Rookie forward Ryan Anderson made his first career start vs. Oklahoma City on 1/12. He tallied six points and a career-high tying nine rebounds in 27 minutes. Anderson, 20, was the third youngest Nets player to start in franchise history. Below are the five youngest players to start for the Nets in franchise history including Anderson’s expected start tonight.
Against Oklahoma City on 1/12, the Nets started two rookies, Anderson and Lopez, for the first time since March 5 of 2002 when Jason Collins and Richard Jefferson started at the LA Lakers in a 92-101 loss.
The Nets are currently riding their longest home winning streak of the season at four games… The last time New Jersey won four consecutive home games was last season with victories vs. Dallas on 2/10/08, vs. Minnesota on 2/12/08, vs. Indiana on 2/23/08 and vs. Milwaukee on 2/28/08.
The Nets are one of 12 NBA teams to have won 10-or-more games on the road this season. With the 114-103 victory at Charlotte on 12/27, the Nets moved to six games above .500 on the road for the first time in franchise history. The Nets reached five games over .500 on the road for the first time in franchise history with the 108-107 victory at Indiana on 12/23. Before this season, the Nets have reached four games over .500 on the road five times and during the current campaign New Jersey has been four games above .500 on the road three times.
The Nets currently have the fourth highest road scoring average in the NBA at 102.1.
Brook Lopez is currently averaging 2.00 blocks per game (fourth in NBA, first among rookies), which puts him on pace to swat 164 shots this season. He currently has 76 blocks and if he continues swatting shots at this rate, he will shatter the current Nets rookie record of 113 blocks set by Kenyon Martin in the 2000-01 season. Nets sophomore forward Sean Williams fell just short of the record last year in his rookie season with 106 blocks (1.45 per game). If Brook does reach 160, it would also give him the 6th all-time highest block total for a Nets player, tied with Shawn Bradley from the 1996-97 season. George Johnson owns the Nets record for most blocks in a season with 274 during the 1977-78 campaign.
Brook Lopez is ranked fourth in the NBA in blocks per game at 2.00 and first among rookies… He is also ranked in the top ten in four other rookie categories, 2nd in rebounding at 8.2, 9th in scoring at 10.7, 8th in field goal percentage at .476 (171-359), 9th in free throw percentage at .805 (66-82) and 7th in minutes at 29.1.
