Avery Johnson said at Friday morning's shootaround in Cleveland that MarShon Brooks, Kris Humphries and Mehmet Okur will all be game-time decisions for the 7:30 start against the Cavs.

Brooks is dealing with the Achilles issue that has kept him out of the last two games, but says he "feels great." Humphries missed shootaround with a stomach virus. And Okur has back spasms.

• Nets don't know if Humphries, Okur or Brooks will play tonight - Colin Stephenson - Star-Ledger

At a meeting with local residents Thursday, Forest City Ratner officials stated that the arena is on time and that two transportation projects near the arena, the Transit Connection and the Carlton Street Bridge, will be done, as required, by the time the arena is completed seven months from this weekend.

The big news came from Bob Sanna, who has overall charge of the project. "The framing of the arena is now complete, we had a little onsite ceremony with the workers, last of the beams. The framing system is 97% complete," he said. "Much of that [roof] tarping has been put in place, so we can advance the interior construction... We're in the process of finalizing permanent connections to the electrical system."

Under the construction schedule, seating will start to be installed in another 10 days or so; the scoreboard and other video boards in another month; and the ice rink, suitable for college or NHL games in the middle of March.

• Forest City Ratner: Carlton Avenue Bridge "projected completion" early September - Norman Oder - Atlantic Yards Report
  

The latest word on the possibility of a new NBA team in Newark comes from Stefan Bondy who writes that Newark Cory Booker and Shaquille O'Neal "have spoken several times about the subject and are in the process of arranging a meeting with the league". We've heard about Shaq's interest for years, but he's never committed a dime.

However, one "obstacle" cited by Bondy isn't actually an impediment at all. He writes that the Nets "don’t want a team just 13 miles away from the Barclays Center so soon after their own transition". They almost certainly don't but they are powerless to do anything about it.

As was reported early in 2010 when the Nets broke their lease at the IZOD Center, the Nets made a "major concession" to the State of New Jersey. They agreed to amend their territorial rights and not stand in the way of another NBA club coming to New Jersey. The Knicks, on the other hand, did not waive any rights. As Mike Ozanian of Forbes wrote last July, "any NBA team coming to Newark would have to pay a rich fee to the New York Knicks for invading their market. Experts say the fee could be at least $100 million."

• Nets and Deron Williams ready to move home from Prudential Center to Barclays Center - Stefan Bondy - New York Daily News
• Shaq, Newark Mayor Looking To Replace Nets In New Jersey - Tom Ziller - SB Nation
  

Will this be a showdown between two of the NBA's top rookies? Could be if MarShon Brooks, a game time decision again, can get beyond the pain in his Achilles tendon. Kyrie Irving is the only rookie scoring better than Brooks, 16.8 to 15.2, but Irving is also averaging 4.9 assists.

More importantly, can the Nets put together back-to-back wins for the first time this season? They've got a chance, having showed recently they're getting better, winning four of their last eight and three of their last five, despite injuries. The Nets are also into their new motto, "I love it", which basically translates to we can deal with whatever adversity is thrown at us. Deron Williams, who coined the term, is, of course, coming up his 34-and-11 game, with dagger, in Philly. D-Will and LeBron James are the only two NBA players with multiple 30-point, 10-assist games this season.

The Cavaliers' last game was a win over the spiraling Knicks. That broke a four-game losing streak. Where the Cavs have excelled lately is on defense, holding the Knicks to 85 and before that, holding the Heat to 92. In another fun matchup, Anderson Varejao and Kris Humphries will face off. They rank fifth and seventh in the NBA in rebounding.

• New Jersey Nets Game Notes - New Jersey Nets
• New Jersey Nets Game Notes - Cleveland Cavaliers
• Getting Inside - New Jersey Nets - Sports Xchange
• Getting Inside - Cleveland Cavaliers - Sports Xchange
• Nets-Cavaliers Preview - Noey Kupchan - Stats LLC
• Deron has Nets believing - Andy Vasquez - The Record
• Nets and Deron Williams ready to move home from Prudential Center to Barclays Center - Stefan Bondy - New York Daily News
• Nets’ task: Build on mojo - Fred Kerber - New York Post
• Looking back at Nets-76ers - Tim Bontemps - New York Post
  
• Alonzo Gee is scoring points with his defense for the Cleveland Cavaliers - Tom Reed - Cleveland Plain-Dealer
  

Bojan Bogdanovic may or may not be in a Nets uniform when the team opens the Barclays Center for basketball in nine months, but if he is, it will be the second arena he helped open this year. The 6'8" swingman scored 17, shooting 5-for-9, as his Fenerbahce Ulker opened its 15,000-seat Ulker Arena in Istanbul.

