2024 NBA FINALS: #1 Boston Celtics vs #5 Dallas Mavericks (Game 1: Thursday June 6th)

[Petergrifindor]

IT'S COMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[The Corey's]

More difficult for the Celtics? No they are not. The Mavs have two guys who will take 50 shots and the other guys waiting for a pass. That's not going to be enough.

It was enough to almost sweep the Wolves, but okay

Who had the #1 defense this year? Also who won Defensive Player of the Year? Asking for a friend.

Do you think that matters?

It didn't matter in 2022 when Marcus Smart was the defensive player of the year and Curry torched him in the finals.

[Texas Chuck]

Reminder tonight around 11 EST, check on your Celtic fan friends. Nobody serves alone.

[SLCceltic]

Read on Twitter

he can def afford to lose it ha ha

[SLCceltic]

Yes, I'm worried about that. I hope they ease him in on the minutes so that he can build into it.

So will KP start or come off the bench tonight?

I was thinking the same thing. I think Joe has Al start and KP coming off the bench.

Na, its better to start KP, see how he holds up and then go from there. He's cleared to play, he's our starter. I don't want him to enter a game cold

[SLCceltic]

Majority of ESPN experts think the Mavericks are favored. I can’t tell if people are just *really* leaning into the idea that “the team with the best player is favored” idea or if people are just *really* overthinking it https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/40279206/2024-nba-finals-predictions-celtics-mavericks-series-mvp

This is bizarre to me, the numbers couldn't be more clear, at least the knowledgeable (Lowe, Bontemps, Pelton) ones are going with Celtics.

Tim Legler is a well respected analyst and former player. Who did he pick?

What is Leglers correct-pick rate
ha ha

[SLCceltic]

More difficult for the Celtics? No they are not. The Mavs have two guys who will take 50 shots and the other guys waiting for a pass. That's not going to be enough.

It was enough to almost sweep the Wolves, but okay

Who had the #1 defense this year? Also who won Defensive Player of the Year? Asking for a friend.

Wolves D was perfect for this Mavs team to take advantage of. Cs D just as dominate but very diff esp with regards to what they can throw at Luka and Kyrie

[He_Got_Game]

That just isn't realistic. Celtics might win this series but a healthy and hot Mavs team is more difficult than any of those teams. We really haven't seen the Mavs firing on all cylinders until now.

More difficult for the Celtics? No they are not. The Mavs have two guys who will take 50 shots and the other guys waiting for a pass. That's not going to be enough.

It was enough to almost sweep the Wolves, but okay

The Wolves? Don't make me laugh. The Celtics are light years better than the Wolves. Jaylen Brown himself is just as good as Anthony Edwards.

Anyway, defense will not decide this series anyway. This will be a high scoring series. The Celtics have the better offense and it's not close.

[dc]

Wolves D was perfect for this Mavs team to take advantage of. Cs D just as dominate but very diff esp with regards to what they can throw at Luka and Kyrie

I think Luka is going to do Luka things. Same thing was said in the past about how the Clips had the perfect personnel to defend Luka and it really didn't stop him. Wolves had size up front with rim protection and a 6'9" McDaniels who was 2nd team all-defense. Most people before the Wolves-Mavs series started figured that was a pretty good setup to make life hard for him.

2 years ago, the Warriors had Wiggins playing the best ball of his life. He was praised for "holding" Luka to 32 ppg, though it was at a lower efficiency than what he did against Bridges in the previous series.

Again, Luka and probably Kyrie will most likely score the way they've been doing. They're too good and they've seen just about every scheme there is. This series comes down to if or how much the Mavs can slow down the Celts highly efficient and difficult to defend offense.

[He_Got_Game]

Wolves D was perfect for this Mavs team to take advantage of. Cs D just as dominate but very diff esp with regards to what they can throw at Luka and Kyrie

I think Luka is going to do Luka things. Same thing was said in the past about how the Clips had the perfect personnel to defend Luka and it really didn't stop him. Wolves had size up front with rim protection and a 6'9" McDaniels who was 2nd team all-defense. Most people before the Wolves-Mavs series started figured that was a pretty good setup to make life hard for him.

