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And by the end of the night, he finished with 22 points, five rebounds and three dimes in only 17 minutes, shooting 8-of-15 from the field, 2-of-5 from three, and 4-of-5 on free throws.
“
Very encouraging,” said head coach Kenny Atkinson on Russell’s performance. “And again, you can still see some rust. You know in the beginning he had a few turnovers, but great he got his rhythm.
“
Listen, I give him credit. He really pushed to play. I can’t tell you how many times he told us after the game he’s feeling great, at this point he’s feeling great. So he really pushed to play and glad for us that he did play.”
“That’s why you do have to have a long-term approach. If you looked at the Knicks game, you’d be like, man he’s struggling, like I said after the game,” said Atkinson of Russell, who played 16 minutes 24 hours after logging 20 against the Knicks.
“But he did try some things. At the end of the day, that’s who he is. He’s an aggressive player with the ball. He tried it against the Knicks, didn’t work. Tonight he was obviously much, much better. I think that’s part of that catching your rhythm, you’ve got to have some failures.
“But again, I thought his catching was good,” Atkinson adds. “I thought his defense was good, just overall looks like he’s moving really well. I was debating there do we get him in at the end of the game there, but that unit out there was rolling. I thought about needing him at the end of the game, we’re going to need another ball handler, but lucky we made some plays and finished it out.”
Russell, soft-spoken and mild-mannered, at least when among media members, refrained from saying anything demonstrative in comments after his most efficient scoring show of his third season, electing to stay calm, and take the game-by-game approach.
“I give credit to the training staff, they’ve done an amazing job just getting me to this point,” he said, displaying humility to Michael Grady. “Feeling the way I feel; I give them all the credit in the world. I feel great, it’s only going to get better.”
“I’m just trying to push my body,” he said. “I’m not really focused on stats or numbers or anything like that, I just want to push my body to see how I feel and take what the defense gives me. Every game that’s been my main focus.”
(source)Pregame Workouts from 3 weeks ago. Dunk, post, and outside shooting drills.
Demarre comparing him to Tyson Chandler now. Many other positives about the kid. He doesn't even have a sense of what he's doing now.
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Well, at least that’s what we thought until another career night, this one against Brooklyn’s former face of the franchise. Brook Lopez. Allen spoke his mind, made it clear he has big plans.
“
Face of the franchise,” Allen said about facing off against Lopez. “Now I’m here trying to become the face, too, so just going back and forth.”
Allen has suddenly become a focal point of the offense. He’s starring in the pick-and-roll and continues to show confidence with the ball in his hands. Moreover, he’s getting stronger down low, and he’s shown that he’s quick enough to defend smaller players.
In talking to reporters after the game, Brian Lewis asked Dinwiddie if he read any preseason analysis on Allen’s “lack of passion” for the game. Dinwiddie looked at Lewis with a smile on his face and said, “That’s why I gave him the compliment,”
Perhaps the most important aspect of Allen’s improvement has been confidence. He knows the coaching staff trusts him especially now that he’s starting and finishing games out.
“Coach is starting to trust me more in crunch time, in the important part of the game. Me being in there, you can tell there is trust,” said Allen.
“You know, he’s playing great basketball and he gets better with every game and I can’t wait til he spends a summer in the weight room and starts to get stronger,” said Kenny Atkinson. I think some of those rebounds, it’s just a matter of strength and he’s going to get that.”
Atkinson laid out specifically what he likes.
“You can already see him maturing, he’s already getting stronger and a summer with our performance team, we’re very excited about him. He’s doing it on both ends too right, it’s not just, obviously the pick-and-roll stuff and the pivots and the dunks and all that is great. It’s a big part of our offense and then his defense is, obviously, rim protecting and his agility. He’s playing well.”
“He’s going to be good. He’s not going to be good… he’s already good from what little I’ve seen,” said Lakers head coach Luke Walton.
“Brooklyn does a great job of spreading the floor with shooters and he just runs into screens and he’s a great roller. He gets there quick, Walton continued. “He does it every time and any time you make a mistake, he’s long and athletic, seemed like he has some good footwork down there, and he makes you pay.”
(source)
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