Bogdanovic was high scorer and the scorer when it was needed in Fener's crucial two-point win over Milano in Euroleague competition. Bogdanovic, over the last five Euroleague contests, is averaging 17.0 points while shooting 12-for-19 from deep.

Nets officials put Bogdanovic's chances of playing for the Nets next season at no better than 50%.

• Boxscore - Euroleague
• Game Report - Fenerbahce Ulker vs. EA7 Emporio Armani - Euroleague
• Game Highlights (Video) - Euroleague
  
• Fenerbahce Ulker's new home, Ulker Sports Arena, opens - Euroleague
  

Jordan Williams got into early foul trouble and finished the game with six points and six rebounds in 28 minutes, but Dennis Horner put on a show, scoring 24 points, shooting nine of the 10 from the line and grabbing nine boards as the Armor beat the Idaho Stampede easily in Springfield. Six Armor players finished in double figures.

On the other side of the court, the two players who lined up against Williams and Horner were familiar to NBA fans. Former All-Star Antoine Walker scored only seven points and grabbed one rebound, finishing 0-for-5 from three. Ex-Net Mikki Moore scored 13 points and grabbed eight rebounds in his comeback bid.

• Balanced offense and defense lead Springfield Armor over Stampede - Jeff Thomas - Springfield Republican
• Stampede at Armor Game Info - D-League
  

MarShon Brooks turns 23 Thursday and he's resting up, hoping his sore achilles will be good enough to challenge Kyrie Irving Friday night in Cleveland. Irving is currently at the top of the rookie rankings, just one Ricky Rubio ahead of Brooks in two of the three big rankings. Chandler Parsons sneaks up in the third.

Of Brooks, ESPN's David Thorpe writes, "Any time a rookie performs as well as Brooks has, it's a surprise, even if he was the top pick in the draft. But what Brooks is doing as a late first-round pick is stunning ... Right now, it looks like the Celtics will live to regret not drafting him and trading the pick to the Nets." And Thorpe has him ranked fourth.

Sebastian Pruiti, on Grantland, says nice things of Brooks' offense, but hammers him on his "matador defense ... It wasn't good enough for your JV coach, and it isn't good enough in the NBA." Drew Packham at NBA.com worries about his achilles, but calls him, "one of the most consistent rookie scorers".

• NBA -- Biggest rookie surprises - David Thorpe - ESPN Insider
• NBA Rookie Rankings III, including Kyrie Irving, Ricky Rubio, and more - Sebastian Pruiti - Grantland
• What Happened to You, Jimmer Fredette? - Sebastian Pruiti - Grantland
• Rookie Ladder - What's Up, Jimmer? - Drew Packham - NBA.com
• That's Our Boy - Nick Aiken - The Cowl
  

Kris Humphries is having a very good season. He ranks fourth in offensive rebounds, sixth in total rebounds and seventh in dunks, ahead of, in order, Andrew Bynum, Amare Stoudemire and LeBron James. He's only nine behind Blake Griffin. He's established himself as a double- double machine. Following 10 and 10 last season, he's now at 13 and 11 this one. But they still boo.

Doesn't bother Hump and in an interview with Haute Living, he gave a shout-out to Nets fans for their loyalty.

"To start off I will say people at the Prudential Center in New Jersey have been great," said Hump without prompting.

"If I go out on the road and people are booing and what not, I really don’t mind it. I love a hostile environment on the road. As long as our fans are supporting our team and me, I’m not too worried about it. Negative energy fuels me".

• Haute Living Exclusive Q&A with Kris Humphries - Wael Alexander Davis - Haute Living