I wouldn’t be surprised if the NBA takes away this triple-double after further review. Dennis Smith Jr.’s 10th rebound, shown at 2:30, is basically him hitting it with his hands, with one of his teammates actually picking it up. It didn’t look like he was trying to bat the ball in a direction, and even if he was, is that really a rebound if it’s not on the offensive end? The Mavericks commentators were really confused about him having apparently obtained a triple-double, which isn’t a good sign.
But even if the NBA takes this away from us, they can’t take away the great game that he played tonight. One fewer rebound makes no difference; he played some excellent ball, especially in the first half. Things slowed way down for him by the end, but the Mavericks held on and got the win.
It’s good to see him do well, because he had been slow coming back from that injury. He was one of the most hyped rookies early on, but the hype has since died down a bit with some other players having their turn in the sun. That’s cool. Other rookies are cool, I just hope people don’t forget about this guy.