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

[Mavrelous]

What kind of knee injury does Luka have? Seeing his knee bloody every game is wild.

2 different injuries, the bloody knees isn't what bothered him against the Clippers and 1st 4 games against OK, it was a right knee sprain, the bloody knees have been with him for about 2 months now.

[eyeatoma]

Been rooting against the Celtics but may root for them now bc everyone is picking against them…also I don’t like watching Luka and Tatum is a good guy even tho I hate watching him.

Go Celtics

You're dead to me lol.

[Jaqua92]

Mavs in 6 is the most popular answer?

So because the 12-2 Celtics, best record in the NBA, played a few injured teams (while being injured themselves) the Mavs are suddenly easy favorites over them, without homecourt?


People really hate Boston.

[Jaqua92]

Fair enough <3. I have about 4 Mavs fans coming at me in here so hard to keep track.

What do you expect mate? You in here talking like Dallas shouldn't even show up. Boston is a great team, with 2-way players all over the lineup, tons of big game experience, an MVP candidate, another all-NBA player, multiple all-D level defenders, other all-star level players. The team is stacked and experienced.

The issue is Dallas defends really really well. And has for 40 games now. And they have two absolutely elite offensive players who are among the best closers in the game. A team like that is unlikely to get trucked.

And you aren't open to anything but Boston is the bestest ever because they are Boston. OF course Mavs fans are going to take you to task.

Now I can assure you that if Boston blows Dallas out in 4 or 5 and wins by an average double digit margin, I will be here for you to serve me all the crow you want. You can talk all your **** and I will just eat it.

But I just can't see Dallas rolling over for you.

lol Just calling like I see it man. I pick against the Celtics all the time...just not this season because they are literally a historically great team by basically every metric. But no animosity and no crow serving needed. All love brother <3

This just isn't true

[Effigy]

Celtics in five. Luka will win a title some day, but it won’t be this year. Celtics have five of the best seven players and homecourt. Now or never.

Yeah but Dallas has number one. It’s always hard to bet against the team that has the best player in the series. And Kyrie is number 3. So that’s 2 of the top 3 players in the series.

[Patches Perry]

This is the worst matchup possible for the Mavs, they don't respond well to 5-out teams, they were able to beat OKC because Giddy, Dort and Chet were left alone and couldn't punish the Mavs, Celtics don't have these weak offensive links, still, Kidd may have some aces up his sleeve, Maxi unlocks switch heavy lineup (though I doubt they go for it often, it totally exposes Luka to hunting, Mavs schemes protect him a lot), there is also the "**** you" element, there is no scheme for game 5 against the Wolves Luka, if the series stays within reach we may get this performance again.
Despite the unfavourable match up, I'm optimistic...

Good points, Thunder shot like butt in a couple games against Dallas despite having good three point shooters by percentage all year long (except Giddey obviously lol), can't expect that from a more experienced Boston team.

That said, Boston doesn't have a Shai who can go out and win a game on 4-5 straight buckets when the team has nothing going. Boston's lack of a tier 1 scorer will hurt them, especially when Dallas has 1 and maybe 2 when Kyrie has it going. In those slow drag it out games, those transcendent scorers are incredibly valuable.

Yeh if only we could have a tier 1 scorer.

Maybe a guy who has 4th most 50 point games in playoff history?

Or a guy who had the most points in a game 7 in nba history.

Yeh.. I really wish we had a guy like that.

Shai doesn’t have the playoff performances or experience like Tatum and he’s only 6 months younger.

I know who I’d prefer and it’s the guy still playing right now.

I totally respect that, he's your guy and that's fine. I don't think he is on the Luka or Shai level of scoring but I'll be watching intently for him to prove me wrong and take over this series.

[Sweet Serenity]

I keep hearing how bad this Pacers team is until you find out they smoked the Mavericks by a combined 39 points in the 2 games they played each other. Oh & before anyone asks, Yes they were both after the deadline & yes everyone on the Mavericks was healthy.

