Coach

Nets coach Avery Johnson will go to Russia next week to play in an exhibition game that will feature Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov and other Russian celebrities and personalities and also run a coaching seminar and a clinic for youth players. The game and clinics are part of a fundraising effort to benefit the families of victims of a cruise ship that capsized and sank last month in Russia.

The game, which will feature “basketball celebrities” and Russian “businessmen, artists and politicians” will take place Sept. 6 in Moscow. The seminar and clinics will be the next day.

For more Nets coverage, follow Colin Stephenson on Twitter at twitter.com/ledger_nets

Colin Stephenson: cstephenson@starledger.com

More Nets Coverage

• NBA lockout could cost arena operators $1 billion, according to report

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — The Detroit Pistons are giving former Nets coach Lawrence Frank another chance to lead an NBA team.

A person with knowledge of the situation said today that the Pistons have agreed to a three-year deal with Frank, a Teaneck native, to be their new head coach. The agreement includes a team option for a fourth year, according to the person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the team hasn’t announced the move.

Frank, an assistant coach with Boston last season, will be Detroit’s sixth coach in 11 seasons when the NBA lockout ends. The Pistons fired John Kuester in June after they missed the playoffs in both of his two seasons.

A deliberate coaching search, which also included Mike Woodson, Kelvin Sampson, Bill Laimbeer and Patrick Ewing, ended with the franchise choosing to give Frank another shot at a head coaching job. Frank was 225-241 as coach of the Nets, who advanced to the conference semifinals three times with him at the helm.

Frank replaced Byron Scott as New Jersey’s coach in January 2004 and began his career with a 13-game winning streak. He ended his stint with the Nets with a losing streak that was even longer. He was fired in November 2009 after the team started that season 0-16.

The 40-year-old Frank spent four seasons as a student manager for Bob Knight at Indiana. He was an assistant at Marquette and Tennessee before becoming an NBA assistant in Vancouver and New Jersey.

Frank will have a lot of work to do in the Motor City under new Pistons owner Tom Gores. Detroit is coming off three straight losing seasons after advancing to six consecutive Eastern Conference finals and winning the 2004 NBA title.

Kuester was 57-107 over two seasons as coach. This past season was a dreary one, with the proud franchise making more news for internal squabbling than any on-court accomplishments.

Empty seats were common at home games as Detroit won just 30 games last season with a dysfunctional roster on the court and one that was problematic off it for Kuester. The embattled coach benched point guard Rodney Stuckey barely a week into last season and benched him again with just over a week to go when there was friction between the two.

Veteran Richard Hamilton also fell out of favor and was benched.

The low point was probably Feb. 25 in Philadelphia. Seven players missed at least part of a team shootaround, and Kuester played only the remaining six that night in a blowout loss to the 76ers.

For much of the season, the team seemed in limbo because of a drawn-out sale by owner Karen Davidson. The Pistons finally announced in April that Gores was going to take over, and the deal became final after the season.

When the league resumes play, free agent Tayshaun Prince may part ways with the only NBA team he’s played for, and Ben Wallace might not be back.

Detroit drafted Kentucky guard Brandon Knight at No. 8 overall, adding to its perimeter logjam with Stuckey, Hamilton and Ben Gordon. Center Greg Monroe showed promising signs last season as a rookie and power forward Jonas Jerebko, who didn’t play last season after tearing his right Achilles’ tendon, will get an opportunity to bolster a thin frontcourt.

Deron Williams has agreed to a deal to play in Turkey during the NBA lockout, multiple reports said today, making the Nets’ point guard the first big-name NBA star to jump overseas during the NBA’s work stoppage.

A Turkish television station, NTV Spor, was first to report Williams had struck a deal with Besiktas, the Istanbul-based club that last year signed Allen Iverson. Williams’ deal reportedly is worth $200,000 per month, plus perks, and has an out clause that would allow Williams to return to the NBA immediately if the lockout ends.

Williams, 27, is under contract to the Nets for two more seasons, though he has the right to opt out of the final year and become a free agent in July 2012. However, with the lockout in effect, NBA players are free to seek employment elsewhere if they wish. In an interview with ESPN’s Bill Simmons back in February, NBA commissioner David Stern said, “If, in fact, there’s a lockout, then the player is free during the course of the lockout to do what he wants to do. … Last time around (in the lockout of 1998-99), players were free to do what they’re going to do, because they’ve been locked out.”

A phone message left by The Star-Ledger with Williams’ agent, Jeff Schwartz, was not returned. And because NBA teams are not allowed to talk about the lockout, the Nets are forbidden to comment on the news. However, owner Mikhail Prokhorov and general manager Billy King can’t be happy that the face of the team, and the man they hope will re-sign with them and lead the franchise into its new home in Brooklyn next summer, is planning to play overseas, because there is a risk of injury.

The Nets are trying their best to convince Williams they can upgrade the talent level on the roster enough so he will have a chance to win an NBA title if he stays with the team. But if the lockout costs the NBA the entire 2011-12 season, then Williams — who was acquired in February in a trade with Utah that cost the Nets Devin Harris, Derrick Favors, their first-round pick and $3 million cash — could opt out and leave as a free agent without ever playing another game for the club.

With Williams going overseas, it could open the door for other NBA players to follow suit. Yahoo Sports reported that the Besiktas coach Ergin Ataman is hoping that having Williams may attract another top NBA star to come and play for his team. Ataman told Yahoo Sports he hopes to meet with Lakers star Kobe Bryant and try and talk him into playing with Williams this season.

NBA agent Keith Glass was skeptical that many other players would follow Williams to Europe, and even skeptical that going to Europe is a good move for Williams, who underwent surgery on his right wrist after the Nets’ season ended in April. Even at $200,000 a month, Williams would earn less than $2 million if he ended up staying the whole season in Turkey. With the Nets, he is scheduled to earn $16.36 million this season and $17.8 million for 2012-13 if he doesn’t opt out.

Of course, Williams earns nothing as long as the NBA is locked out. But, if he plays for Besiktas and is injured there, the Nets would not be obligated to pay the rest of his contract after the lockout is settled. Presumably, Williams and/or Besiktas will arrange for insurance to cover that possibility, but Glass still has doubts.

“The risk-reward here is really slanted — in the wrong direction,” Glass said.

For more Nets coverage, follow Colin Stephenson on Twitter at twitter.com/ledger_nets

MarShon Brooks knows all about the New Jersey Nets. Though he grew up in Atlanta, Brooks was born in Long Branch and lived in New Jersey until he was 6.

“I visit with my grandmother every single summer,” Brooks said today, as the Nets introduced their three NBA Draft picks to the media at their East Rutherford facility. “I go to camps at Monmouth University. I’m Jersey-born and raised.”

