Nets' Spencer Dinwiddie: Refs fouled up defense on Trae Young
Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie reacts after foul call during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Atlanta Hawks, Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023, in Atlanta. Credit: AP/Hakim Wright Sr.
ATLANTA — The way Spencer Dinwiddie saw it, Trae Young was getting call after call the entire game.
So when Dinwiddie went up to contest Young’s game-winning buzzer-beater from behind, he knew he had to use almost a surgeon-like precision on the Hawks superstar.
“Honestly, I thought I had it,” Dinwiddie said after the Nets 129-127 loss. “The only thing about it is you don’t want to be too aggressive and get called for a foul because you definitely lose . . . You’re going to swipe a little more tentatively because .5 on the clock. If you foul him and give him free throws, he only has to make one.
Dinwiddie said that when the Nets had a player like Kevin Durant, they used to get a lot of calls and it adds up during the course of the game.
“That’s where you miss the superstars, especially in the fourth quarter,’ Dinwiddie said. “That stretch from six minutes to 30 seconds left on the clock, that’s where you really miss it. Your guy gets touched, and you are going to get the call.
“Trae Young? Think about it. Every time me and Trae Young did the same move, he gets the free throws. On my end, they’re like, ‘Were you really shooting it?’ Well what else was I doing. They’re like, 'I don’t know' . . . So what can I say? That happened to me four times. That’s eight free throws. We lose by two. I had eight free throws.”
The Nets had battled back from an 18-point deficit before tying the score at 127 with 7.9 seconds left on Cam Johnson’s three pointer. Young took the ball from half court, did a pump fake to get around Mikal Bridges and then hit the game winner at the buzzer.
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
