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Nets' Hollins on Lopez, Plumlee: 'I hope they play better together'

Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

Brooklyn Nets first-year head coach Lionel Hollins has been trying in earnest to find the right lineup combinations in an effort to turn his team's season around. 

Part of his reshuffling saw Deron Williams and Brook Lopez, former All-Stars the Nets signed to max contracts to keep in Brooklyn, lose their starting jobs once the oft-injured duo returned from the sidelines. Williams missed two games with a calf issue and hasn't started since (he's hurt once again), while Lopez has started twice in eight contests since missing eight with a strained lower back. Both of Lopez's starts came on nights Kevin Garnett was rested. 

Lopez lost his starting job to second-year big Mason Plumlee, but has started alongside him both games Garnett was rested. Hollins, however, isn't a fan of the experiment. Nor is he a fan of the two-point guard look with Jarrett Jack and Williams playing alongside each other.

"Let me put it this way: I hope they play better together," he said of Lopez and Plumlee, according to Tim Bontemps of the New York Post. "The numbers have shown they haven't played well together. Our plus-minus numbers are down, our defensive numbers are down, everything when they're on the court together is not very good for that combination, but it's also not very good for Jarrett and Deron."

Hollins is right. 

From Bontemps:

The Nets are being outscored by 16.9 points per 100 possessions when Williams and Jack share the court together, according to NBA.com, and by 11.1 points per 100 possessions when Plumlee and Lopez play together. 

Bouncing Williams and Lopez out of the starting lineup yielded immediate results. The Nets went 6-2, albeit against a pretty light schedule, in Jack's first eight starts. They've since dropped their last two, but claim the No. 7 seed in the weak Eastern Conference with a 16-18 record heading into Wednesday's contest against the Boston Celtics

What Hollins has planned next is unclear, but he's recently been adamant about continuing to bring Williams and Lopez off the bench. 

"I'm just trying to put a group out there, and try to compete and win," he said. 

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