So what is it fellas ? Were those 2 games both aberrations or are we going to give the Celtics credit for sweeping that Pacers team ?

[Jaqua92]

My bad though Gafford only played 5min

Because Boston was torching them. This is a bad matchup for the Mavs...plain and simple. You can choose to believe that or not. You'll find out here pretty soon

Yeah we keep hearing since the beginning of those POs that every Mavs opponents are bad matchups for them, especially the last one against Minny (just go to the preview thread poll there, it's almost hilarious to reread most of the comments on that matchup).
Final result? They are in NBA finals after having dispatched Minny in 5 games.

No one thought any of those teams were bad matchups for Dallas.

Clippers? No. OKC? No one, and I mean no one, had OKC winning that series.

[picc]

I need to see how Porzingis looks before making a prediction.

[Triple M]

It will be critical to match up hunt Luka and Kai but i haven't seen anyone execute this strategy yet. However, the Celtics offense is probably best suited to attempt it and get the switches they want, because match up hunting is a corner stone to the Celtics offense. To give Dallas credit seems like Kai and Luka are playing their best defense and Lively and Gafford are a big reason for that as the back line support.

The Celtics will also hope to space the Dallas bigs but i could see the Mavs adjusting by putting smaller defenders on the Celtics bigs, e.g PJ on KP if available or Horford and have their bigs remain closer to the paint. It will be interesting if the Celtics can actually manuever the Maverick bigs around and then testing Luka and Kys defense.

The match ups i would go with from a Celtics perspective;
White on Kyrie
Brown on Luka
Jrue on DJJ
Tatum on PJ
Horford or KP(if healthy) on Gafford

White length might help on Kyrie but we might see Jrue here as well

I like Brown better on a 1 v 1 match up than playing off ball d but foul trouble and over excerting on D is a real concern

I like Jrue playing free safety so me might get matched up vs PJ than DJJ

If KP is healthy i hope he can defend against the lobs and the rim in general. Tatum will also need to tag the roller and hopefully his length can help as well.

We got a week so i hope everyone paces them self

[Jaqua92]

So I love the overly cocky Mavs opponent fan in all these threads. But gotta admit you Boston guys are the best because I read all those comments in that stupid accent. We gonna smotha Luka in the Gaden.

You guys have every right to feel confident. Hell of a team you guys got. Not sure how you can watch what the Mavs did against a much tougher competition and feel like its a cakewalk though. Good luck with all that.

Your fanbase seems awfully cocky, and they're winning the pole.

Celtics are being treated like the underdogs here.

This board is all over the place and can't be objective when it comes to Boston.

[Effigy]

I keep hearing how bad this Pacers team is until you find out they smoked the Mavericks by a combined 39 points in the 2 games they played each other. Oh & before anyone asks, Yes they were both after the deadline & yes everyone on the Mavericks was healthy.

So what is it fellas ? Were those 2 games both aberrations or are we going to give the Celtics credit for sweeping that Pacers team ?

Who cares? We will all see for ourselves in a week. I need to draw meaningful conclusions from regular season games.

[BeiBeau]

I keep hearing how bad this Pacers team is until you find out they smoked the Mavericks by a combined 39 points in the 2 games they played each other. Oh & before anyone asks, Yes they were both after the deadline & yes everyone on the Mavericks was healthy.

So what is it fellas ? Were those 2 games both aberrations or are we going to give the Celtics credit for sweeping that Pacers team ?

Where were DJJ and Daniel Gafford in the rotation i those games? Oh playing our good players changes our team?

You people just constantly show you know nothing about basketball.

[ajones9219]

What do you expect mate? You in here talking like Dallas shouldn't even show up. Boston is a great team, with 2-way players all over the lineup, tons of big game experience, an MVP candidate, another all-NBA player, multiple all-D level defenders, other all-star level players. The team is stacked and experienced.