As such, the 6-6 shooting guard said he was thrilled to be selected by the Nets, who traded up two spots to get him, sending a second-round pick in 2014 to the Boston Celtics to move from No. 27 to 25 overall.

According to both coach Avery Johnson and general manager Billy King, Brooks will have an opportunity to earn some playing time as a rookie. As the nation’s second-leading scorer (24.6 ppg) during his senior year at Providence last season, Brooks — whom the Nets had rated as the 15th best player in the draft — should help a team that finished third from the bottom in scoring last season. Style-wise, Brooks described himself as a scorer.

“Shooting definitely is not my strength,” he said. “I think I get to the rim a little better than most shooting guards.”

On draft night, Johnson said Brooks will be “competitive” this season with starting shooting guard Anthony Morrow. Brooks said he knows Morrow from when his high school team attended a basketball camp at Georgia Tech while Morrow was on the team there.

“I was a skinny kid; he was a skinny kid,” Brooks said of Morrow. “I was the best player on my team. He was the best player for Georgia Tech. We kind of clicked. It’s kind of weird to be in this situation fighting for minutes.”

Brooks said he believes playing four years in college, and playing different roles, from point guard to power forward, will help him make the transition to the NBA.

Meanwhile, King said second-round draft pick Bojan Bogdanovic has a three-year contract with Turkish league club Fenerbahce that has an exit clause after two seasons. King said the Nets are trying to see if they can get Bogdanovic after one year.

“That’s something we’ll work with his agent,” King said. “All he wants to focus on is playing basketball, and we’ll deal with that contract. But at this point, we know the talent he is, and if we’ve got to wait, we’ll wait.”

NOTE: Power forward Jordan Williams, one of the Nets’ three picks, may have a chance to earn playing time in his rookie season, depending on how King ends up completing the Nets’ roster. Currently, there are only eight Nets players under contract, and none of them play power forward, although the Nets will make a strong push to re-sign free agent Kris Humphries.

Teaneck native David West, a former NBA All-Star whose suffered a season-ending knee injury last season, also will be available, as he opted today to become a free agent.

The 6-10 Williams, who averaged 16.9 points and 11.8 rebounds per game as a sophomore at Maryland, said his rebounding ability should be able to translate from college to the NBA and he sees opportunity to get playing time with the Nets lacking bigs.

For more Nets coverage, follow Colin Stephenson on Twitter at twitter.com/ledger_nets

As far as draft days go, the Nets seemed to get a lot done Thursday, and general manager Billy King and coach Avery Johnson left the team’s offices feeling relatively good about what they’d accomplished.

“Coming into the draft, we had to get some guys,” Johnson said late Thursday night, after the Nets completed a trade with Boston to move up two spots in the first round and get Providence College shooting guard MarShon Brooks. “We weren’t very athletic at the (shooting guard) position. We needed to get some guys who could run and jump, and shoot, and score and play defense. And we think he can do that.”

Brooks, a 6-6 senior, was the second-leading scorer in the nation, averaging 24.6 points for a young Providence team, plus seven rebounds. He scored 52 points in one game against Notre Dame and 43 in a game against Georgetown.

The Nets traded their pick, No. 27 overall, and a second-rounder in 2014 to the Celtics for the No. 25 pick, which they used to select Brooks. Boston took Purdue power forward JaJuan Johnson with the 27th pick.

Avery Johnson said he hopes Brooks can break into the Nets’ playing rotation next season, and he said Brooks and Anthony Morrow “are going to be very competitive at the two-guard spot.”

King has said all along that he expects the Nets to be a player in free agency market and attempt to fill some of their immediate needs through that route, but the GM said Brooks will “have an opportunity” to compete for playing time as a rookie.

Jordan Williams, the Nets’ second-round pick out of Maryland, would also figure to have a chance to earn some playing time this season, given Brook Lopez’s rebounding struggles last season and the fact that the Nets currently have no other power forwards on their roster. The 6-10 Williams, 20, averaged 11.8 rebounds — third-most in the country — as a sophomore at Maryland last season. He also scored 16.9 points per game.

In between getting Brooks at No. 25 overall and Williams at No. 36, King also swung a trade to land the rights to 6-8 Croatian swingman Bojan Bogdanovic with the first pick of the second round (No. 31 overall). The Nets paid an undisclosed amount of cash to Minnesota to acquire the rights to Bogdanovic, who was actually selected by Miami, which then traded the pick to Minnesota.

The trade has still not been made official, but King confirmed Thursday night that the Nets had Bogdanovic in for a second workout Thursday morning. Bogdanovic, who was born in Bosnia, but is Croatian, is expected to join Brooks and Williams when the Nets’ draft picks are introduced to reporters Monday.

He is not expected to play for the Nets this season, as he recently signed a three-year contract with Turkish club Fenerbahce.

The Nets believe Bogdanovic will play in Turkey for one year and then perhaps come over to the NBA in time for the 2012-13 season.

For more Nets coverage, follow Colin Stephenson on Twitter at twitter.com/ledger_nets

Before his player-of-the-year banner hung inside the hollowed-out church where he played, there were nights when Kyrie Irving didn’t have anyone to practice against.

The bouncing ball echoed through St. Patrick High School’s worn cream-and-green walls, through the narrow hallway past the principal’s office, around the picture of Pope John Paul II and out onto Court Street. Surrounding him was little else but the three retired jerseys of the players he’d transferred there to be like — Shaheen Holloway, Al Harrington, Samuel Dalembert.

Kevin Boyle, Irving’s high school coach, said they used to keep the gym door open for certain kids whom they could trust shooting at night. Irving was one of them.

When desperate for a live defender, Irving would persuade the Rev. Justino Cornejo-Castillero, a Panamanian priest just out of seminary, to play against him.

“Poor Father Justino,” said Joe Picaro, the school’s principal.

Tonight, at the Prudential Center, he will likely join Shaquille O’Neal as the only New Jersey players selected No. 1 overall in the NBA Draft. It will mark the first time the event is held in Newark, 15 minutes from Irving’s old gym in Elizabeth.

But back then, Irving worked so hard because he had to. He was once overlooked here, a high-scoring underclassman at Montclair Kimberley considered the sixth-best sophomore in the state. As an upperclassman point guard at St. Pat’s, on any given night he may not have been thought of as the best player on his high school team.

For a time, he said he was hoping for any Division 1 scholarship, never mind Duke.

But between the transfer to St. Patrick and the accelerated rise to first-pick consideration at Duke, his legend expanded. Somewhere inside the basement courts at the Union County YM-YWHA and the backyard hoop in his own home, Irving forged a path to Garden State basketball history.

