TORONTO — The Nets are being tested with their latest back-to-back — and after Saturday’s 110-102 loss at the defending champion Raptors nobody will face a tougher exam Sunday against the visiting 76ers than Jarrett Allen.
Allen, who scored seven points Saturday but pulled down 10 rebounds for career-best 10th straight game, has taken huge strides this season, including largely getting the better of Denver’s Nikola Jokic in last Sunday’s home win over the Nuggets.
But after getting outplayed by Marc Gasol (17 points, 15 boards), now he’ll have to come back on short rest and deal with Joel Embiid, the Sixers star who has bullied him so often.
“It’s part of the job,” Allen said of the quick turnaround. “We’ve been built to play basketball. We condition our bodies to do be able to do this. Let’s just go play [Sunday].”
Last season, Embiid averaged 34 points and 14.3 boards in four regular-season games against the Nets, then had multiple brazen flagrant fouls on Allen that sent the young center tumbling to the court and instigated hostilities.
Allen admitted he used Embiid and a need to get stronger as motivation for summer workouts, so Sunday will be a great test.
“I think he’s been excellent … he’s already passed some tests. It’d be great to see how he does with these guys,” coach Kenny Atkinson said. “DeAndre [Jordan] helps in terms of you have a relief pitcher to spare. … But JA, he’s been really good lately.”
The Nets’ Jarrett Allen and the Raptors’ Marc Gasol battle for the opening tip.Getty ImagesWith Iman Shumpert gone and Wilson Chandler’s PED suspension not ending until Sunday, Rodions Kurucs got dusted off. The Latvian forward, who has been toiling in the G-League, had one point (0-for-3 from the floor) and seven boards in 17:57.
“He’s just got to find his rhythm. He just needs some more opportunity, quite honestly,” Atkinson said of Kurucs, who hadn’t played in six games and had logged just 1:32 in his past 11.
“He’ll have opportunities. With Wilson coming back that partly closes the door a little, but I wouldn’t close it completely. Rodi is too talented, too much a part of our program, for us to shut him on the bench for long stretches.”
Atkinson on Chandler’s return to face the Sixers: “Hopefully it’ll give us a morale boost, a guy who’s been an excellent player in the league, a veteran guy. Right now it’s perfect timing, especially on this back to back.”
Former Net Rondae Hollis-Jefferson finished with two points and two rebounds in 7:02 off the bench for the Raptors after spending four years (234 games) in Brooklyn.
“I thought he’d be not a regular rotation guy, but then, you know, during the course of the season when guys go out, that he could almost go in as a starter, you could plug right in,” Toronto’s Nick Nurse said. “He could be one of those guys that’s a really good stopgap for injuries and keep things ticking, and that’s exactly what happened.”