The issue is Dallas defends really really well. And has for 40 games now. And they have two absolutely elite offensive players who are among the best closers in the game. A team like that is unlikely to get trucked.

And you aren't open to anything but Boston is the bestest ever because they are Boston. OF course Mavs fans are going to take you to task.

Now I can assure you that if Boston blows Dallas out in 4 or 5 and wins by an average double digit margin, I will be here for you to serve me all the crow you want. You can talk all your **** and I will just eat it.

But I just can't see Dallas rolling over for you.

lol Just calling like I see it man. I pick against the Celtics all the time...just not this season because they are literally a historically great team by basically every metric. But no animosity and no crow serving needed. All love brother <3

This just isn't true

Not as much as you. That's true

[___Rand___]

Boston against the world

Oh god. This is so fake. Your mom and everyone is saving Celtics are favored in this series. Stop it.

[ajones9219]

I keep hearing how bad this Pacers team is until you find out they smoked the Mavericks by a combined 39 points in the 2 games they played each other. Oh & before anyone asks, Yes they were both after the deadline & yes everyone on the Mavericks was healthy.

So what is it fellas ? Were those 2 games both aberrations or are we going to give the Celtics credit for sweeping that Pacers team ?

Where were DJJ and Daniel Gafford in the rotation i those games? Oh playing our good players changes our team?

You people just constantly show you know nothing about basketball.

You do know that games pre-trade deadline do count right? It's Gafford and DJJ...You guys are acting like you traded for Luka mid year.

[ajones9219]

Boston against the world

Oh god. This is so fake. Your mom and everyone is saving Celtics are favored in this series. Stop it.

Not this thread apparently

[jfs1000d]

Good points, Thunder shot like butt in a couple games against Dallas despite having good three point shooters by percentage all year long (except Giddey obviously lol), can't expect that from a more experienced Boston team.

That said, Boston doesn't have a Shai who can go out and win a game on 4-5 straight buckets when the team has nothing going. Boston's lack of a tier 1 scorer will hurt them, especially when Dallas has 1 and maybe 2 when Kyrie has it going. In those slow drag it out games, those transcendent scorers are incredibly valuable.

Yeh if only we could have a tier 1 scorer.

Maybe a guy who has 4th most 50 point games in playoff history?

Or a guy who had the most points in a game 7 in nba history.

Yeh.. I really wish we had a guy like that.

Shai doesn’t have the playoff performances or experience like Tatum and he’s only 6 months younger.

I know who I’d prefer and it’s the guy still playing right now.

I totally respect that, he's your guy and that's fine. I don't think he is on the Luka or Shai level of scoring but I'll be watching intently for him to prove me wrong and take over this series.

You aren’t watching enough games. Tatum was a 30 ppg scorer a year ago, is an elite scorer who had to sacrifice e shots for Porzingis and Jrue.

He is a terrific scorer and plays high level defense and is one of the best two way players in the nba, as is Brown.

[ajones9219]

So you're arguing that head to head is less valuable as a point of comparison to the Mavs vs random other teams?

Got it

Boston has beaten the Mavs 4 times in the past 2 season btw, it isn't one game.

RS record doesn't matter much. Wolves were 3-1 against Mavs in RS.

Regular season doesn't matter at all. Teams get into a groove in playoffs. Mavs are hot. So is Jason Kidd. He's out-coaching everyone he's faced right now.

The Celtics are 12-2 in the playoffs dawg and we are getting our 3rd best player back for game 1

[jfs1000d]

Curious how people think the Mavs can defend Boston.

This is the most efficient offense in nba history they are playing. I am just not sure Mavs and west coast media understand what putting Porzingis into the lineup does to this basketball team.

Everyone hates their style because they are. Heavy 3-point shooting team. But, literally, 1-8 in their lineup are all plus 3-point shooters.

The only player who sees any significant annd consistent PT anbd isn’t a shooter you have to guard is Kornet.