“It feels surreal knowing that last summer I was in the (Union) gym working out every single day,” Irving said. “Knowing that all that hard work is coming to fruition now and I’m achieving my dream, it’s an experience I’m going to remember for the rest of my life.”

Picaro admitted he did not know who Irving was at first. Drederick, Kyrie’s father, had to leave Picaro a handful of messages before they could get the transfer process in motion. Irving’s name, just like that of any other student wanting to attend St. Patrick High, was scribbled on a piece of printer paper in Picaro’s office.

But once his paperwork was finally processed, Picaro and athletic director Red Migliore went down to a summer league game at Linden High School to see the new kid play.

Floored by the slicing drives and mid-traffic passes, Migliore looked back at the principal and uttered a three-word phrase that men don’t take lightly when working inside a century-old stone chapel.

“Oh my God.”

SUMMER SCHOOLING

In the summertime, the basement of the Union YM-YWHA negates the theory that heat rises.

Like a restaurant kitchen, the air is dense. A healthy sweat develops in the 15 yards between the water fountain and the doorway.

Every summer in high school, Irving would be there from 2 to 6 p.m. His father played Division 1 basketball at Boston University and professionally in Australia and raised Kyrie alone after the boy’s mom, Elizabeth, died when he was 4. Eventually Drederick entrusted part of Irving’s development in Sandy Pyonin, his AAU coach who’s been working out of that same building since 1975.

• Kyrie Irving: Before NBA draft 2011, videos, photos and stories of his NJ HS career

• Kyrie Irving: NBA Draft 2011 buzz from around the web

• Kyrie Irving videos

• Mock NBA draft from the Star-Ledger

• NBA Draft 2011: Knicks’ and Nets’ needs

• NBA Draft 2011: Lots more

From the beginning of their training, which started in high school, he refused to treat Irving like a bubble-wrapped top prospect. They would play one-on-one full court. Irving would shoot 1,000 3-point jump shots. Pyonin would round up a handful of 14-year-olds to play him five-on-one.

During one session, Irving and Pyonin cracked skulls in a pickup game.

“His tooth hit my eyebrow and I had to go to the hospital and get stitches,” Irving said. “What Sandy won’t tell you is that his defense is, like, horrible.”

All this to help shed the last glimpses of what kept him under the radar. He had all the talent, the intangibles, the sixth sense to whiz a perfect pass in motion. He was now developing the killer instinct that would come to define him.

“We would think sometimes the guy is too nice,” said Chris Chavannes, Boyle’s replacement at Saint Patrick.

“At first, it looked like he would almost defer to the talent around him,” Boyle said.

Not for long.

Shortly before Irving left for Duke — a time when he shouldn’t have been on the court — Irving was still playing in that gym, running with Pyonin’s next group of players. Pyonin remembers hearing something, turning around and seeing the Blue Devils’ next golden boy hobbling toward the locker room.

He waited a few nervous minutes for Irving to return.

“He came back out and played five more games,” Pyonin said, laughing. “He was old school, though.”

DUKE TINKERS

Even now, after all the clues, the freeze-frame moments, the accolades, Irving’s circumstances still confound those who knew him.

Through his first eight games at Duke, he led the Blue Devils in scoring. Chris Collins, the team’s assistant coach who works with the guards, said the offense was tailored shortly after his arrival. His vision, his movement were just too perfect to keep things the same.

By early March, two separate scouts for teams with top-10 picks were positive Irving would go No. 1 overall.

That doesn’t mean the rapid rise wasn’t surprising to some.

“I just played with him two years ago,” said Derrick Gordon, a teammate at St. Patrick who starts at Western Kentucky in the fall. “I never thought it was going to be first round, first pick. That right there is amazing to me.”

For Irving, in New Jersey at least, his chapter ends with a fitting tribute.

Down the narrow hallway from the principal’s office, past the picture of Pope John Paul II, his uniform will hang on those cream-and-green walls.

Like Irving, the jersey will be as much a part of the atmosphere as the tireless echo of the bouncing ball through the old building.

“My life,” Irving said, “has been changing every single day.”

Deron Williams admitted he doesn’t know yet what he’s going to do when the Nets present him with an offer for a contract extension.

The team will be able to do that this summer — as soon as the NBA and its players union negotiates a new collective bargaining agreement — but the point guard said Thursday he can envision staying with the Nets long term.

“I like this organization a lot,” Williams said at the Nets’ breakup day at the practice facility in East Rutherford. “I like the direction they’re going. They made me and my family feel real comfortable since I’ve gotten here.

“I like Coach (Avery) Johnson — the way he coaches and the way he carries himself. I definitely can see myself staying here.”

Those comments had to make the organization feel good about the chances of keeping Williams, who can opt to become a free agent after next season. But Johnson has been confident all along that the Nets will keep their star point guard, and continued to sound optimistic Thursday.

“We have a lot of confidence about his situation,” Johnson said. “I feel Deron has totally bought in to what we’re doing. We have great communication with him; with his family. I really believe he is a sincere guy. And he’s a man of his word. And I can’t divulge any of our private conversations, but I really feel good about Deron next season in a Nets uniform, and on into the future.”

Williams, who played 12 games for the Nets after coming over from Utah Feb. 23 in a trade for Devin Harris, Derrick Favors, two first-round picks and $3 million, underwent surgery Monday to remove bone fragments and scar tissue from his injured right wrist, which caused him to miss the final five games of the season.

Williams was initially “pretty angry” when the doctor told him last week he needed surgery, as he had been told rest was all he would need to heal the wrist.

However, the Nets said when they did a “fine-cut” MRI exam on Williams last week, loose particles and scar tissue were discovered that impeded his ability to fully flex the wrist.

Doctors told Williams if he didn’t have surgery the wrist would continue to be prone to injury and continue to bother him, as it had the last three months of the season.

Williams, who finished the season with averages of 20.1 points and 10.3 assists per game (15.0 points and 12.8 assists with the Nets), said he got over his initial anger at the diagnosis and now looks forward to getting the splint off in about two weeks and getting back on the golf course.

The Nets had said it would be six to eight weeks before Williams would be able to resume basketball activities, but Williams said he is confident it won’t take that long.

As for what he liked so much about the Nets that would make him consider staying, Williams said he has developed a good relationship with Johnson and GM Billy King, with whom he talks often about the direction of the franchise.

“We’ve had a lot of open communication in a short period of time that I really like,” Williams said. “And just the organization in general, how they handle themselves from top to bottom. I think everybody has just been great here and I like how things are run.”

For more Nets coverage, follow Colin Stephenson on Twitter at twitter.com/ledger_nets

Coach Avery Johnson said it was essential for the Nets to re-sign free-agent power forward Kris Humphries, who emerged from an uncertain role as a backup to become the team’s toughest player, best rebounder and most consistent performer this season.

