Brooklyn Nets: Player grades from uneven showing against Timberwolves

Spencer Dinwiddie didn’t have a lights-out shooting afternoon, but his creativity and work off penetration was about the only thing the Brooklyn Nets had going for them for stretches on Friday.

He served up a couple of pretty lobs for Jarrett Allen off the high pick-and-roll, but sometimes tried to do too much when getting a big man switched onto him, trying to drive when there was strong-side help ready to step in.

That is Dinwiddie’s game, however, so it’s hard to fault a guy too much for playing to his strengths. In a game where Minnesota’s defense did a solid job of limiting penetration, though, some more movement of the ball to free up shooters could have helped.

Jarrett Allen didn’t have a bad offensive game, even as he was limited by some foul problems, but defensively the big man turned in one of his poorer efforts in awhile.

Allen lost track of Karl-Anthony Towns a few times early and the Nets were bailed out when Towns missed some wide-open looks. But having to venture out to the perimeter so much seemed to thwart Allen’s aggressiveness.

He was tentative, wasn’t sure when to go out and when to dive back to try to get to the boards and wasn’t much of a rim protection factor because he was drawn outside so often.