Dennis Smith Jr Leads Mavs in Pts & Ast in Mavs 1st Victory

Former NC State Point Guard Dennis Smith Jr led the Mavericks (1-4) in scoring (19) and assists (5) in a victory over the unbeaten Grizzlies (3-1) last night, which was also their first victory of the season. The 19 points set a new career high for the young rookie. DSJ’s shot was on point, connecting on 8 of his 12 field goal attempts, and 3 of his 6 3-point attempts (If Dennis can get locked in from beyond the three-point line, he would be unstoppable.)

Smith’s coach Rick Carlisle had some lofty words of praise for him after the game, calling him a “gamer.”

“Smith is pretty clearly a gamer,” Carlisle added. “He was unafraid. Tonight was the biggest amount of responsibility we’ve put on him to start with that group and really be pretty much the main ball-handler. That’s a lot of responsibility, and he did a great job. He was one of the reason we got off to a good start, and he’s playing to exhaustion more frequently now. He’s asking out, his conditioning to the NBA game is improving every day, so he’s doing extremely well. Look, everybody played well, and we needed everybody to play well tonight.” (Mavs)

Here are Dennis Smith Jr’s highlights from last nights performance (Be patient. There is an ad for the first 13 seconds.)