“Just high priority,” Johnson said. “But … it takes two to tango and hopefully Kris wants to be a part of our team and the fabric of what we’re doing just as much as we want him.

“He understands how we feel about him,” Johnson said of Humphries, who averaged 10 points and 10.4 rebounds in 74 games. “He really needs to be a part of our future, because of what he stands for, but that’s going to be entirely up to him, because he’s unrestricted.”

Humphries, who earned $3.2 million this season, said he wants to return, and would love to sign the longest-term deal possible. But with the uncertainty of the collective bargaining agreement negotiations, he can’t be sure of anything.

“I think a lot of things will play into it,” he said. “If teams have significantly less money to spend, obviously everyone’s going to have a smaller deal. That’s just the way it goes.

“I know you guys want to say, ‘He wants this amount of money,’ ” Humphries continued. “I want to be here, and I think in the end, we’ll be able to work out something where both sides are comfortable.”

Sasha Vujacic is also a free agent, and also said he wants to return to the Nets.

“We know how it goes, we don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said. “But my personal choice would be definitely to come back.”

Vujacic, acquired Dec. 15 from the Lakers in a three-team trade that sent Terrence Williams to Houston, Joe Smith and a second-round pick to the Lakers and also brought back first-round picks from Houston and the Lakers, averaged 11.4 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 47 games with the Nets.

He said after the final game in Chicago on Wednesday he will not play for Slovenia in the European Championships because he is a free agent and does not want to take a chance on getting hurt.

Owner Mikhail Prokhorov issued a statement, saying he is “satisfied with the team’s progress and the work of the coaching staff. When they had a healthy roster, we caught a tantalizing glimpse of what the Nets can and will be next season under the leadership of Deron Williams and Brook Lopez.

“The Nets have won twice as many games this season, compared to the last one. At that rate, in two years, we’ll have broken every record in the league.”

For more Nets coverage, follow Colin Stephenson on Twitter at twitter.com/ledger_nets

Sasha Vujacic seemed to have it all in Los Angeles: Fame, fortune and championship rings.

But playing time was an issue for the super-competitive Vujacic, and so, when the two-time defending NBA champion Lakers decided in December to trade him to the lowly Nets, Vujacic wasn’t sour.

Instead, he embraced the move.

“It was time for me to move on, to find new challenges,’’ Vujacic said of leaving the Lakers for the Nets. “The role (in L.A.) wasn’t very significant, that’s why it was more than needed to change the city, change the team, change everything.’’

Vujacic admitted the failure of the Nets to make the playoffs “hurts,’’ but he insisted nevertheless that he loved being on the Nets. He played hard, and fearlessly, and quickly established himself as a fan favorite for a willingness and ability to take big shots and — as often as not — make them.

Vujacic averaged 28 minutes and 11.2 points in the 54 games he played for the Nets prior to last night. And the 24.1 minutes and 9.6 points per game he averages on the season are both career-highs.

But last night’s game at Prudential Center against the Charlotte Bobcats was the final home game for the Nets in 2010-11, and it might have been the final game in Newark for Vujacic as a Net. The seven-year veteran is a free agent this summer, and as mutually beneficial as his time with the Nets has been, he may not be back.

“I really don’t know,’’ Vujacic said when asked if he wants to return to the Nets. “I’ll talk with you about that after the last game. But definitely, from Day One, everybody accepted me, from the organization, to coaches to teammates. So I feel great and I felt welcomed. So I like it here. I like it a lot. The ownership, Mikhail Prokhorov, and (GM) Billy King, coach (Avery Johnson), everybody has that global vision of the team going somewhere and winning the championship and all I want to do is to win championships.’’

With a 24-56 record entering last night, the Nets have doubled their win total of last season, but they will need to improve a lot more if they are to get to the point where they can compete for a championship — or even just make the playoffs. It would help if Deron Williams — who had surgery on his wrist yesterday — is healthy all year, but that alone won’t do it.

The Nets will need to upgrade their roster to find a reliable perimeter scorer to help take pressure off Williams and center Brook Lopez.

In order to do that — and re-sign free agent Kris Humphries, whose performance this season has earned him a hefty raise for next year — they may not have the money available to commit to Vujacic, who earned $5.45 million this season.

Vujacic, who is engaged to tennis star Maria Sharapova, said he will take a week or so off after the season ends tomorrow in Chicago against the Bulls and then quickly get right to working out and getting ready for next season. He said he is already talking to trainers trying to come up with a plan for staying in shape in an offseason that is two months longer than he is used to. And of course, he’ll be traveling and watching a lot of tennis, he said.

Vujacic should have plenty of options if he doesn’t re-sign with the Nets. He came to New Jersey in the Dec. 15 three-team deal that sent Terrence Williams to Houston, and Joe Smith and two second-round picks to the Lakers for Vujacic and a first-round pick each from Houston and the Lakers.

In many ways, it felt like the last day of school: The rigorous portion of the year had already passed, vacation was near and some of the class hadn’t even stuck around for the end.

With only nine healthy players, the Nets lost to the Charlotte Bobcats last night, 105-103, at the Prudential Center in Newark on D.J. Augustin’s jumper with 1.1 seconds left.

Brook Lopez started at center for the 81st time this season and scored 31 — one point below his average for the last five games.

“You actually see him playing like a post-up center now,” coach Avery Johnson said of Lopez, who turned in his 10th 30-point game this season.

Around the 7-foot anchor, the Nets pieced together a lineup of assorted veterans, role players and career second-stringers that only an injury list as long as their 24-57 season would necessitate.

Dan Gadzuric started at power forward. Stephen Graham at small forward. Sasha Vujacic and Jordan Farmar were at guard.

Three Nets regulars were dressed in suits on the bench. Three others, including point guard Deron Williams, weren’t even in the building.

Williams was home resting, according to Johnson, after what the team dubbed successful surgery yesterday at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York to remove three bone fragments and scar tissue from his right wrist.

The fragments and scar tissue prevented full flexion in Williams’ wrist.

Andrew Weiland, the hand specialist who performed the surgery along with Nets team orthopedist Riley Williams III, said in a statement released by the team that “we expect a full recovery and a return to basketball-related activities in approximately 6-8 weeks.”

Williams’ backup, Farmar, filled in capably and scored 20 points and dished nine assists in 34 minutes. Vujacic had 19, including the bucket that tied the game at 103.

The Bobcats (33-48), only dressing nine players as well, started the third on a 17-6 run and grew the lead to 10 later in the quarter.

The Nets clawed back and after Dante Cunningham, who scored 21 points, rattled a jumper to make it 103-100, Vujacic hit a 3-pointer with 10.9 left from the corner to tie the game.

