Mavericks: 3 role players who need to step up to help Luka Doncic

If Mavericks players don’t step up to help Luka Doncic, Dallas will lose the early control they grasped in the NBA Playoff series with the Clippers.

They might have gone into the playoffs as a No. 5 seed going against a No. 4, but the Mavericks were still sizeable underdogs against the Clippers.

An underestimation on Los Angeles’ part was quickly punished as Dallas took a 2-0 series lead.

Now it’s 2-1 and the Clippers are looking to make a push. The Mavericks will only weather it if role players do more to help Luka Doncic.

The undisputed star of the team, Doncic has led the Mavericks in points, rebounds and assists in all three games. The first category is a given, but that’s a lot to put on one player.

A series victory will depend on the whole, not the individual.

Mavericks players who need to step up to help Luka Doncic

Dorian Finney-Smith

Finney-Smith had a huge Game 1 for Dallas with 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting while going 4-of-5 from beyond the arc. With that kind of production, the Mavericks had no trouble walloping the Clippers.

Since then, the power forward has hit 4-of-16 shots, going 1-of-7 from three-point distance in Game 2 and 3 combined. It wasn’t a huge problem in the former because other players carried the torch, but it definitely contributed to Dallas’ troubles in the latter.

Since Finney-Smith exchanged words with the Clippers after the Mavericks Game 3 loss, be better ready to cash any of the checks his mouth was writing.