Brook Lopez did it again.
He drained a jumper with four minutes left, and another about two minutes later. He hit two free throws. And as Joe Johnson surveyed the court on a critical possession with the score tied, Lopez established great position in the middle of the paint and received the ball. His hook shot with 23 seconds left gave the Nets a lead they would not relinquish.
The win over the Hornets, a team in fierce competition with Brooklyn for one of the final playoff spots in the Eastern Conference, is just the latest testament to Lopez’s returning to the form that earned him an All-Star selection several years ago.
“Brook carried us,” Nets coach Lionel Hollins said after the game.
Lopez, 26, who recently wrested back a starting role with the surging Nets, dropped 34 points on 16-of-26 shooting and added 10 rebounds. Lopez has been on fire this month, averaging 20 points a game and putting up at least 26 points in each of the last four games, three of them wins.
Lopez, who has gained a reputation for subpar rebounding and sometimes lackadaisical defense, has also become more aggressive on the boards and against opponents.
“He’s a big dude,” Deron Williams told the Wall Street Journal earlier this season. “He eats up a lot of space. He’s become a better shot-blocker since I’ve been here. I think a lot of the coaches have been pushing him to be a great defender and I think he’s taken that challenge. I think it helps a little bit to have a brother that’s known as a defender. He doesn’t want to be outshined.”
Lopez is averaging 9 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per 36 minutes, which are not career-best but are very close. He’s grabbing a respectable 52 percent of contested rebounds, and ranks among the league leaders in helping to hold opponents to a low field goal percentage.
While Lopez has improved his rebounding and defense, his main skill remains putting the ball in the basket. His 16.3 points a game leads Brooklyn, and concerns about his durability are dying down as he’s only missed eight games this season. He’s also made a big leap since the All-Star break, with his stats jumping across the board.
“I felt complete confidence in my body, in my foot, and especially these last six to eight games, I’ve felt amazingly loose, as good as I’ve felt since coming into the league, just movement-wise, and being ready to play,” the big man said in a recent interview on WFAN.
Lopez could very well be termed the most versatile big man in the league, with the ability to shoot jumpers from anywhere inside the 3-point line, drive to the basket and sink runners, or post up and convert hook shots.
Early in the season, coming off his major foot injury, Lopez looked lost at times and threw a lot of awkward shots. But as the season has progressed, so has Lopez, who is now making opponents pay for leaving him open. The Nets run two main plays for Lopez: a pick-and-roll where he either rolls to the basket or pops outside as a surprising shooter, and a post-up which often ends in a hook shot.