“Tough way to finish up, but give our guys a lot of credit, they came out in the second half and really played hard,” Johnson said.

The Bobcats ran the 6-0 Augustin (19 points, 11 assists) off a pick on the game’s final play, which Johnson said the Nets anticipated but couldn’t stop.

“I came off hard and had Brook on me,” Augustin said. “I attacked him and pulled up” just north of the left elbow.

“It felt good when I shot it and it felt good when the shot went in.”

A crowd of 13,853 watched the Nets finish their inaugural season at the Prudential Center with their 14th loss in their last 16 games.

The Nets will be back at the Prudential Center come fall for another year.

This is where the Nets will make their last stand.

The last big game of the Nets’ 2010-11 season will be played tonight at the Prudential Center, when the Nets welcome their hated cross-river rivals, the Knicks, to Newark.

This is how it is when you are a team that is out of the playoff hunt in the final weeks of the season — you must look for things to keep you interested as you play out the string. A road game against the Pistons on a Wednesday that isn’t being televised anywhere? Yawn. A home game against the Knicks — in front of a packed arena with half the fans rooting for the visiting team? Much more exciting.

“Hey man, I’m from Europe — you don’t have to tell me about these games, the ‘derbies,’ the local rivalries and stuff like that,” Sasha Vujacic said of playing the Knicks for the final time this season. “You live for it, in a way. But they’re you know, obviously, having a little bit better season than us and probably it will be an interesting game. We’ll see what will happen. Both teams are pretty good with the matchups — and they’re a team that can get hot. Once they get hot, you’ve got to find ice and cool them down.”

The Nets were unable to do that in any of their three previous meetings, and lost all three games, the most recent of which was last week in a matchup that was televised on ESPN, YES and MSG. Deron Williams came back from a six-game absence to rest his aching wrist to play in that one, and went on to play in four straight games before sitting out Wednesday’s 116-109 loss to the Pistons in Auburn Hills to see a hand specialist about his wrist.

His status for tonight’s game is up in the air, and Nets coach Avery Johnson said Wednesday he would announce at shootaround today whether Williams will play tonight, and whether he will play again this season.

The Knicks have injury worries of their own. Point guard Chauncey Billups (thigh) and forward Amar’e Stoudamire (ankle) are probably questionable, too, as the playoff-bound Knicks may decide to rest the pair.

Johnson also has said that the injured Damion James (sore right foot, 10 games missed) and Kris Humphries (sprained ankle, bruised heel, four games missed) need to get back in the lineup by tonight or it doesn’t make sense to come back for the remaining three games of the season. James, who made the trip to Detroit, didn’t rule out a return tonight, but didn’t seem confident he’d be back, either.

For more Nets coverage, follow Colin Stephenson on Twitter at twitter.com/ledger_nets

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — All around him, his teammates are dropping like flies, unable to play because of this injury or that. But Brook Lopez remains standing for the Nets.

With Deron Williams, Kris Humphries, Anthony Morrow and Damion James all out of the lineup against the Detroit Pistons tonight, at least Nets coach Avery Johnson could count on Lopez being in uniform and in the starting lineup for the 78th consecutive game this season.

Surrounded in the starting lineup tonight by the likes of Jordan Farmar, Sasha Vujacic, Dan Gadzuric and 10-day contract guy Mario West, Lopez exploded for a career-high 39 points. Unfortunately for him and his teammates, it wasn’t enough to save the Nets from a 116-109 loss to the Pistons at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

Lopez hit 14-of-20 shots from the field, and his last basket, with 9:50 remaining, gave the Nets a 97-95 lead. But the Pistons double-teamed him and forced him away from the basket after that, and he took only one shot the rest of the way, as Detroit outscored the Nets 19-11 down the stretch.

“There was a lot of times where he just wasn’t open,’’ Farmar said of Lopez. ”They had a guy in front and in back of him, and other guys have to make plays in that situation, whether it’s flash a high-low, or play on the weakside, we have to be able to just do it without thinking.”

Farmar had a double-double for the Nets (18 points, 11 assists), but Richard Hamilton had 25 points, Greg Monroe had 20 and 10 rebounds, and Rodney Stuckey came off the bench to score 22, with 10 assists for the Pistons (27-51).

Afterward, Lopez departed the locker room before reporters were allowed in, apparently upset with the way the game ended. Johnson blamed the loss on the Nets’ inability to get Lopez the ball for those final nine minutes-plus.

“We kind of lost the game by not getting the ball inside,’’ Johnson said. “Brook had an outstanding offensive game — career high in points. Normally in the second half he’ll tend to not have the same type of energy. So we challenged him at halftime to not finish the game with 22 points (after getting 20 in the first half). He was trying to make a statement there and that’s what we’ve been looking for all year.”

Lopez has never missed a game in his three-year career. Tonight’s was the 242nd consecutive game the 7-foot, 265-pound center has played for the Nets, putting him third on the franchise’s list of consecutive games played. Darwin Cook holds the record, at 319, from 1980-85. Buck Williams is No. 2, with 292, from 1983-88.

Lopez entered last night’s game with season averages of 19.8 points and 6.0 rebounds, and he was coming off a 30-point, 12-rebound effort Tuesday against Minnesota. He carried that over against the Pistons, scoring 20 points in the first half, on 7-of-9 shooting, as the Nets took a 59-54 lead into halftime.

Lopez has never played a playoff game in his career, and the Nets’ record in his three seasons is 70-172. But he remains optimistic about the Nets’ future.

“I think in the three years I’ve been here, we’re in the best (position) right now, going forward to next year,” he said. “I think we’ve built a pretty decent foundation. I’m looking forward to being back here next year.”

For more Nets coverage, follow Colin Stephenson on Twitter at twitter.com/ledger_nets

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Anthony Morrow tested it out before the game tonight, but the tendinitis in his left knee was still too much, so the shooting guard sat out his second straight game.

“I’ll get treatment (Thursday), get treatment the day of the Knicks game (Friday) and see how it feels,’’ he said. “Hopefully, man. It should be calm by then. It should be. But it’s like every little thing I do, I can feel it.”

Coach Avery Johnson has said with other injured players, Damion James (10 games missed with a sore foot) and Kris Humphries (four games missed with a sprained ankle and sore heel) if they don’t make it back in time to play Friday, it may not make sense for them to come back at all for the season’s final three games. But that is not the case, he said, with Morrow.

As long as it calms down, I’ll play. I thought about getting a cortisone shot. I don’t know if I should do that. I’ve never done that. I will, but I don’t know if that’d be the best thing.

