Spencer Dinwiddie arrived in Dallas an outcast from the Washington Wizards’ locker room. Dinwiddie, who signed a three-year $54 million deal last summer, had worn out his welcome in Washington in less than six months.
Dinwiddie has since been looking for redemption with his play and changing the narrative of him being a bad teammate. On Sunday he took a large step towards his goal. The veteran guard scored 30 points on 11-of-15 shooting from the field to help lead the Dallas Mavericks to a 123-90 win over the Phoenix Suns in Game 7 of the Western Conference Semifinals.
Dinwiddie made 5-of-7 three-pointers. He joined Jalen Brunson (24 points) in an effort to aid Mavericks star Luka Doncic.
Dinwiddie did it all, coming off the dribble, stepbacks and spot-up threes. The Suns, who had the NBA’s best record in the regular season, had no answers for Dinwiddie.
Meanwhile, Doncic finished with 35 points on 12-of-19 shooting from the field. Doncic also had 10 rebounds and four assists.
Spencer Dinwiddie was “kicked out the door” by the Wizards
When Dinwiddie signed with the Wizards, the hope was he would fit alongside their star Bradley Beal. The Wizards underwent a wholesale change, trading Russell Westbrook and bringing in new faces, Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Montrezl Harrell.
However, it was evident from the start Dinwiddie and Beal struggled to jell. Dinwiddie struggled through his first season back from a torn ACL. He ignored the Wizards advice of him sitting out the first 15 games of the season.
As the season went on reports surfaced of dissension between Dinwiddie and his Wizards teammates. Ultimately, he was traded along with Davis Bertans to the Mavericks in exchange of Kristaps Porzingis.
Dinwiddie felt he was “kicked out the door” by Washington. A short war of words was set off between him and Caldwell-Pope which motivated the latter for a Wizards win over the Mavericks towards the end of the regular season.
All of that was pushed aside Sunday night. All that mattered to Dinwiddie and his Mavericks teammates was his performance in Phoenix’s Footprint Center.
He got off to a strong start when the playoffs began with Doncic out with a calf injury, averaging 19.7 points and 6.7 assists in the first three games against the Utah Jazz. But he struggled to find his footing with Doncic back in the lineup for the next eight games until the last two games of the series against the Suns.
Dinwiddie had 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting in Game 6. In Sunday’s Game 7 he doubled his point total all while shooting over 70% for the second straight game.
Now, he and the Mavericks are headed to the Western Conference Finals to face the Golden State Warriors. Seems the turn of events from Washington to Dallas have worked out well for Dinwiddie.
