In the previous game, Dennis Smith Jr. had returned the 3-point which had folded the match. Yesterday, he sealed his team’s victory again with an alley-oop as the last minute of the match approached.
A symbolic action because the leader was able to quietly fly away in the back of Jason Kidd’s “defense”, on placed play. While there was only one possession difference in the “money-time”, it illustrates well the current problems of Dallas. For Dennis Smith Jr, drafted by Dallas in 2017 then dropped by the Texas club the following season to bring in Kristaps Porzingis, it was clearly personal revenge against his former club.
After his dunk, “DSJ” belched in front of the Mavs bench, telling them to “keep it”…
Dallas surprised by Charlotte’s motivation?
“I was very happy” he also admitted after this astonishing double victory, which could deprive Dallas of the playoffs, or even the play-in. “I had already spoken to the team before we went to Dallas (for the first game) and they were like, ‘They’re getting their stars back, they’re getting their stars back. Never mind. I thought, ‘They must think it’s going to be easy. Let’s go and screw their ass up. That was the goal in Dallas, and we tried to do the same tonight. That’s all we said to each other before the match: ‘Let’s put their asses in the shit’. Like that. »
Obviously, on the side of Dallas, we did not expect such motivation from Charlotte, already eliminated from the race for the playoffs with the second worst record in the Eastern Conference.
“We could see that it was the party after the match” commented Kyrie Irvingon the joy of the players and the public of Charlotte. “The fans were also surprised. They celebrated that because they couldn’t find a rhythm during the regular season. So, the fact of fighting, it is necessarily something important. »
The leader explains that he feels a surplus of motivation in the opponents who face him, even more now that he is playing alongside Luka Doncic at the Mavericks.
“It gets a bit personal and we have to play with the necessary toughness, in order to prepare for war or battle. It’s a learning curve for all of us, but I think the last few matches have been frustrating from that point of view. We know what awaits us, but we are not up to it. »
| Dennis Smith | Percentage | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Crew | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | party | Int | bp | CT | Points |
| 2017-18 | DAL | 69 | 30 | 39.5 | 31.3 | 69.4 | 0.7 | 3.0 | 3.8 | 5.2 | 2.2 | 1.0 | 2.8 | 0.3 | 15.2 |
| 2018-19 * | All Teams | 53 | 29 | 42.8 | 32.2 | 63.5 | 0.6 | 2.3 | 2.9 | 4.8 | 2.4 | 1.3 | 2.9 | 0.4 | 13.6 |
| 2018-19 * | DAL | 32 | 28 | 44.0 | 34.4 | 69.5 | 0.6 | 2.5 | 3.0 | 4.3 | 2.6 | 1.3 | 3.1 | 0.3 | 12.9 |
| 2018-19 * | NYK | 21 | 29 | 41.3 | 28.9 | 56.8 | 0.7 | 2.1 | 2.8 | 5.4 | 2.2 | 1.3 | 2.6 | 0.4 | 14.7 |
| 2019-20 | NYK | 34 | 16 | 34.1 | 29.6 | 50.9 | 0.6 | 1.7 | 2.3 | 2.9 | 1.9 | 0.8 | 1.7 | 0.2 | 5.5 |
| 2020-21 * | All Teams | 23 | 18 | 40.0 | 32.8 | 73.1 | 0.5 | 1.9 | 2.4 | 3.4 | 1.6 | 1.0 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 6.7 |
| 2020-21 * | TED | 20 | 20 | 41.5 | 35.2 | 70.0 | 0.6 | 2.1 | 2.7 | 3.7 | 1.7 | 1.0 | 1.3 | 0.7 | 7.3 |
| 2020-21 * | NYK | 3 | 9 | 20.0 | 0.0 | 83.3 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 1.0 | 1.3 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 3.0 |
| 2021-22 | ORP | 37 | 17 | 41.8 | 22.2 | 65.6 | 0.5 | 1.8 | 2.4 | 3.6 | 1.4 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 0.3 | 5.6 |
| 2022-23 | CHA | 53 | 26 | 41.0 | 21.5 | 73.5 | 0.5 | 2.6 | 3.1 | 4.8 | 2.2 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 8.7 |
| Total | 269 | 24 | 40.3 | 29.9 | 66.7 | 0.6 | 2.4 | 3.0 | 4.4 | 2.1 | 1.1 | 2.1 | 0.4 | 10.3 | |
