Between Luka Doncic chucking lots of shots and Kristaps Porzingis chucking lots of shots, there’s hardly any shots left over for the rest of the roster to chuck. Tim Hardaway gets to chuck a good portion of that remainder, and then what? Everyone else has to fight for scraps.
There are players who the current paradigm is decidedly not benefiting, but Dorian Finney-Smith is not really one of them. He’s never been much of a scorer; he mostly takes the shots that are given to him, only sometimes becoming aggressive in looking for points. These days, he’s also tasked with shooting shots that are a direct result of Doncic passes, because right now, the pursuit of the Doncic triple-double is paramount, ranking even above winning the game on the list of priorities for the Mavericks.
I wasn’t sure of his career-high prior to this game, but it doesn’t surprise me at all that this is it. Just while making this vid, I was struck by the sheer amount of buckets he was getting. He was getting three-point buckets. He was getting fast-break buckets. He was getting game-sealing end-of-shotclock broken-play midrange-jumper buckets. The complete Finney-Smith was on display, and no one will care, because Doncic had a 40-point triple-double.
Well, I care. And I hope some Mavericks fans can find some space in their Euro-filled heart to care as well.