“It’s a little bit different for Morrow,” Johnson said. “Different situation. Because even if he doesn’t play on Friday, there’s a chance he could play on Sunday.”

“As long as it calms down, I’ll play,” Morrow agreed.

Morrow even said he thought about getting a cortisone shot in the knee.

“I don’t know if I should do that,” he said. “I’ve never done that. I will, but I don’t know if that’d be the best thing.”

Meanwhile, Johnson said he didn’t have any word on what Deron Williams may have learned after visiting with a hand specialist today.

Williams, who missed six games to rest his aching right wrist before returning March 30 to play against the Knicks, had played four consecutive games before staying back in New Jersey today.

Johnson said he will announce Friday at shootaround whether Williams will play Friday night against the Knicks or be shut down for the rest of the season.

But while Williams was going to see the doctor, an 80-foot-by-60-foot billboard of him in a Nets uniform taking a jumpshot next to the Brooklyn Bridge was unveiled in Times Square, on Broadway, between 42nd and 43rd streets. The billboard will be up until April 19.

“This Times Square billboard tips off our dynamic ‘Brooklyn-bound’ campaign, which will see us doing major outdoor advertising in Brooklyn on billboards and phone kiosks,” Nets CEO Brett Yormark said.

“Deron is arguably the best point guard in the NBA and he will be the face of our campaign as we prepare for the team’s exciting relocation to the Barclays Center of Brooklyn in 2012.”

For more Nets coverage, follow Colin Stephenson on Twitter at twitter.com/ledger_nets

This is how it is when you are playing out the string.

With no playoffs as incentive to force them to bring their best game every night, the Nets must look for reasons to get up for each game individually. Sometimes, they motivate themselves enough to produce an effort like they did against the Knicks. Often, though, the games look more like the ones against Houston and Philadelphia.

“Well, it’s hard, but it’s no excuse,” Sasha Vujacic said of the Nets’ chore of getting themselves pumped up enough to play well. “We are all professionals. We know what we have to do, and we’ve got to do our part. We’ve got to be able to do it as well, but it’s just frustrating. We had that little run after London and little hopes of playoffs, and it’s just a different kind of mentality (since the Nets were eliminated). We’ve got to win a couple, and it’s going to be okay.”

Motivation shouldn’t be a problem today, certainly — not when LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat come to Newark to take on the Nets at 6 p.m. at Prudential Center.
“Everybody wants to play those guys,” point guard Deron Williams said. “Hopefully, our energy will be up. There should be a lot of excitement in the building; hopefully, not too many Miami fans.”

Coach Avery Johnson says all the time that he won’t make excuses for his team — then he runs down the long list of them: how the Nets were affected by injuries, most recently to Kris Humphries; how many of their key players have played more this season than they ever have; how the team was affected by all the Carmelo Anthony drama; how Williams has only played two games in the last two weeks.

But in the locker room after their 115-90 loss Friday in Philadelphia, Johnson told his team the story of Anthony Robles, the Arizona State wrestler with one leg who won an NCAA championship last month.

“He never made excuses,” Brook Lopez said of Robles. “And (he displayed a) continuous will to fight against the odds. We definitely need to take some spirit from that one.”

It will help tonight that Williams — who had missed six games to rest his sore right wrist before returning Wednesday in the game against the Knicks — will be in the lineup against the Heat. It will also help if Humphries, who missed Friday’s game with a sprained ankle, is sufficiently healed to be able to get back in the lineup. And it will help if Lopez, who scored only four second-half points against the Knicks and then was held to 11 points (all in the first half) against Philadelphia, can bounce back mentally and physically.

A desperate Vujacic also made a plea to Nets fans to help in any way they can.

“It’s going to be one of the last home games,” he said. “I hope that Prudential Center is going to be packed and with our fans because we need that right now. We need that energy from our fans for 48 minutes.”

For more Nets coverage, follow Colin Stephenson on Twitter at twitter.com/ledger_nets

PHILADELPHIA — Rod Thorn, gentleman that he is, smiled when he was asked if he thought it ironic that his new team, the Philadelphia 76ers, could clinch a playoff spot by beating his old team, the Nets, tonight.

“Yeah, I guess that would be ironic,” said Thorn, the Sixers’ president. “I didn’t think about that, but I guess it would be.”

The Sixers didn’t just beat the Nets tonight, they stomped all over them, jumping on them early and grinding them into submission in a 115-90 victory at Wells Fargo Center. The loss was the fifth in a row for the Nets, and their ninth in their past 10 games. And for the second time this week, they looked as if they simply weren’t there, mentally.

“I saw it coming this morning in shootaround,” a subdued Avery Johnson said. “We just didn’t have that look in our eyes. We haven’t had many bad practices or shootarounds the whole year. This morning we kind of were in the fog a little bit.”

To be fair, the Nets (23-52) were without their best defensive player and toughest guy, Kris Humphries, who missed the game with a sprained ankle and bruised heel.

And, just as New Jersey may have looked past Houston on Tuesday because it was focusing on the Knicks game Wednesday, it’s possible the Nets might have been looking past the Sixers as they think about hosting the Miami Heat on Sunday night at Prudential Center.

“It was one of them games you just want to forget about,” said point guard Deron Williams, who played his second game after missing six to rest his aching right wrist. “There was nothing really good comes out of games like this. That team played better than us. We made a lot of mistakes out there and we’ve just got to move on and go to the next game.”

Sasha Vujacic, who won championship rings the past two seasons with the Lakers, will miss the playoffs for the first time in his NBA career. He didn’t feel like making excuses for this one.

“We didn’t help each other, and they played like a team that’s in the playoffs,” Vujacic said. “They used the extra pass, they made us work in zone (defense), they made us make mistakes, and we punished ourselves at the end of the day. That can’t happen. We are not in the playoffs. We are playing for something — we don’t know what we’re playing for — we’ve got to put ourselves together, our heads together, and try to beat someone in the next (seven) games.”

Philadelphia (40-36) swept the four games played this season, becoming the fourth Eastern Conference team to sweep the season series against the Nets (joining Indiana, Milwaukee and Orlando). The Heat can become the fifth team if they can win tomorrow, and the Knicks have won all three games against the Nets, with one to play, April 8.

The good news? Well, Williams got through his 22:18 without tweaking his wrist. And Williams also got to go home to his family, which is joining him in New Jersey for the first time since he was traded to the Nets Feb. 23.

Johnson had said the Nets had decided against shutting Williams down for the season.

“That was one of the conversations,” Johnson said. “I’m just glad he got through the last game (Wednesday, against the Knicks) okay. He won’t practice anymore this year. When we get to the contact in shootaround, he’s out of it.”

NOTES

Damion James missed his seventh straight game with soreness in his surgically repaired right foot, and while Johnson said the team will try to get him back practicing on Monday, the coach admitted he is “concerned” that James may not be able to return this season.

