LOS ANGELES – Since the Los Angeles Lakers traded for Luka Doncic, several of the team’s role players have taken advantage of the type of defensive attention the All-NBA star draws on a game-to-game basis. Out of all the Lakers’ role players, there is nobody on the team who knows Doncic as well as Dorian Finney-Smith.
Dorian Finney-Smith and Luka Doncic played together for about four and half seasons with the Dallas Mavericks, before being reunited this year with the Lakers. Finney-Smith knows the type of havoc Doncic creates for opposing defenses.
Following the Lakers’ 107-96 win against the Phoenix Suns, a win that snapped a four-game losing streak, Finney-Smith spoke about how the role players benefit from Doncic attacking opposing teams’ defenses.
“When you’re playing with a guy like Luka who draws so much attention, one day I might get the threes, one day it might be Gabe [Vincent] who gets the wide-open threes,” Finney-Smith said. “Today they didn’t really help much on the corner threes, so Jax [Jaxson Hayes] got a million lobs and drop-off passes. So you got to pick your poison when you’re playing with Luka.”
Jaxson Hayes certainly benefitted from Doncic’s creation, as per Dave McMenamin of ESPN, finishing with 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field. And as Finney-Smith said, it was Gabe Vincent’s turn to knock down open three-point shots. Vincent went 3-0f-5 from distance in his return after missing the Lakers’ loss to the Denver Nuggets on Friday.
Lakers’ role players rising to the occasion
Earlier in the 2024-25 season, the Lakers’ depth was considered a point of weakness. It’s now turned into a position of strength. For the past couple of months, even before the Doncic trade, seemingly each player JJ Redick had put in to the game has made an impact in some way.
And that impact goes far beyond the box score. That impact includes defense, it includes hustle and energy, it includes setting screens and simply doing whatever needs to be done to get wins. Following the Lakers’ win against the Suns, Redick singled out Finney-Smith and Jordan Goodwin for helping set the tone for the game despite their stats not jumping off the stat sheet.
“Never judge a player based solely on his box score,” Redick said. “Jordan Goodwin was incredible tonight, and two points, four fouls. He set the tone for us. They’re [Phoenix] an incredibly difficult team to guard. . .him and Doe [Dorian Finney-Smith] set the tone on Book and KD. Those guys made tough shots, and we had to try something and make it hard for them, and those two guys set the tone.”
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