NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: MAVERICKS VS. WARRIORS

May 26, 2022

Dorian Finney-Smith

Theo Pinson

Dallas Mavericks

Game 5: Postgame

Warriors 120, Mavericks 110

Q. Any thoughts on this series?

THEO PINSON: Man, this team, we came together, had a really good time together, came up short, but I'll tell you, there's not one team that had more fun than we did. That's one thing, I'll never forget these guys ever.

Q. Are you thinking about the game right now or are you thinking about the season?

DORIAN FINNEY-SMITH: A little of both. They was the better team tonight. You know, against a team like this, we've just got to be a little bit -- play a little bit more harder and can't have the mistakes.

Q. Could you sum up the season a little bit? You guys were 16-18 late December and now you're in the Western Conference Finals?

DORIAN FINNEY-SMITH: It was a fun season. Coach gave us two words, "accountability" and -- shoot, I can't even think of --

Q. "Chemistry"?

DORIAN FINNEY-SMITH: There we go, "accountability" and "chemistry," and I feel like we did a great job with that. Ever since Coach told the bench to stay in the game and don't sit down, it kind of energized the whole team, and we just stuck with it. We tried to address the problem before it get to Coach, and I feel like we did a good job of that this year.

Q. Do you feel like you guys have established a different standard this year, and how does this team stay at this level and get to the next level?

DORIAN FINNEY-SMITH: Well, like Coach said, teams going to be coming for us now, but you've just got to remember how hard it was to even get here. It's not easy. That's why there's only one winner. But this journey was long. This is my first time playing basketball almost to June. I'm going to enjoy this little break.

Q. To go off of that, too, Jason said that this off-season is going to be big in terms of understanding what it takes to play this long and getting prepared for that. What did y'all learn in this run and particularly in these last couple of rounds about what's different about getting this far as opposed to just the first round?

DORIAN FINNEY-SMITH: You know, the emotions. It's been some emotional series, and also, like I said, we can't have the my-fault mistakes, especially not against a team like that. That my-fault mistake is going to be a three ball with the crowd going crazy.

We've just got to learn from this experience. It was fun. It was real fun. Somebody should have told me that the Playoffs was this fun.

But I appreciate it. I don't like the techs. We've got to do something about that. I didn't get a tech in five years. All of a sudden I get a contract, and now they're just giving me a tech for no reason.

But it's been fun. It's been fun. I love being around this group of guys. We've just got to learn from it.

Q. Just talk about learning from it. You were down 3-2 to Phoenix and came back and won a Game 7 there. Then you go to five here. What is the next step for this team? What do you think you guys need to get to the next step?

DORIAN FINNEY-SMITH: I would say we've just got to execute the game plan a little bit better. They got all the hustle plays, stuff like that they can't get in the Playoffs -- they can't get a lot of second-chance points, transition points, got to slow them down. But like I said, they was the better team tonight.

I feel like we gave up Game 2. If we would have won Game 2, it would be a different series, especially the momentum of the series, but like I said, they're a great team. We didn't keep our foot on the gas, and they came back and won.

Q. Dorian, in what ways did you improve or become a better athlete this season?

DORIAN FINNEY-SMITH: I would say I gained some trust in the team and with the coaching staff of just being an all-around player, playing on the close-outs, putting it on the ground. I would say just being more vocal, too. I would say I was more vocal this year than I ever been.

Q. We just saw Theo and Tim come in before you sat down with us. I know we talked to you about the brotherhood of this team, but how have these guys helped you outside of basketball this season?

DORIAN FINNEY-SMITH: Probably I would say just a couple guys got young kids, like Spence, and Trey Burke. I was able to pick brains with them how they been doing or what they been doing as far as fatherhood. I would say that.

Also I would say guys like Luka and JB. JB helped me out a lot, especially being inside contract year, he was one of the ones that just told me to relax early in the year and whatever happens it's going to be up, regardless of what it was, it was going to be something more than what I got now.

But hey, JB about to get that bag.

But I would say they really helped me off the court because we wasn't shooting the ball good early in the year, and I feel like just taking that from him, that mentality, it helped me all year.