Allen finds winning recipe against Jazz
Jarrett Allen is usually a pesto-on-his-pasta guy for his pregame meal. That’s not a bad choice: the basil-based sauce is chock full of antioxidants, healthy fats, and vitamins and minerals beneficial for the body.
But on Tuesday, Allen ditched the pesto in favor of a creamy, milk, cheese and butter-based Alfredo sauce.
According to The Fro, the Alfredo fueled his best performance of the season.
It wasn’t getting the starting nod that gave Allen a jolt in the Nets’ convincing 130-96 victory over the Jazz on Tuesday. Instead, it was a last-second meal substitution that gave he new starting center the sustenance needed to dominate his All-Star matchup.
Allen was the best center on the floor, turning in 19 points, 18 rebounds, three steals and two blocks, thoroughly outplaying Rudy Gobert, who recently signed a five-year, $208 million contract. The performance was validation of two things that need to happen in Brooklyn:
Allen needs to be the starting center over DeAndre Jordan from this point forward, and Nets GM Sean Marks needs to give his budding, young center a contract extension as he enters restricted free agency this upcoming offseason.
“He was just so impactful. Incredible energy. Effective. Scored in traffic, scored through contact. Just did it all,” Nets coach Steve Nash said. “Really proud of him and we’ve seen him continue to develop,
and tonight was a phenomenal game against a top-quality team and a top-quality center.”
Allen put Gobert on a poster twice in one game, but one would have brought Barclays Center to its feet had fans been allowed in the arena.
On the final possession of the first half, The Fro handed the ball off to Kyrie Irving at the top of the key, then rolled while Irving drove. The Nets’ star point guard delivered the play of the night: a behind-theback bounce pass to his rolling big man in stride.
Allen then rose up and threw a one-handed slam on the Jazz’s French All-Star.
It was a thorough domination of one of the league’s best big men. In truth, Allen is now among the ranks of the NBA’s elite centers.
It wasn’t too long ago the Nets’ star center was a deer in the headlights, a 19-year-old rookie out of Texas who was thrown into the fire. That fire regularly included matchups against Gobert, who historically has had Allen’s number.
But this is Year 3, and in Year 3, The Fro says he’s starting to string everything together. He’d been a starter long before Jordan took his spot in the rotation last season. He’d battled Joel Embiid in a playoff series and endured the relentless Raptors defense in last season’s Orlando bubble.
“Finally, this year, I’m starting to put it all together,” Allen said. “Knowing what I have to do, knowing I could still be more physical out there and not (get called for fouls), getting respect from the refs, that’s a thing. Just going out there, playing my game, being comfortable over the past few years.”
Allen is finally comfortable, and after his performance against Gobert, it’s going to be tough for Nash to justify relegating him back to the bench. It’s also going to be tough to justify not signing him to an extension. With a dominant performance against a max-contract big man, it’s time for Allen to get paid.
“I want to go out there, try my best, and prove that I can be on that level of a center in the league,” he said. “He did just get that contract that he earned playing amazing defense, being an offensive threat, so I just want to prove that I’m on his level.”
And maybe with the money he signs on his next deal, he can buy a lifetime supply of Alfredo sauce.