This is the way Brook Lopez should play every night. If the long-awaited trade for Carmelo Anthony gets done next week, the Nets center should have more opportunities to have games like last night.

The Nets didn’t beat the Lakers in Los Angeles -– did you expect they would? -– but at least Lopez responded after hardly playing in the fourth quarter and overtime Wednesday in Phoenix. And it was clear Lopez wasn’t happy about that.

But the third-year center, the lone player not made available in trade talks for Anthony, had 35 points, on 13-for-19 shooting, in the Nets’ 100-88 loss to Kobe Bryant and the two-time reigning champion Lakers.

Lopez still didn’t grab 10 rebounds –- he finished with six. But he played with a different attitude as he looked for his shot and got Lakers big Andrew Bynum in foul trouble, rendering him a non-factor.

“He was aggressive,” Nets coach Avery Johnson said. “That’s what we’re going to need to have every night

If the Nets get Anthony in the three-team trade with the Nuggets and Pistons, Lopez will have an easier time getting looks inside. Teams can’t double Lopez as much. They have to be aware of Chauncey Billups and Richard Hamilton on the perimeter, and all of this will open up things for Lopez.

All signs are pointing to this trade happening, which would be a major coup for the Nets.

Billups and Hamilton are up in years, but putting the former Pistons backcourt back together with Anthony, Lopez and Kris Humphries, the Nets should have a better chance of beating teams like the Lakers. The Nets would have a better chance against most teams.

With that lineup, the Nets won’t have many nights like last night’s when two of their starters –- Derrick Favors and Stephen Graham -– go scoreless. I have never seen a team that has two starters go scoreless as often as the Nets.

But it still comes down to two things: the Nuggets agreeing to a deal and Anthony agreeing to play for the Nets.

I could see an agreement reached early next week and then Anthony meeting with owner Mikhail Prokhorov, Jay-Z, Billy King and maybe Avery Johnson and Brett Yormark to get him to sign an extension.

The Nets would rather it never comes to that, that Anthony just says OK upon the trade, so there’s no risk in his turning down a three-year, $65 million extension. The Nets, and their fans, don’t want to even think about that happening.

So there’s still some work to be done there and plenty of work to be done with this team. But it was interesting to see who played well last night for the Nets and who didn’t. Most of the guys not a part of the trade talks were good and most of the guys in the talks weren’t.

Lopez was dominant. Sasha Vujacic and Jordan Farmar had additional juice because they were back in L.A. and gave their old fans a good show, scoring 17 and 12 respectively. Kris Humphries’ shot was off, but he grabbed 15 rebounds. Travis Outlaw didn’t stand out, but he had a pair of fastbreak dunks, including one on an alley-oop, which you don’t see much from him.

Interestingly, toward the very end of the game, those five guys were on the court together at the same time. Eventually, Johnson pulled them and put in some of the seemingly short-term Nets.

Those players were 5-for-22 from the field, 1-for-5 from the line and totaled 12 points. Devin Harris, who would go to Denver, was ineffective and mistake-prone last night. He had six points, eight assists and seven rebounds.

The final two games on this trip has to be about making sure Lopez and the longer-term Nets get minutes, touches and shots and the other players stay healthy so nothing interferes with or jeopardizes the potential deal.

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Coach’s Corner

“Our guys fought. They fought tooth and nail. They didn’t give in tonight to the crowd, the Laker tradition. Kobe had a good game but we made him work. We thought we did a nice job overall against their starting frontline. Our guys came to play tonight. We just didn’t have enough in the tank during a certain stretch in that fourth quarter, missed a few shots, had a couple of careless turnovers. But our team fought pretty hard tonight.”

- Johnson on the game

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Follow me on Twitter: @Al_Iannazzone

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 Al Iannazzone covers the Nets for The Record (Bergen County, N.J.)