{"id":714084,"date":"2026-04-19T17:57:56","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T17:57:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/714084\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T17:57:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T17:57:56","slug":"dorian-finney-smith-logs-an-unexplainable-dnp-in-rockets-game-1-loss-to-lakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/714084\/","title":{"rendered":"Dorian Finney-Smith Logs an Unexplainable DNP in Rockets’ Game 1 Loss to Lakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Game 1 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals round between the Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Lakers is in the books. The Rockets will need to quickly move past it.<\/p>\n

They should certainly want to, because it didn’t go their way. Not in the slightest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Houston lost 107-98 and the game didn’t feel that close. It never seemed like the Rockets were in the driver’s seat at any point during the game.<\/p>\n

Even against a depleted Lakers team that didn’t have Luka Doncic or Austin Reaves — two players that average a combined 57 points, 14 assists and six three-point makes per game. Sure, the Rockets didn’t have Kevin Durant, but they should’ve been able to pull a postseason victory out against this iteration of the Lakers without Durant.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This version of a Lakers team would likely be a lottery team, if forced to play with this roster and lineup over the entirety of an 82-game season. Which are the types of teams the Rockets struggle against, as we’ve noticed time and time again throughout the 2025-26 regular season.<\/p>\n

One especially interesting note was the absence of Dorian Finney-Smith, the Rockets’ prized offseason acquisition less than a year ago. Well, one of their prized offseason acquisitions (behind Durant, obviously).<\/p>\n

Finney-Smith was supposed to be a guy who could anchor down on the wing, defensively, and knock down three point shots. He’s been a starter on multiple postseason teams.<\/p>\n

Three teams, to be exact. On Saturday night, Finney-Smith was a DNP- coach’s decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even without Durant. Even on a young team lacking deep postseason experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finney-Smith should have been able to be the elder statesman in the rotation. He started on a Dallas Mavericks team that went to the Western Conference Finals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sadly, it isn’t that much of a surprise that Finney-Smith sat. It’s more of a disappointment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He’s not proven capable of being a key player for the team this season. Which begs the question of what the Rockets could have done with his $12.7 million.<\/p>\n

Any substitute capable of logging key minutes in a postseason game would be better than a no-show. The Rockets made just 11 threes and made 33.3 percent from long-range.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finney-Smith was supposed to be able to help with that. Luke Kennard just scorched the Rockets, to the tune of 27 points on a perfect 5-of-5 from deep.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finney-Smith was supposed to be able to help with that. Again, this isn’t a surprise but rather more of a disappointment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And Finney-Smith has unfortunately been the most disappointing acquisition throughout General Manager Rafael Stone’s tenure in the front office.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Game 1 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals round between the Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Lakers is in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[7,292,194,4066,6,211],"class_list":{"0":"post-714084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-rockets","11":"tag-houstonrockets","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-rockets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116432671286405302","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}