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Amidst trade rumors, the Nets are becoming 'Brook Lopez's team'

By Tom Lorenzo
Debby Wong-USA TODAY Sports

In back-to-back games, the Nets had put the ball in Brook Lopez's hands and asked him to carry them to victory. In Tuesday's game against the Lakers he, and his teammates, came up short. Last night, however, Lopez had the ball in his hands in the final few seconds of the game and went up strong against Greg Monroe to give the Nets a 3-point lead, and ultimately the victory over the Pistons.

Lopez took the Lakers' loss and put it on himself, despite that fact that he scored a game-high 30 points and was essentially the only true offensive option for the Nets. After the game, he spoke with the media, saying the final two minutes of the game were his worst stretch of basketball this season.

Against the Pistons, though, it was a different story, as Stefan Bondy points out in his column this morning.

Deron Williams, a 3-time All-Star, and Joe Johnson, a 6-time All-Star, deferred to Lopez in both the Lakers and Pistons games, which leads us to ask: Is it time to refer to this as Brook's team?

Granted, Lopez is the team's lone All-Star, his first appearance, and it's true that D-Will is banged up and playing through multiple injuries, but when push came to shove over the past two nights, the team didn't seem to think twice. They put the ball in Lopez's hands and asked him to carry them to victory.

"That’s what we expect out of our All-Star," Joe Johnson said.

Further, that's exactly what you expect from a team leader. When the game is on the line and they're in need of a win, the team turned to Lopez. You know, the same Brook Lopez who is being rumored to be on the trade block should the Lakers decide they want to free Dwight Howard.

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