Full disclosure: When scanning the stat sheet Monday night, seeing six rebounds next to Jarrett Allen‘s name was a shock, because he didn’t seem that involved.
Lo and behold, five of his boards game in the first 11 minutes before he had just one the rest of the way. That computed more with what the eyes observed.
He had a highlight play, erasing a Noah Vonleh drive-and-dunk attempt, but later got posterized by Vonleh as the two bigs called it a draw at that point.
Allen’s ball-handling seems to be improving almost daily at this point. Monday night he had three assists and zero turnovers and is now averaging 2.0 assists per game through seven games. But that average is 3.7 over the last three outings.
He just looks much more confident passing the ball (most of the time), but it still seems that Allen doesn’t believe he is as good as everyone else around him thinks he is. Assertiveness, particularly on the boards and on the offensive end, can be his friend.
Shabazz Napier was the only member of the Brooklyn Nets to finish with a positive plus/minus Monday night — not surprising in a 19-point loss.
What was surprising is that Napier did that while playing all of his minutes after Brooklyn had its big initial flurry. So the guy was doing some things right.
Napier and Spencer Dinwiddie are providing to be a formidable backup duo at the guard spots. Napier hit both of his 3-pointers and where he had his heat-check moments Monday night were on a couple of ill-advised drives to the rim into heavy traffic.
It’s hard not to like his confidence, though, and he was one of the few players willing to move on the offensive end in the final three quarters against the New York Knicks. So it’s not a total shock, then, that the group operated more efficiently when he was out there.