According to a tweet by the Nets’ public relations official Twitter account, the injured Brook Lopez has about a 50-50 chance of playing in today’s afternoon game against the NBA-leading Chicago Bulls. When a player is considered to be “questionable” in mostly the NFL and NBA, they are likely to be given a 50-50 shot of playing in the said game.
With that being said, I was utterly surprised and simultaneously energized after seeing this tweet simply because this Nets team needs someone like Lopez to end this eight-game losing streak. Finally, it seems like this team might be getting a break regarding injuries as Lopez as already missed 8 weeks since his foot surgery which acts as the latest expected return date for Brook after his doctors prognosticated between a “6-8 week” recovery period. If he does indeed play tomorrow which is unclear at the moment, then Lopez will have missed the Nets’ first 31 games of the season, 31 games in which the Nets have only had 8 wins and have been desperately lacking a consistent interior post-scoring presence which Brook definitely provides on the court.
I guess that Lopez was planning on returning around this time of the season but the lack of new updates on his condition kinda scared me into believing that around March 1st was going to be Brook’s set return to the court. This great news also bodes well for a potential Dwight Howard trade to the Nets, a trade in which Brook would be a major component of. If he can show that he is healthy and can score to the pace that he did last year, then Lopez would be an extremely desirable trade target for Magic GM Otis Smith and might compel him to end his Dwightmare in the regular season instead of waiting until free agency for a resolution.
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