Brook Lopez will not play tonight against the New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets General Manager Billy King announced to reporters today. King said that Lopez is “not in good enough condition” to play.
This is the sixth consecutive game Lopez has missed since injuring his right foot against the Boston Celtics. The Nets are 1-4 in that time, beating the Orlando Magic before dropping four straight.
Avery Johnson has said that Lopez’s recovery has taken longer than the team expected at the outset. Whether or not that’s true — and I have no reason to believe it’s not — this would be entirely less harrowing if the Nets had said “he’ll miss two weeks” right off the bat, rather than dealing with the day-to-day doldrums.