{"id":369268,"date":"2025-12-26T04:11:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T04:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/369268\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T04:11:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T04:11:07","slug":"former-laker-makes-season-debut-against-old-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/369268\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Laker makes season debut against old team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nba\/los-angeles-lakers\/news\/former-laker-makes-season-debut-against-old-team\/cf248703da8eebe7626e95f4?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=appeared_on\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Former Laker makes season debut against old team;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Former Laker makes season debut against old team<\/a> originally appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=appeared_on\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:The Sporting News;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Preferred Source by clicking here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nba\/los-angeles-lakers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Los Angeles Lakers;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> saw a familiar face while playing the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nba\/houston-rockets\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Houston Rockets;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Houston Rockets<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Former Laker Dorian Finney-Smith made his season debut in the Lakers&#8217; 119-96 loss to the Rockets on Thursday night.<\/p>\n<p>Finney-Smith had a quiet night against his old team. He played 13 minutes, but missed his only shot from the field. He did not record any other statistics. <\/p>\n<p>He had a significant role for the Lakers last season, starting 20 of his 43 games with the team. Finney-Smith averaged 7.9 points, 3.6 rebounds and shot 39.8% from deep in LA. He played 28+ minutes in five playoff games against the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nba\/minnesota-timberwolves\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Minnesota Timberwolves;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>MORE:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nba\/los-angeles-clippers\/news\/ben-simmons-isnt-retired-nba-going-pro-sport-youll-never-guess\/a5f15001cb976ebbadf7b543\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Ben Simmons is going pro in a sport you&#039;d never expect;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Ben Simmons is going pro in a sport you&#8217;d never expect<\/a><\/p>\n<p>But Finney-Smith declined the Lakers&#8217; contract offer in the offseason, instead signing a four-year $53 million deal with Houston. He is expected to be a key part of the Rockets&#8217; rotation, bringing shooting and perimeter defense.<\/p>\n<p>The Lakers essentially swapped him for Jake LaRavia, who is a younger option on a cheaper contract. LaRavia is averaging 8.8 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.9 assists this season.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The Lakers acquired Finney-Smith from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nba\/brooklyn-nets\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Brooklyn Nets;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Brooklyn Nets<\/a> last December as part of the D&#8217;Angelo Russell deal. LA sent Russell, Maxwell Lewis and three second-round picks to the Nets for Finney-Smith and Shake Milton.<\/p>\n<p>Finney-Smith has averaged 8.3 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.4 assists his NBA career. He spent seven seasons with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/nba\/dallas-mavericks\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Dallas Mavericks;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Dallas Mavericks<\/a> before playing for the Nets, Lakers and Rockets.<\/p>\n<p>The Lakers will face Finney-Smith and the Rockets two more times in the regular season. The two teams meet again on March 16 and 18.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>More NBA news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Laker makes season debut against old team originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[14712,6996,49,48,2695,6702,158006,8223,12886,8231,18548,14102,459,158007,158008,82],"class_list":["post-369268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ben-simmons","tag-brooklyn-nets","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-dorian-finney-smith","tag-finney-smith","tag-houston-rockets","tag-jake-laravia","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-maxwell-lewis","tag-minnesota-timberwolves","tag-nba","tag-season-debut","tag-shake-milton","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}