2 years ago, the Warriors had Wiggins playing the best ball of his life. He was praised for "holding" Luka to 32 ppg, though it was at a lower efficiency than what he did against Bridges in the previous series.

Again, Luka and probably Kyrie will most likely score the way they've been doing. They're too good and they've seen just about every scheme there is. This series comes down to if or how much the Mavs can slow down the Celts highly efficient and difficult to defend offense.

Bolded is exactly right. Luka and Kyrie will score 30 points apiece but that's not enough to outscore the Celtics. They will need to average 40 each to have a shot.

[bluejerseyjinx]

IMHO, I don't believe for 1 minute, both Luca and Kyrie can score 40 apiece against the Celtics defense. No way, won't happen.

[hugepatsfan]

I hate making predictions like this because it sets me up to get clowned, but I’m going to say Boston in 5.

The Celtics have been historic level dominant this year. They won 64 games with an all time high point differential. And they did that pretty much without a sense of urgency for most of the year. They won the conference by 14 games. They were dominant like that without even any real reason to try. And I know the playoff slate has been weak, but they’re throttling teams. They’re 12-2 with a 10 point per game differential. That’s what they should do and what they have done.

There are threads on here commenting how Tatum is being “carried” by the rest of this team. There’s threads commenting on how they’re going to run into tax issues because there’s no way they can afford to keep the team together. Tatum gets voted as a top 10 player on this board every year and the same people voting him as that question if Brown is actually better. And then people will argue that Derrick White is actually their second best player. There’s all this going indirect acknowledgement of how loaded they are and they’ve posted a seasons worth of elite results to justify that, yet people still don’t trust them.

I get that they’ve fallen short in recent years and they’ve lost some series they were favored in, but I think they just got the right mix this year. You look at the roster and I truly believe they have 5 all star caliber players in the starting lineup. They have 3 40% shooters off the bench. They’re (playoff rotation) deep, they have high end talent, and they have an other worldly middle class of the roster. All year they’ve performed at the level of a team where we should be trying to rank them all time and I believe that’s the case. I think they’ll solidify that in this series and the narrative will shift from questioning why they can’t get it done to asking if they can afford to keep this group together and go on a mini-dynastic run here.

Dallas is here for a reason and they have 2 of the most gifted players in the league. They could definitely make me look dumb but I just think this Celtics’ team’s track record speaks for itself this year.

[Froob]

I've never been so excited and nervous for a basketball game. I feel like I'm about to suit up and play.

[bluejerseyjinx]

Just as excited but not nervous. Bringing in KP and Holiday was all about championship or bust before the season ever started. Now we are here. Time to go get it.

[scrabbarista]

LET'S GOOOO!

CELTIC POWER!

haha, I'm an EXTREMELY hyped bandwagon fan!!!

LET'S GOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[scrabbarista]

My pick was Boston in five, but I don't have a clue on this one. Based on the odds I saw a day or two ago, I probably would have bet Dallas in five.

I also thought when the playoffs started that there was a 97% chance the champ would be DEN, BOS, or MIN. So if Dallas wins, I'll step back next season and make no team predictions.

[Yinwest]

Celtics in 5

[holdenwait]

friggin finally we are here!

last night one of my digital watches I hadn't worn in a while was showing 6.6 as the date so I got all mixed up and excited, ran to get some food to sit down and watch only to realize it was set wrong and was thinking it was 7am instead of 7pm therefore the next day..

[bigfoot_cryptozoology]

Read on Twitter

[Slax]

friggin finally we are here!

last night one of my digital watches I hadn't worn in a while was showing 6.6 as the date so I got all mixed up and excited, ran to get some food to sit down and watch only to realize it was set wrong and was thinking it was 7am instead of 7pm therefore the next day..

This is a wild mix up Enjoy the game tonight!