Brooklyn Nets: Spencer Dinwiddie's L.A. story not a great one

Brooklyn Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie had one of his poorest performances of the season Sunday night against the LA Clippers, extending his trouble in L.A.

At this point, Spencer Dinwiddie of the Brooklyn Nets may need an intervention to help him with his troubles at Los Angeles’ Staples Center, home of both the LA Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers.

Perhaps someone should slip Dinwiddie some completely false pieces of information, something like the Lakers think the Avengers movie series is a waste of time or that the Clippers never considered signing Dinwiddie when he was a free agent in 2016 because they didn’t like the angle of his nose.

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At this point, anything could help.

Dinwiddie had a ghastly performance against the Clippers Sunday night at Staples Center, scoring 13 points, but going 2-for-16 from the floor and 1-for-7 from 3-point range. Even his typical solid free throw shooting abandoned him as he was 8-for-12 on the night.

It hasn’t gone much better against the Lakers, Brooklyn’s opponent Friday night at Staples Center. save for one game early in his second season with the Detroit Pistons.

On Nov. 15, 2015, Dinwiddie came off the bench for Detroit and scored 17 points in 24 minutes, going 6-for-9 from the floor with four assists.

But that is Dinwiddie’s lone highlight in the arena that both of his hometown franchises have called home since the start of the 1999-2000 season.

Even with that 2015 game, Dinwiddie’s numbers in six career games at Staples are frightening: 8.2 points, 4.7 assists and 2.8 rebounds in 23 minutes per game, on 25.5 percent shooting overall and 17.4 percent on 3.8 3-point attempts per game.

Oof.

Against the Clippers, it’s worse. In three games in that building against the Clips, Dinwiddie has 21 points on 3-of-26 shooting, going 1-for-13 from 3-point range.

Dinwiddie is a player that has been fueled by proving doubters wrong his entire career. His punishment of the Pistons and Chicago Bulls — two teams that gave up on him early in his NBA career — are examples of this.

That is a temperament that has served him well since he came to Brooklyn in December 2016, but it also might be at least a factor in his struggles in Los Angeles.

Dinwiddie is an L.A. kid, born in the City of Angels in 1993 and a graduate of Taft High School in Woodland Hills before going on to a three-year stint at the University of Colorado.

It could be as simple as trying so hard to do well in front of his hometown fans that Dinwiddie gets in his own way.

His frustration mounted as the game went on and it was only a minor miracle that prevented Dinwiddie from adding to his team-leading technical foul count (he has seven this season).

Anyone who has seen the Nets play for more than say, 20 minutes, understands that Dinwiddie has a very contentious relationship with the folks with the whistles, because he’s seldom missed a shot in the paint on which he didn’t firmly believe he had been hacked, mauled and mugged in some way, shape or form.

But between now and Friday, Nets’ fans, your mission is to provide Dinwiddie with some sort of slight from the Lakers he will perceive as fuel for his furnace.

More. 10 best seasons in Nets history. light

At this point, it couldn’t hurt.

Brooklyn Nets: Spencer Dinwiddie’s L.A. story not a great one

By Phil Watson | Mar 18, 2019

Brooklyn Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie had one of his poorest performances of the season Sunday night against the LA Clippers, extending his trouble in L.A.

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