The Los Angeles Lakers’ trip to Dallas to face the Mavericks marked a return to the place where he has had his most career success for Dorian Finney-Smith. Unfortunately, the Lakers weren’t able to come away with a win, though Finney-Smith was one of the bright spots, contributing 11 points off the bench.
But Finney-Smith wasn’t focused on himself, but rather the fact that the Lakers couldn’t come away with a victory over the shorthanded Mavericks who were without their two All-Stars. The forward admitted that he feels the Lakers should’ve been able to get a victory on this night but credited the Mavericks who seemed to be waiting on the Lakers, as seen on Spectrum SportsNet:
“Yeah, it’s tough because we definitely feel like we should’ve gotten the win. But they came out and were the better team tonight. They were waiting on us, seems like they were licking their chops. We didn’t finish the half good and they just stepped on us from there.”
It was a disappointing loss for the Lakers to say the least, but for Finney-Smith individually it was a second straight strong game offensively. He knocked down 3-of-4 from deep and finished with 11 points and three rebounds and afterwards noted that this role is one he is used to and he has learned to always be ready to shoot:
“I’m used to playing off of stars. Might not touch the ball much, but you gotta be ready to shoot. I’ve been in that situation a lot of times and it was good. I shoot good here all the time.”
But as tends to be the case, Finney-Smith was far more focused on what the Lakers failed to do in a loss, feeling they have to do a better job of chasing guys off the 3-point line:
“Just gotta get them inside the 3-point line. They probably shot 50% from 3. We gotta do a better job on isos, talking to guys and giving them confidence so they can crawl up in ball-handlers and force them to the rim. We got AD down there so we gotta use him. Like I said, we can’t give up so many wide open 3s.”
That is what ultimately cost the Lakers, leading to a loss. While Finney-Smith continuing to get comfortable is a positive sign of things to come, he and the Lakers know the things they must fix in order to turn things around and succeed as a team.
Anthony Davis feels Dorian Finney-Smith will be better for Lakers once he’s more comfortable
Dorian Finney-Smith is already beginning to look better each game with the Lakers and the team as a whole believes in what he brings to the table. Anthony Davis recently spoke about this, feeling that he will be even better for the team once he gets more comfortable.
“He can guard 1-5 and then the shot-making ability, he can put it on the floor, he plays the right way,” Davis said recently. “Defensively, he’s a monster. Rebounding, we can only imagine how it will look when he really gets comfortable with us and isn’t hesitating shooting the basketball and trying to make the right reads. When he’s just flowing, it will be even better for us. We’re excited to have him.”
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