Dennis Smith Jr. had a night so good that Rick Carlisle caught himself looking ahead at what’s to come for his team’s 20-year-old rookie point guard.
“Tonight convinced me that this kid’s gonna be a great player,” Carlisle said.
Wait: He’s talking about the Smith that scored just eight points on 3-of-14 shooting, right? Based on the box score, this was one of the rookie’s least impressive statistical performances of the season. But if there’s one thing we learned tonight, it’s that box score stats alone can hardly tell the story of a game.
“I had a perfect statistical stat line,” Smith said.