James, who underwent surgery after his foot was broken in December, returned after the All-Star break, but suffered a concussion in a game on the Nets’ trip to London early last month and missed three games. He returned and played three games before soreness in the foot forced him out again.

Williams was named one of the divisional winners of the 2010-11 NBA Sportsmanship Award. Charlotte’s D.J. Augustin, Chicago’s Luol Dent, Golden State’s Stephen Curry, Portland’s LaMarcus Aldridge and San Antonio’s George Hill were the other division winners for the award, which recognizes the player who “best represents the ideals of sportsmanship on the court.” The winner of the league award — named The Joe Dumars Trophy, after the Pistons GM — will be announced after the season.

Mario West, who signed a 10-day contract with the team Thursday, made his Nets debut early in the second half and scored 13 points.

For more Nets coverage, follow Colin Stephenson on Twitter at twitter.com/ledger_nets

Deron Williams came out of Wednesday’s loss to the Knicks feeling fine and proclaiming himself likely to play in tonight’s game against the 76ers in Philadelphia.

Coach Avery Johnson and general manager Billy King were less willing to discuss Williams’ status for tonight, but the roster moves King made Thursday were an indication the Nets believe Williams is healthy enough to play.

With four players injured and only 11 that were available to dress for Wednesday’s game, the Nets waived injured swingman Quinton Ross and signed 6-5 guard Mario West, a former Atlanta Hawk, to a 10-day contract to replace Ross on the roster.

“We needed a body,” King said in explaining the moves.

With season-ending injuries to Sundiata Gaines (fractured hip) and Ross (back), as well as shorter-term injuries to Damion James (sore foot) and Ben Uzoh (knee), King said the Nets were short on perimeter defenders. Because they had the maximum 15 players on the roster, they needed to waive someone in order to sign an injury replacement. Ross, who may need surgery on his back, would have become a free agent after the season was over.

West, 26, was undrafted out of Georgia Tech in 2007 and spent two seasons with Atlanta before splitting time with the Hawks and the D-League’s Maine Red Claws last season. This season, he had spent most of his time with Maine.

The choice of West, who averaged 13.7 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.9 assists in 42 games with Maine, suggests King and Johnson are confident that Williams — who played 37 minutes against the Knicks in his first game in 12 days — will be available to play against the Sixers.

With Uzoh hobbled by a bone bruise on his left knee — he was limping in the locker room Wednesday night — King probably would have brought in a point guard if he didn’t think Williams would play. Jordan Farmar is the only other point guard on the roster.

King said he was impressed with Williams’ performance against the Knicks. He scored 22 points and had eight assists in his return after missing six games.

“He was great,” King said. “He didn’t make a lot of shots (7 of 19), but he had a huge impact on the game.”

For more Nets coverage, follow Colin Stephenson on Twitter at twitter.com/ledger_nets

Avery Johnson promised a daily update on Deron Williams’ status, but the coach couldn’t — or wouldn’t — say whether his point guard, who has missed six straight games because of his injured right wrist, will play Wednesday night when the Nets visit the Knicks at Madison Square Garden.

Williams, who is bothered by a strained tendon in the wrist, has not played since March 18 in Milwaukee, when he fell and landed on the wrist, then was forced to leave the game before it was over.

Johnson, Nets GM Billy King and Williams huddled the next day and decided to shelve Williams for the next three games, at least, before re-evaluating. Then they kept him out for two games over the weekend in Orlando and Atlanta, and on Monday announced he wouldn’t play in tonight’s game against Houston.

But Williams told reporters Saturday that he was “eyeing’’ tonight’s game as a logical spot to try to return because it is “a big game.”

“Like I said (Monday), he’s day-to-day,” Johnson said. “And we’ll figure out if he’s going to play in a game this year or not. And if he does, we’ll see how he gets through it and talk about the next one after that — if and when that happens.”

Williams went through shootaround today, but did not take part in the contact portion of the exercise. That wouldn’t preclude him from playing Wednesday, however, because Johnson admitted Williams is one of the few players he would allow to play in a game even if he had not practiced first.

Johnson said he considered starting Travis Outlaw at small forward, but decided to stick with the same starting five he used for the three games the team played on the road last week, using Sasha Vujacic at small forward in place of the injured Damion James (foot).

Johnson said he could turn to the 6-9 Outlaw on Wednesday night against the Knicks’ 6-8 Carmelo Anthony, but cautioned that “there are certain players that no matter who you play on them, they’re going to score. You’ve got to make sure that you can continue to score.”

Quinton Ross (back) met with a surgeon, but Johnson said the team hasn’t decided if Ross will have surgery. Ross, who missed 12 games with a back injury, returned Friday in Orlando but took a knee in the back and was forced to leave that game on a stretcher. He has not played the last two games.

Johnson said assistant coach Larry Krystkowiak has been given permission to talk to the University of Utah about their head coaching positionA.

Brook Lopez said his arm, which has a calcium deposit, hurts. But on the bright side, he got the stitches out of his chin that were put there after he was elbowed by Milwaukee’s Andrew Bogut.

Former Net Terrence Williams did not make the trip to New Jersey. Williams had surgery to address a lingering abdominal injury originally suffered back in November, while he was with the Nets. Williams has now been out eight games with the injuryA.

For more Nets coverage, follow Colin Stephenson on Twitter at twitter.com/ledger_nets

When her only son was 7 or 8 years old, Angela Morrow would put him to bed and turn off the light. Once the door to his bedroom was closed, it sounded as if a pickup game had broken out.

Swish, Yay!

Using a flashlight to help him see, Anthony would be throwing balls of rolled-up aluminum foil, or sometimes rolled-up socks covered with tape, through a hoop he had made by bending a wire hanger into a circle.

“That boy could make a goal out of anything,’’ Angela Morrow says.

Most basketball aficionados agree that great shooters are born, not trained. But if the ability to consistently hoist a basketball over 20 feet through a circular hoop 10 feet above the ground is mostly innate, that gift alone won’t get you to the NBA.

“Shooters, to me, are born,” said Rontrice Morrow, Anthony’s older cousin and the man who taught him the finer points of shooting a basketball. “But practice does make perfect.”

Anthony Morrow has been practicing shooting a basketball all his life. His dedication has refined a skill so sharp that he has the second-highest 3-point shooting percentage, .448, in NBA history.

At pre-school age, growing up in Charlotte, N.C., his mother would take Anthony to the park and let him shoot basketballs until he tired himself out. When Rontrice — who is eight years older than Anthony — would go to the park with friends, his grandmother would make him take Anthony. Rontrice and his friends would play half-court, and Anthony would shoot by himself at the other end.

