NEW YORK — Brooklyn Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie has been in the NBA long enough to know what reputation can do for a player and/or for a team. For example, Dinwiddie has a reputation of letting referees know when he disagrees with a call and sometimes, it leads to free-throws and other times, it leads to him having frustrating games. However, on Friday, Dinwiddie was referring to team reputation.
“I’m not gonna lie to you, reputation does matter,” Dinwiddie said after dropping six points and 14 assists in Friday’s 101-84 win over the Orlando Magic. Brooklyn clinched the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs before beating the Magic thanks to the Miami Heat losing to the Washington Wizards. “You know, so I spoke about this a lot, right?” Dinwiddie continued. “That last six minutes stretch, you know, things on the margin, like Bang Bang calls, things like that, like we’re not going to get them.”
The Nets will be facing the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of the playoffs and reputation could play a huge part in the series when it comes to foul calls. 76ers center Joel Embiid, potentially the league MVP, is know for drawing contact that leads to a lot of free-throws and that could prove difficult for a smaller team like Brooklyn. Dinwiddie chose to look at the matchup in a positive way. “But, at the same time, reputations are typically made in the playoffs right? So, you know, Mikal (Bridges) keeps playing it at the level he is, he’ll be considered a star at the end of this thing.”
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