PHOENIX — The Nets were missing three of their big men Friday in Los Angeles, and predictably got roughed up by Brook Lopez. But Quincy Acy should return Monday against the Suns, and Trevor Booker also may be back.
Acy is probable after missing the last three games with a left groin strain, while Booker missed the Lakers game with a sore back. Both practiced Sunday. Jarrett Allen didn’t and is expected to be sidelined for a third consecutive game with a left foot strain.
“That hurt. Any time you lose three bigs, that’s not good,” Acy said. “Anytime anybody goes down they’re missed. Everybody brings something different to the table. Coach [Kenny Atkinson] expects me to stretch the floor, so when I’m out there I guess it does open up the floor a little bit. … You always need your bigs, so we’re going to be crucial to that.”
Acy, who leads the Nets in 3-point shooting (52.4 percent) and is second in 3-pointers (1.8 per game), got hurt during the loss to the Knicks at the Garden.
“In the Knicks game in the third quarter I did a defensive slide and it just tightened up on me,” Acy said. “[I] got an MRI, it didn’t look too good so they kept me out.”
Booker said he strained his oblique against the Nuggets, and after playing the next game against the visiting Suns had to sit out Friday. His status could be determined at Monday’s morning shoot-around.
If Acy and Booker return, it should give the struggling defense a boost and alleviate the need for DeMarre Carroll to have to play so much power forward.
“We can do that. We take a hit a little bit. We didn’t do training camp that way, we haven’t practiced that way a lot,” Atkinson said. “We [practiced it Sunday] because we’ll need that in our back pocket, but it’s not our bread and butter. It became part of our bread and butter. You see our pace increases like crazy, our offense gets better when [Carroll is] at the four, but our defense suffers.“It’s rebounding; that’s part of it, just sheer rim protection suffers. Listen, its more wear and tear on DeMarre’s body, too, let’s be honest. So we’re trying to figure that out. … I’m not saying we don’t like DeMarre at the four. I’m not saying it’s not an option. I’m saying it’s not our bread and butter. If we say we’re going to play 40 minutes a game like that I don’t think we’re ready for that.”