All that shooting paid off when Morrow, 25, signed a free-agent deal with the Nets last summer worth $12 million over three years. For a guy who went undrafted coming out of Georgia Tech three years ago, and who nearly signed for $80,000 to play in Ukraine, it is more money than he could have imagined he’d ever see in his life.

“This is just tremendous, man, it’s a blessing,’’ Morrow said of the success and stability he has found in the NBA. “I thank God for it every day. It’s just one of those things where you see stuff like that in movies. You don’t see stuff like that every day. So I acknowledge that, give back to my neighborhood, give back to my community, tell people my story all the time.”

Morrow’s story picks up in the 10th grade with his jumper. It was then he first realized he was good enough to play basketball in college — maybe professionally. His high school coach at Charlotte Latin, Jerry Faulkner, told him that, with work, he had the potential to do big things.

“I said, ‘Anthony, what you do with this is your business, but I’m going to give you a chance,’” Faulkner recalled. “ ‘You can do what you want to do with it — you can listen to your coach, listen to your teachers and go to the next level. And maybe the next level.’”

Morrow, who grew up on the west side of Charlotte, had transferred to Charlotte Latin — 30 miles away, on the city’s south side — as a sophomore. The move taught him a lesson beyond basketball, his mother said.

“I felt the need to move him because public school wasn’t giving him a challenge,” Angela Morrow said. “He would be done with his homework in 20 minutes. I felt like he was smart enough to be challenged.”

She worked four jobs to cover the family’s bills and pay the tuition, and sometimes would bring Anthony to work with her “because I wanted him to see that nothing is free. Whatever you want, you’ve got to work for it.”

Morrow did. Sometimes, after a weeknight road game, he might not get home until after midnight — and then would have to do homework. He’d get to bed at 2 or 3 a.m. and be up by 6 a.m. to get to school on time.

As a sophomore, Morrow was recruited by North Carolina, his favorite college team, but then-coach Matt Doherty resigned after the 2002-03 season and his replacement, Roy Williams, didn’t show interest in Morrow, who ended up at Georgia Tech instead.

Morrow’s college career undulated. A successful sophomore season gave way to a junior campaign in which, after a back injury, his scoring average slumped and he mostly came off the bench. He rebounded as a senior, with his jumper (44.8 percent from 3-point range) helping to earn an invite to the NBA’s Portsmouth, N.H., draft combine. Still, he wasn’t drafted.

Morrow bounced around the NBA summer league circuit, hoping his shooting prowess would attract a suitor. He caught on with the Golden State Warriors, earned the MVP of the Utah summer league then a contract for the 2008-09 season. As a rookie, he scored 10 a game and hit 46.7 percent of his 3-point shots. The next year, he shot 45.6 percent from 3, a mark of consistency the Nets noticed last offseason.

“One of the things that we lacked tremendously was shooting,” Nets assistant GM Bobby Marks said. “Him kind of being under the radar the last couple years in Golden State — he was two minimum contracts, non-guaranteed — we felt at the value he possessed on the court and at the salary number we were looking at, he was a guy that kind of fit (our needs).”

Morrow has quietly become the Nets’ top offseason acquisition. He is averaging 13.2 points and shooting 42.4 percent from 3-point range in 43 starts, the most of his career. His career 3-point shooting percentage trails only Steve Kerr (.454) in NBA history.

“I’ve only played with one other shooter similar to him and that’s Kyle Korver, a guy that’s just a dead-eye 3-point shooter,” Nets point guard Deron Williams said. “Guys like that are a point guard’s dream, because you’re pretty much mad when they miss.”

For more Nets coverage, follow Colin Stephenson on Twitter at twitter.com/ledger_nets

ATLANTA — Deron Williams told reporters today he expects to play again before the Nets’ season is over, and the point guard pointed to Wednesday’s game against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden as a likely target for his return.

“Yeah, I’m going to give it one more try,” Williams said after working out before the Nets’ game against the Atlanta Hawks at Philips Arena. “Hopefully, I don’t hurt it again, which is hard to do, because everything’s so instinctive, with your hands and with your wrist.

“Maybe I’ll eye that New York game,” he said. “It’s a big game.”

Williams, who has been dealing with an injured right (shooting) wrist, has missed the last five games in an effort to get the wrist some of the rest it needs.

Nets coach Avery Johnson had said Williams will be re-evaluated at Monday’s practice.

But looking at the Nets’ schedule this week, Williams said the Knicks game seemed like the most logical spot for him to make his return. The Nets are off Sunday, practice Monday and then play Houston at home Tuesday and the Knicks — in a game televised nationally by ESPN — Wednesday.

“We haven’t discussed it, but I was probably going to play sooner than later, and one of these next couple games would be it,” Williams said. “I think it would probably be better to play the second (game) of a back-to-back, instead of the first.”

Williams has said the wrist needs three to four weeks to heal, and he has been out for nine days at this point, having last played March 18 in Milwaukee, when he fell on the wrist and was forced to leave the game before it was over. If he returns Wednesday, he will have had 11 days’ rest.

Williams, who was injured Jan. 26 while playing for Utah, initially sat out eight days, but re-injured the wrist when he returned. He sat out another week in early March, after the Nets returned from their two-game trip to London, when he went home to Dallas to be with his wife when she gave birth to their son March 9. He quickly aggravated the injury after returning from that layoff as well.

He said today that he doesn’t believe that a week off, or even two weeks off, will help him, that as soon as he comes back, he bangs the wrist in a game and the pain and weakness returns.

But he refuses to just shut himself down for the season.

“I hate sitting out,” he said. “I could say I’m going to sit out for the season, but then I’m going to get over there and I’m itching, and I see we lose and I want to get back out there, so they didn’t want to say ‘the whole season’ and then me play again.”

Williams, who was acquired by the Nets on Feb. 23 in a trade from Utah, where the Nets sent Devin Harris, Derrick Favors, two first-round picks and $3 million to the Jazz, was asked whether playing in his first Nets-Knicks game matters to him.

“I think so,’’ he said. “I think it matters to everybody. It’s a big game, period. Just because it’s the Knicks — there’s a lot of animosity between ownerships and some things going back and forth. So it’d be a fun game to be a part of, I would think.”

Williams also pointed out that he has not had played in the Garden this season, as he was traded before Utah made its visit to New York.

Williams was asked if things go well for him in the Knicks game and he doesn’t aggravate the injury again in the game, he will then continue to play the rest of the season.

“It’s just one of those things you’ve got to play it game by game, because who knows what will happen that game, and how it’ll feel the next night,” he said.

For more Nets coverage, follow Colin Stephenson on Twitter at twitter.com/ledger_nets