{"id":58131,"date":"2023-11-05T07:00:05","date_gmt":"2023-11-05T12:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=58131"},"modified":"2023-11-04T19:05:54","modified_gmt":"2023-11-04T23:05:54","slug":"this-brooklyn-nets-player-is-reviving-the-soul-of-the-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/11\/05\/this-brooklyn-nets-player-is-reviving-the-soul-of-the-team\/","title":{"rendered":"This Brooklyn Nets Player Is Reviving The Soul Of The Team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Brooklyn Nets had a slow start to the 2023-24 season after they lost their first two games. But after some gutsy wins, the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/09\/30\/brooklyn-nets-projcted-starting-lineup-for-the-2023-24-season\/\" target=\"_self\">Nets are back<\/a> on track with a 4-2 record as they climb the Eastern Conference Standings. Brooklyn recently had a breakout performance against the Miami Heat, where they overcame a 15-point lead and came up big in the fourth quarter to steal the win. The Nets\u2019 turnaround story has too many heroes to name, but one player who is reviving the soul of the team is <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/f\/finnedo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-11-04_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dorian Finney-Smith<\/a><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>This Brooklyn Nets Player is Reviving the Soul of the Team<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3><strong>Dorian Finney-Smith Is Heating The Borough up<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Finney-Smith came alive during Brooklyn\u2019s third regular season game against the Charlotte Hornets. The veteran forward notched 19 points, seven rebounds, and one assist to go with a steal and two blocks. In addition, he was huge in the Nets\u2019 comeback win against the Heat. \u201cDoe\u201d scored 15 points, grabbed 3 rebounds, and dished two assists. The 10th-year man then had one of his best performances of the season in Brooklyn\u2019s first In-Season Tournament win against the Chicago Bulls.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>A Gritty Performance<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Finney-Smith led the team in scoring with a whopping 21 points. He also hauled in three rebounds and blocked one shot. If there is one player who exudes Brooklyn Grit, it is Finney-Smith. He is a Swiss Army knife for the Nets. The veteran takes any defensive matchup on the court, crashes the boards, slashes and makes the right plays, and stretches the floor for much-needed three-point shooting. He is one of Brooklyn\u2019s many bright spots early on in the season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Dorian Finney-Smith is not the only player who has been consistent during the Brooklyn Nets&#8217; early season run. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/thomaca02.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-11-04_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cam Thomas<\/a> <\/strong>is averaging 25.8 points per game on the season. The third-year guard currently leads the team in scoring. This is not surprising after the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/08\/16\/cam-thomas-the-brooklyn-nets-offensive-x-factor\/\" target=\"_self\">22-year-old broke out<\/a> during the 2022-23 season for three straight 40-point games. There is another team leader everyone expected to show up for Brooklyn this year.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bridgmi01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-11-04_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mikal Bridges<\/a><\/strong> has been clutch in the final minutes of the fourth quarter for the Nets. He continues to grow as a closer and an all-around threat for Brooklyn. The sixth-year forward averages 20.6 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 3.8 assists early on.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>The Last Word on Finney-Smith and the Brooklyn Nets<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The scary part about the Nets\u2019 success is they are missing two starters from their lineup. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/claxtni01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-11-04_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nic Claxton<\/a><\/strong> is dealing with an ankle injury that has kept him out since the season opener. Meanwhile,<strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/johnsca02.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-11-04_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cam Johnson<\/a> <\/strong>has a calf strain that has prevented him from seeing much action. If Dorian Finney-Smith can continue to maintain his all-around production and veteran leadership, then the sky is the limit for Brooklyn\u2019s success.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The toughness the Nets have shown over the last three games has fans reminiscing about an old squad. The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/06\/16\/the-brooklyn-nets-history-greatness-and-undying-fandom\/\" target=\"_self\">2018-19 Nets team<\/a> started the season 8-18, but the group\u2019s chemistry and resilience allowed them to bounce back and become the 6th seed in the Eastern Conference Playoffs. Nets Nation is proud of how Brooklyn has shown their depth and played well so far. They are a dark-horse Atlantic Division team.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Brooklyn Nets had a slow start to the 2023-24 season after they lost their first two games. But after some gutsy wins, the Nets are back on track with a 4-2 record as they climb the Eastern Conference Standings. Brooklyn recently had a breakout performance against the Miami Heat, where they overcame a 15-point [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4642,"featured_media":58148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2272],"class_list":["post-58131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nets","tag-dorian-finney-smith"],"modified_by":"Jacob Stephens, Associate Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4642"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}