Dorian Finney-Smith needs to be comfortable making the 76ers uncomfortable for Nets to surprise

When the Nets open the playoffs Saturday in Philadelphia, all eyes will be on the big names. But the X-factors could be just as important.

Philadelphia’s James Harden and Joel Embiid have five scoring titles between them, while any hopes of a Brooklyn upset will likely hinge on huge efforts by Mikal Bridges and Nic Claxton, who have emerged as potential stars in their own right this season.

But playoff series are often tilted by a role player who either rises to the occasion or shrinks from it.

On both ends of the court, that could well be Nets forward Dorian Finney-Smith, sore wrist and all.

Embiid is the game’s most dominant center, and the Nets have even hailed him as the league MVP. Covering him won’t be easy. With Brooklyn’s small-ball style and switching scheme, expect Finney-Smith to end up guarding the much bigger Embiid early and often.

Just as important, though, is what Finney-Smith does at the other end of the floor, because when the streaky former Maverick shoots with confidence and spaces the floor, it makes Brooklyn an entirely different offense.

“We tell him this all the time: He’s a guy that’s got to shoot with confidence,” Spencer Dinwiddie said. “We know he can shoot; he’s shown that over his career. When he shoots with confidence and doesn’t get a little timid with a shot selection, we’re a much better team. Because then how do you guard us, right?

“You’ve got typically, at all times, three guys shooting over 40 percent from 3 out there with a lob threat, and then another couple of people that can drive. So, you know, it’s just a dimension of our offense that is always needed. And we just need him to be him; don’t be anybody else but yourself, but play with that confidence.”

Joe Harris, Seth Curry and Yuta Watanabe all shot over 40 percent this season from 3-point range, with Bridges, Cam Johnson, Royce O’Neale and Cam Thomas all over .370. Whatever their failings — and despite their paucity of shot creators since trading Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving — Brooklyn has shot-makers.

But that lob threat (Claxton) isn’t one of them. Neither is Dinwiddie frankly, his jumper shaky at best. Having a third shooter in the starting lineup at all times against the much bigger 76ers is going to be vital in this first-round playoff matchup.

A battle of willingness

Finney-Smith shot just 30.6 percent from deep for Brooklyn, down from his .355 clip for Dallas before the trade. He hit .395 and .394 the prior two seasons; but before Finney-Smith can make 3s, he has to first be willing to even take them.

“Yeah, Spence [has] been on me, man,” Finney-Smith said. “He’s been on me. Every time he passes me the ball, he’s yelling, ‘Shoot it!’ It feels good, though, when you’ve got guys like that who trust you, who want you to shoot it. I’ve just got to go out there and play free.”

A free Finney-Smith makes the Nets’ offense better.

Finney-Smith arrived with Dinwiddie from Dallas in the Irving trade just before the All-Star break. And from the resumption of play through the end of the regular-season, the Nets were 6-2 when Finney-Smith hit at least two 3-pointers, but just 4-10 when he didn’t.

While Finney-Smith is a renowned defender, and that’s what got him into the league in the first place, his increasing ability to stretch the floor can jump-start an offense that no longer can lean on the mid-range mastery of Durant and Irving.

“It’s been like that whenever I’m on the court. It’s crazy,” Finney-Smith said. “Whenever I make shots, I always feel like we’re a better team, because the defense gets me on the court, so just doing what I do and just being a threat out there.”

Part of his threat is to make whoever is guarding him on the 76ers either pay for sagging off or pay for putting in the extra work to guard him. That could mean trying to pull Embiid away from the basket (or hitting open jumpers if he sags), or making offensive threats Harden and Tyrese Maxey expend energy on the defensive end fighting through screens (or, again, getting clean looks if they don’t).

“Most times, they’re probably going to put a guy to rest on me, probably like a Harden or Maxey because I’m probably not in the offensive set that much, so guys are trying to relax off me,” Finney-Smith said. “So I just try to make sure they feel my energy, [whether] it’s crashing the boards or being aggressive.”

Nobody has ever questioned Finney-Smith’s aggression on defense, and Embiid will put that to the ultimate physical test in this series (more on that later). But Brooklyn may struggle offensively if Dorian-Finney misfires, and will struggle even more if he repeatedly passes up open looks.

In 22 appearances for Brooklyn after the All-Star break, Finney-Smith shot 41.1 percent from 3-point range in 10 victories, but an ice-cold .200 from deep in a dozen defeats. Brooklyn will need him against the red-hot Sixers.

“Well, it’s a combination of things,” Jacque Vaughn said. “It’s us having the versatility to play multiple lineups with [Finney-Smith], with different people out there on the floor with him.

“And the way we play we try to take advantage of cross-matches, so that ability for Dorian to have different people guard him is an advantage for us. When we’re making 3s, it’s just a domino effect to the rest of the group.”

Want to catch a game? The Nets schedule with links to buy tickets can be found here.

Moves, and countermoves

Stars win championships, and adjustments to the adjustments are a given as any playoff series draws on. But almost without fail, some role players either exceed expectations or fail to live up to them. For Brooklyn to steal a few games from Philadelphia, they may need Finney-Smith to be in the former group.

“The attention to detail goes up,” Dinwiddie said of the Nets’ preparations. “We’re spending, really, probably two weeks completely just focused and locked-in; like, we kind of knew it was going to be Philly. Then we’ve had a full week of just Philly. And now … it’s going to be a week, two more weeks, of just Philly. You’re going to learn guys from film, you’re going to learn guys from experience of playing them over and over and over again.

“They’re going to take away your best moves, your best shots, and you’ve got to be able to counter. Some guys struggle with countering, and some guys don’t. It’s a make-or-miss league, somebody’s going to come down and just hit shots. With Dorian, when he makes shots, we’re a phenomenal team. When he doesn’t, we struggle a little bit. But overall, we’ve got guys that are ready for this, and just got to go out there and put the best foot forward.”

Putting their best foot forward means on both ends of the court, and Finney-Smith will be under the microscope just as much on defense as he is on offense.

While Claxton will start at center and get the first crack at trying to slow Embiid, Brooklyn’s switching defense and lack of other size on the bench means Finney-Smith will have to deal with the two-time scoring champ.

Claxton’s versatility allows the Nets to switch one-through-five, and over the past month have often had him roaming off the ball and letting Finney-Smith jostle in the post, freeing the former to come back in from the weak side for blocks.

Ben Simmons’ season-ending injury, in addition to the fact 2021 first-round draft pick Day’Ron Sharpe has largely been out of the rotation, leaves Finney-Smith as the primary backup at center and matchup-based small-ball five. Emphasis on small.

At just 6-foot-7, 220 pounds, Finney-Smith is giving up five inches and 50 pounds to Embiid. While he can’t stop Embiid — who averaged a career-high 33.1 points this season — he can’t let his minutes on the star wreck the game plan.

“You don’t really [stop him],” Finney-Smith said. “You probably just make it hard for him, wear on his legs. It’s going to take a lot of bodies, and it’s going to be [Sharpe] is going to have to give some great minutes, too, big fella. It’s just going to be a team effort, man, when you got a guy like that who can also get rebounds on top of the post-ups he’s getting.

“You’ve got to give him a bunch of different looks. He’s probably the MVP … he’s been having a great year. You can’t give a guy like that the same coverage all game. So I wouldn’t be surprised if coach throws a wrinkle out there, and I’d be guarding him, fronting him, just trying to make it hard for him.”

How well he does that will have an underrated impact on what kind of showing the Nets have.