2014-15 season the way they finished the last 65 games plus the postseason in 2013-14 … without Brook Lopez available.
The All-Star center will not start the Nets’ season opener Wednesday night on the road against the Boston Celtics, according to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News.
Mason Plumlee says he's been told he's starting, meaning Brook Lopez is out
— Stefan Bondy (@SBondyNYDN) October 29, 2014
Mike Mazzeo of ESPN New York reported coach Lionel Hollins saying that Lopez can’t go 100 percent without pain, only it was worded in a much more risque way.
Hollins says Lopez still feels pain when he goes hard #Nets
— Mike Mazzeo (@MazzNYC) October 29, 2014
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Lopez sprained his right foot in a preseason game against the
played in China on Oct. 15 and has not played since.
He was off to a tremendous start after missing most of last season with a broken bone in the same foot—a bone he has broken twice since the start of the 2011-12 season.
In three preseason games, Lopez averaged 18 points, 5.7 rebounds and a blocked shot in 23.3 minutes, shooting 54.3 percent from the floor and 88.9 percent from the free-throw line.
The 26-year-old has missed 134 games over the last three seasons—61 in the lockout-shortened 2011-12 campaign and 65, plus 12 postseason games, last season.
An All-Star in 2012-13, Lopez was averaging 20.7 points, six rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 31.4 minutes per game when he went down last season.
Plumlee, entering his second year after being named to the All-Rookie first team in 2013-14, averaged 12.8 points, 7.7 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 22.5 minutes per game this preseason. He was coming off a stint with Team USA’s gold-medal entry at the FIBA World Cup.
The 22nd-overall pick out of Duke in 2013, Plumlee averaged 7.4 points and 4.4 rebounds in 18.2 minutes a night last season.
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