Crabbe bitten by scoreless bug in defeat
The boxscore said Allen Crabbe played 20 minutes and 22 seconds Friday night, but the Nets’ shooting guard did his best disappearing act.
Crabbe put up just two shots, missing both, while tallying one assist and one rebound as he struggled to make an impact in the Nets’ 107-86 loss to the Knicks at the Garden.
Entering Friday, Crabbe was averaging 13.2 points on 9.4 shots per game, but went missing from the offense for reasons he isn’t quite sure of.
“I don’t even know, honestly,” Crabbe said Saturday. “It wasn’t even like special coverage that I haven’t seen before. I guess it was just one of those nights where I gotta be more active in the offense.”
Coach Kenny Atkinson said the Knicks were paying special attention to Crabbe, which made things harder for him, but the Nets need to find other ways to take advantage when that happens.
“We looked at it, I think it’s our offensive execution,” Atkinson said. “It starts with just organizing ourselves a little better, especially in our motion offense. We weren’t getting to our spots. It’s all the little details. … I think there are a lot of pieces that have to work together for him and everybody to get shots.”
It was the first time since Oct. 30, 2015, that Crabbe went scoreless, with 163 games in between goose eggs.
Crabbe has started once in the first six games of the season and is still building up his minutes after missing time with a sprained ankle during the preseason. While he also came off the bench for the majority of games in the first four seasons of his career with the Trail Blazers, Crabbe is figuring out how to play a bigger role in the Nets’ offense.
“I think I do have to bring something to the table on the offensive end to help contribute to the team,” Crabbe said. “Sometimes I do tend to stand around and wait for the ball to come. Even on nights like that, I just gotta find other ways.”
Part of that comes with having a different mentality, he said. While the Trail Blazers had established scorers like Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum leading the way every night, there’s more room to step up with the Nets.
“It’s a different opportunity over here for me,” Crabbe said. “Roles have changed. I have to realize that. I can’t have nights like [Friday] where I only get two shot attempts. I’m not really going to bring anything if I only get two shot attempts.”
Crabbe said there are still restrictions on his playing time after the injury. There is constant dialogue between him and the staff after each game regarding how he’s feeling, and though he’s averaging 24.3 minutes per game, that number could increase.
“Lately I’ve been feeling really good,” Crabbe said. “If I feel good and I can carry more of a workload, then we’ll sit down and have that conversation, make that decision when the time comes.”
Atkinson said his starting five is by no means set in cement for the rest of the year. There could be moves to be made once Crabbe is restriction-free, but first he’ll need to learn how to consistently be an offensive threat, even on nights like Friday.
“We’re going to look at everything,” Atkinson said. “Allen’s been pretty good off the bench and seems to be comfortable in that role. We’re just going to have to find what that looks like. We’re still in the evaluation stages.”