Brooklyn Nets forward Dorian Finney-Smith has been arguably the most valuable player for the Nets five games into this young season. With starting center Nic Claxton injuring his ankle in the home opener against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Finney-Smith has had to step in to be the center that Brooklyn needed in the moment.
In Friday’s 109-107 win over the Chicago Bulls, also known as Brooklyn’s first of four games in the NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament, Finney-Smith was what the Nets needed and more. He finished with 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting from the field and 5-of-9 from three-point range and he pulled down three rebounds while holding Bulls starting center Nikola Vucevic to just 13 points on 6-of-13 shooting.
Friday was an up-and-down affair as both teams built up leads of at least seven points with Chicago holding a seven-point lead with 4:01 left in the third quarter. Brooklyn fought back from that deficit, in large part because of Finney-Smith’s efforts on both ends of the floor, to win the game by two points despite a good look for Chicago’s Zach LaVine to tie the game off a missed free-throw.
Other than their 133-121 win over the Charlotte Hornets, the Nets have been in close games all season to this point. Finney-Smith said after Friday’s win that the team has to get used to that:
“Coach (Jacque Vaughn) said we going to be in a lot of close games. So, we got to learn from each one and I feel like we’ve been doing that… I feel like we run a good offense, getting guys in the paint and getting to their shots but, defensively man, we definitely locked in into that second half.”
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