2024 NBA Finals: The Stars Match-up (Doncic/Irving vs Tatum/Brown)

[Johnny Bball]

We get to see how good the Mavs defense has really become, which to me is the entire series if its good enough or not.

[brackdan70]

I may be biased but I like 2 way players.

[brackdan70]

Career numbers (vs Celtics):

Kyrie Irving (26 games, 1 with Mavs, 7 with Nets, rest with Cavs): 23.3 points, 3.9 rebounds, 5.0 assists
Luka Doncic (11 games): 29.9 points, 8.8 rebounds, 7.5 assists

Career numbers (vs Mavs):

Jayson Tatum (14 games): 24.5 points, 9.1 rebounds, 3.2 assists
Jaylen Brown (13 games): 22.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.4 assists

Kyrie played both games against Boston this season.

[Kurtz]

Basically every NBA champ has been top 5 in the playoffs in either OFFRTG or DEFRTG. Boston is top 5 in both, Dallas is top 5 in neither.

I think you'd have to look at their rating post-deadline. I believe they were right around top 5 in both categories after their trades.

[lobosloboslobos]

I have been extremely impressed by Kyrie's transformation from a guy who seemed to relish being a disruptor and an outsider to a guy who has been a 100% rock solid team-first Robin to Luka's Batman. it wasn't long ago that many teams seemingly didn't want him due to his behaviour. Now he is a model of self-effacing reliability off and on the court. Props to him and to the team.

[Special_Puppy]

I honestly think the gap between the top 2 is smaller than the conventional wisdom suggests. The gap between Tatum and Luka isn't that big. The gap between Kyrie and (White/Holiday/KP/Brown) isn't that big

[bisme37]

...

Hey man thanks for making these great threads. There's only one series going on now so I think it's cool to have a few different stickied threads about it, and I thought your threads were high quality. I'm hoping having these stickied will perhaps help us not end up with people making new threads every day about essentially the same things.

But please don't get offended if this or any of your threads get un-stickied at some point. I'll probably play around with it depending on how active they are and I'll try to not have an overabundance of stickied threads at one time. Cheers.

[Texas Chuck]

I may be biased but I like 2 way players.

me too.

You know what else I really like? Elite offensive players.

[srhcan]

Good point. The Celtics haven't faced any defenders better than Bam Adebayo or Evan Mobley, who as we all know can't hold a candle to the immortal Daniel Gafford.

Sarcasm asside, DJJ should be able to contain one of Tatum/Brown in stretches. So that's the key defender for me.

OK. But who will defend the other Jay? Who will defend White?

More to the point -- who will Dallas leave open from 3, if anybody?

Yeah all top 5 of Celtics are good shooters so Mavs cannot double-team Tatum to leave another Celtics player open.

On the other hand I can see Celtics double-team Luka and leave DDJ/PJ open.

[durden_tyler]

Career numbers (vs Celtics):

Kyrie Irving (26 games, 1 with Mavs, 7 with Nets, rest with Cavs): 23.3 points, 3.9 rebounds, 5.0 assists
Luka Doncic (11 games): 29.9 points, 8.8 rebounds, 7.5 assists

Career numbers (vs Mavs):

Jayson Tatum (14 games): 24.5 points, 9.1 rebounds, 3.2 assists
Jaylen Brown (13 games): 22.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.4 assists

Kyrie played both games against Boston this season.

Pls do correct me if i am wrong, research is from statmuse, which i thougt was reliable and up to date. If wrong, please do add and correct. Thanks!

[durden_tyler]

...

Hey man thanks for making these great threads. There's only one series going on now so I think it's cool to have a few different stickied threads about it, and I thought your threads were high quality. I'm hoping having these stickied will perhaps help us not end up with people making new threads every day about essentially the same things.

But please don't get offended if this or any of your threads get un-stickied at some point. I'll probably play around with it depending on how active they are and I'll try to not have an overabundance of stickied threads at one time. Cheers.

No problemo at all. i trust the mods’ decision on this one (sticky and or no sticky i don’t care, as long as we win the championship (in betting) LOL)

Ultimately, i want to see in-depth analysis on all points of the NBA Finals (troll-y threads are fine too because that is what makes RealGM, RealGM ) and the hope is we understand both sides’ chances at the title.

[brackdan70]

Career numbers (vs Celtics):

Kyrie Irving (26 games, 1 with Mavs, 7 with Nets, rest with Cavs): 23.3 points, 3.9 rebounds, 5.0 assists
Luka Doncic (11 games): 29.9 points, 8.8 rebounds, 7.5 assists

Career numbers (vs Mavs):

Jayson Tatum (14 games): 24.5 points, 9.1 rebounds, 3.2 assists
Jaylen Brown (13 games): 22.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.4 assists

Kyrie played both games against Boston this season.

Pls do correct me if i am wrong, research is from statmuse, which i thougt was reliable and up to date. If wrong, please do add and correct. Thanks!

