SAN ANTONIO — With the injury-riddled Nets short on offensive weapons, opponents are predictably trying to take away the most efficient one Brooklyn has: Jarrett Allen dunking.
Allen has developed great chemistry with point guard Spencer Dinwiddie on the pick-and-roll. But with the Nets’ shooting ice-cold and Brooklyn having made good use of Allen on lobs, opponents have taken note and adjusted accordingly.
“A little bit. I see a lot of people pull one or two guys over to tag me on the roll so me and Spencer can’t get the easy lob,” Allen said. “It’s kind of been a different coverage.”
Allen — who had his number retired Wednesday at his Austin high school, about an hour-and-a-half away from San Antonio — comes into Thursday’s game against the Spurs second in the NBA in field-goal percentage at 66.5 percent, behind only Rudy Gobert. He’s second in dunks with 84, behind only Giannis Antetokounmpo.
“They’re definitely scared of his [dunks],” Dinwiddie said. “Like I said, all he does is dunk, so you would think he’d make them with a high percentage. So you try to take away the best percentage look that we possibly have which is probably a Jarrett dunk. It’s smart as a team.”
San Antonio has been a house of horrors for the Nets, who have dropped 16 straight regular-season games in San Antonio. The Nets haven’t beaten the Spurs on the road in the regular season since Jan. 22, 2002, when they escaped with a 92-86 win. Their last victory of any sort in San Antonio was Game 2 of the 2003 NBA Finals, when they squeaked out an 87-85 result on June 6, 2003.
(They did rout the Spurs 101-85 in their last meeting, on Feb. 25 last season at Barclays Center.)
Kenny Atkinson has been riding his starting five hard. Dinwiddie, Allen, Garrett Temple, Joe Harris and Taurean Prince are plus-39 in 257 minutes over their past 16 games. Since Nov. 16 — the Nets’ first game without injured Kyrie Irving — no other starting five has logged more minutes than Brooklyn’s.
Tuesday in New Orleans, they all played nearly the final 14 minutes of the game, except Allen getting five seconds off. They checked in with 8:50 left in regulation and didn’t sit all the way through overtime.
“I subbed them in a little earlier in the fourth. Just felt we needed it,” Atkinson said. “The past games we built up credit, and you save it for games like this where you’ve got to go get a win.”
Irving (shoulder) and Caris LeVert (thumb) still haven’t been cleared for contact.
