COVID-19, 4-day power outage, baby on the way: Dorian Finney-Smith leads Mavs in off-court chaos

Dorian Finney-Smith woke up Monday to his 10-year-old daughter, Sinai, saying she couldn’t turn on the TV.

The Dallas area was in the early goings of what would become an historic snowstorm and statewide power crisis. That was Finney-Smith’s first sign something was amiss.

He figured the power in his North Dallas house would return soon, but it didn’t.

Indoor temperatures fell into the 40s, his four-person family shared a bed in front of the fireplace Monday night and Finney-Smith faced his latest obstacle in what’s been the most challenging last six weeks for any Mavericks player.

Finney-Smith was one of four Mavericks players to test positive for COVID-19 in early January and had to quarantine for two weeks in a Denver hotel. Then came the winter freeze that knocked out his power for most of four days and left his family with, at first, no outside options for warmth.

All along, Finney-Smith worried about the potential consequences of the virus and sustained cold for his girlfriend, JazMyne Branch, who’s now 35 weeks pregnant.

It’s no wonder the 27-year-old forward is ready to get back on the court and continue his season-best scoring stretch when the Mavericks resume their game schedule Monday.

“I can’t wait,” Finney-Smith said. “[It’s] a little sketchy right now.”

Finney-Smith, a Virginia native and Florida graduate, spent Monday like many Texans — hoping his power would come back soon.

Throughout the day, the power would return for an hour at times, but when it became clear his family would be without heat for at least most of the night, he and Jazmyne started to look for hotels.

They were all booked.

So, they set up the fireplace. JazMyne cooked chicken for dinner on their gas stove, while Finney-Smith tried to entertain Sinai and 4-year-old Dorian Jr. with rounds of hide-and-seek.

With a few candles and the fire as light, Finney-Smith said his kids started to drift off to sleep around 6 p.m. He made up scary stories to try to keep them awake longer before they all shared a bed for warmth.

“I play a lot, so I figured out a way to do something,” Finney-Smith said. “My son is easily entertained.”

When the Mavericks on Tuesday discussed their plans for holding practices despite power issues in their facility, Finney-Smith told coach Rick Carlisle he didn’t want to leave JazMyne alone with the kids in a 40-some-degree house.

That helped spark a plan for some Mavericks players and staffers to use the Hotel Crescent Court rooms the Pistons had reserved for Tuesday night ahead of their Wednesday game against the Mavericks, which the NBA postponed.

Finney-Smith’s family stayed there the following two nights and thought they were in the clear to return home Thursday night — until the power shut off again.

“We went back to the room,” Finney-Smith said. “It was crazy.”

The family had already experienced plenty of recent upheaval. When the NBA season started in December, Finney-Smith left home only for practices and games in hopes of not exposing JazMyne to COVID-19.

He still worried about getting her sick after he cleared quarantine and returned from the Mavericks’ road trip to Denver two weeks late.

If not for the pandemic, his mom and JazMyne’s family would’ve already arrived in Dallas to help prepare for their son’s early March due date.

But Finney-Smith has still managed to maintain consistency since regaining his conditioning after a nine-game COVID-19 absence.

In addition to playing as the Mavericks’ top defender, Finney-Smith in the last two games before the weather hiatus posted his best 3-point shooting percentages of the season — 4 of 5 (80%) against the Pelicans and 4 of 7 (57.1%) against the Trail Blazers.

His 14 points in each game tied his season-best total, which he set Jan. 7 in Denver, the night before his six weeks of pandemic, power and pregnancy pandemonium started.

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