insisted — twice — that Friday night’s game was just another for him.
It wasn’t awkward, he said.
“Typical,” Lopez said. “I felt comfortable out there. It was another game to me.”
Except, it was different, whether Lopez admitted it or not. He was facing the team with which he spent all of his previous nine NBA seasons — the team that he had hoped to lead to a different era of success. Instead, what he saw was one rebuild after another before Brooklyn traded him to the Lakers.
In the Lakers’ 124-112 win over the Nets, Lopez shined.