Jarrett Allen has, overall, struggled to contain Joel Embiid this series. There’s no getting around it. He’s good, but he’s still a stick figure, and Embiid probably weighs twice as much as him. However, there are two bits of good news here:
Bit of good news #1: Allen dropped in 21 points of his own this game, so he made up some or all of what he gave up to Embiid. Side note: I will never, ever get tired of watching Allen catch alley-oops. If I ever allege to have gotten tired of watching Allen catch alley-oops, you should have me committed to a psychiatric facility as I have clearly lost my mind.
Bit of good news #2: I don’t care about defense (nor will I ever care about defense), so if Allen is struggling defensively, that doesn’t really matter to me. He could be a total stiff on defense and it wouldn’t matter to me as long as he continues to dunk the ball at a reasonable rate.
Bonus bit of good news #3: Allen’s fro is looking very healthy right now. On the “fro vibrancy” scale, which goes from zero (limp, diseased, or moldy fro) to ten (peak froage), Allen is at a solid eight, maybe nine. The only knock on his fro right now is that it’s not perfectly spherical. There are little inconsistencies in its roundness here and there. (For reference, Jared Dudley is a -18/10 on the fro vibrancy scale.)
Bonus bit of BAD news #4: Allen had a costly turnover with four seconds left in the game and the Nets down by two. He basically cost them a chance to win the game, but, hey, at least his fro is on point.