Use basketball reference gamelogs

[The Corey's]

Tatum and Brown only averaged more points combined in the conference finals than Luka/Irving.

The hyperbole is wildly uncontained.

[Astaluego]

Good point. The Celtics haven't faced any defenders better than Bam Adebayo or Evan Mobley, who as we all know can't hold a candle to the immortal Daniel Gafford.

Sarcasm asside, DJJ should be able to contain one of Tatum/Brown in stretches. So that's the key defender for me.

OK. But who will defend the other Jay? Who will defend White?

More to the point -- who will Dallas leave open from 3, if anybody?

Good question, I have one for you, if Nembhard burned down Boston, what would happen to Lukai? (PJ will defend the other Jay, Kai will be with White)

[Astaluego]

Tatum and Brown only averaged more points combined in the conference finals than Luka/Irving.

The hyperbole is wildly uncontained.

The Mavs faced the best defense in the league and Boston 24th

[The Corey's]

Tatum and Brown only averaged more points combined in the conference finals than Luka/Irving.

The hyperbole is wildly uncontained.

The Mavs faced the best defense in the league and Boston 24th

Yea. Wolves looked real great out there and totally didn't hit a wall.

You probably won't acknowledge how bad Dallas defense is and just barely better than the pacers. Not without mentioning something about the trade dead line and playoffs are different and all that other nonsense either.

Boston duo has gone off and they will continue to go off.

Sarcasm asside, DJJ should be able to contain one of Tatum/Brown in stretches. So that's the key defender for me.

OK. But who will defend the other Jay? Who will defend White?

More to the point -- who will Dallas leave open from 3, if anybody?

Good question, I have one for you, if Nembhard burned down Boston, what would happen to Lukai? (PJ will defend the other Jay, Kai will be with White)

Pacers offense is legit. Better than the Mavs. By a long shot. You knew that though, you saw it twice this year.

[Astaluego]

Tatum and Brown only averaged more points combined in the conference finals than Luka/Irving.

The hyperbole is wildly uncontained.

The Mavs faced the best defense in the league and Boston 24th

Yea. Wolves looked real great out there and totally didn't hit a wall.

You probably won't acknowledge how bad Dallas defense is and just barely better than the pacers. Not without mentioning something about the trade dead line and playoffs are different and all that other nonsense either.

Boston duo has gone off and they will continue to go off.

OK. But who will defend the other Jay? Who will defend White?

More to the point -- who will Dallas leave open from 3, if anybody?

Good question, I have one for you, if Nembhard burned down Boston, what would happen to Lukai? (PJ will defend the other Jay, Kai will be with White)

Pacers offense is legit. Better than the Mavs. By a long shot. You knew that though, you saw it twice this year.

ok, if the data on the improvement of the Mavs defense since the deadline doesn't help you, nothing will, I guess beating 3 teams with more than 50 wins with the 1 and 3 seeds between them and completely healthy was something anecdotal, unimportant...See you here, during the series.. good luck

[The Corey's]

The Mavs faced the best defense in the league and Boston 24th

Yea. Wolves looked real great out there and totally didn't hit a wall.

You probably won't acknowledge how bad Dallas defense is and just barely better than the pacers. Not without mentioning something about the trade dead line and playoffs are different and all that other nonsense either.

Boston duo has gone off and they will continue to go off.

Good question, I have one for you, if Nembhard burned down Boston, what would happen to Lukai? (PJ will defend the other Jay, Kai will be with White)

Pacers offense is legit. Better than the Mavs. By a long shot. You knew that though, you saw it twice this year.

ok, if the data on the improvement of the Mavs defense since the deadline doesn't help you, nothing will, I guess beating 3 teams with more than 50 wins with the 1 and 3 seeds between them and completely healthy was something anecdotal, unimportant...See you here, during the series.. good luck

But the Mavs haven't beat a 64 win team. The Celtics literally already destroyed the Mavs post trade deadline with both Luka and Irving playing.

So yes, the hyperbole on the Mavs duo vs the Celtics duo is runaway hyperbole.

[Fencer reregistered]

Sarcasm asside, DJJ should be able to contain one of Tatum/Brown in stretches. So that's the key defender for me.

OK. But who will defend the other Jay? Who will defend White?

More to the point -- who will Dallas leave open from 3, if anybody?

Good question, I have one for you, if Nembhard burned down Boston, what would happen to Lukai? (PJ will defend the other Jay, Kai will be with White)

If the Pacers could swap Nembhard for Luka, their offense would be very hard to stop.

Luka Heroism + Kyrie Heroism + role players is less of a concern. (It's still very challenging of course.)

[Archx]

But the Mavs haven't beat a 64 win team. The Celtics literally already destroyed the Mavs post trade deadline with both Luka and Irving playing.

You really believe this is the same Mavs team Celtics beat 2 times in regular season? You think they haven't elevated their game and got more in sync since then?