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

[JJtheBricklayer]

Xfactor in the series comes down to Kyrie. If he puts down a few masterclass games I just can't see the Celtics countering. They just give me the vibes of a team that will fold the minute Luka and Kyrie begin to pile it on . We've seen them look sus for a few games already. Now they go up against 2 mammoth superstars .

Mavs in 6

what year is it? Kyrie a "mammoth superstar"

that mammoth superstar has **** the bed vs the Cs in like 10 straight games.

The Mavs are the Luka show,

expect a lot of lines for Luka that go 36/9/10 Mavs lose by 10.

kyrie bout to disappear from the playoffs, Cs in 5

[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.

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.

Such a casual. When Josh Green and THJ are getting double the minutes Gafford and DJJ are that matters.

Once Dallas started starting those 2 they went 19-2. Still think they don’t matter or can cetlics pretend they aren’t the dumbest fan base?

[DreamTeam09]

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[Triple7]

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.

Yeah, but same thing happened against the nuggets with Jokic, and look what happened. Also Kyrie over Brown is up for debate.

[sol537]

Mavs in 6.

Celtics are super talented and well put together but Mavs are built different. Nico did a masterful job and Luka will carry them to their first title. And... they'll probably get at least one more before this group breaks up.

[durden_tyler]

i would have thought Mavs were the favorites in this board but so far:

To Win Series:

Celtics 77
Mavs 68

It is very early in the polls so interesting to see if that flips over the course of this forced load management from the NBA.

[Triple7]

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 ?

RS record doesn’t count against the Mavs according to their fans. Lol

[jfs1000d]

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 ?

Pacers are good. I mean, real good. They are so young, and Halliburton injury kidneys really hurt them becuase he was t the same, but if all the teams Celtics played all year that team gave them a ton of trouble after the initial 50-point bear down Celtics out in them.

[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.

Yeah, but same thing happened against the nuggets with Jokic, and look what happened. Also Kyrie over Brown is up for debate.

No it isn’t. Hell Tatum over Kyrie is more open for debate at this point. But Kyrie is a very solid 3 imo.

[Patches Perry]

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.

I am a fan of Tatum, and agree with everything you say. I just don't think he's a guy teams will send hard double teams to at halfcourt to get the ball out of his hands due to being such a scoring threat. Both Luka and Shai see that routinely. He is certainly elite though, and I'd take him as one of the 5-7 best players in the league.

[Triple7]

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

It goes both ways. Kyrie and Luka needs to defend as well, and they will exert energy doing so.

[JJtheBricklayer]

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.

Yeah, but same thing happened against the nuggets with Jokic, and look what happened. Also Kyrie over Brown is up for debate.

No it isn’t. Hell Tatum over Kyrie is more open for debate at this point. But Kyrie is a very solid 3 imo.

dude what year is it?

Kyrie is the 4th best player in this series. Defense is a thing after all

Cs have 2 of the top 3 players and 5 of the top 7.

people here acting like prime Kyrie is here and not the one who has been manhandled 10 straight games vs Boston

[jfs1000d]

So Tatum is their 3rd biggest player in their rotation? Otherwise it’s just old Horford and KP. I can see the Celtics getting in the same problems the Thunder had if KP isn’t ready for 30+ mins

Oh dear lord. That is a bad take. Celtics are huge in starting lineup even without zinger, who will play.

6-4 Holiday
6-5 white
6-6 brown
6-9 Tatum
7-2 zinger

They are not skinny either. 4 of the 5 would be considered big for their position while Tatum is a very good rebounder and defender.

[tonyreyes123]

Celtics haven’t played anyone good lol

[ajones9219]

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.

Such a casual. When Josh Green and THJ are getting double the minutes Gafford and DJJ are that matters.

Once Dallas started starting those 2 they went 19-2. Still think they don’t matter or can cetlics pretend they aren’t the dumbest fan base?

Glad we get to to pick and choose which games matter. By that logic, Boston's is basically the GOAT team if you just count games their starting 5 played.

[Effigy]

Yeah, but same thing happened against the nuggets with Jokic, and look what happened. Also Kyrie over Brown is up for debate.

No it isn’t. Hell Tatum over Kyrie is more open for debate at this point. But Kyrie is a very solid 3 imo.

dude what year is it?

Kyrie is the 4th best player in this series. Defense is a thing after all

Cs have 2 of the top 3 players and 5 of the top 7.

people here acting like prime Kyrie is here and not the one who has been manhandled 10 straight games vs Boston

Shrug. We will all find out for sure in a week. Can’t wait!

[jfs1000d]

I'm not the one saying stupid things my good man--I'm just laughing at the stupid things being said.

I think this is a brand new series and all information about how they matchup and in what form they are in is relevant. But no I don't believe one h2h matchup tells me more than how both teams have played since then. Sorry.

Boston has clearly played better than Dallas since then as well...but we are being told that doesn't count since we played an easy road to the finals....so apparently we aren't allowed to make any comparisons at all.

Celtics played really awful EC teams plagued with injuries.

They didn't play Nuggets, Wolves, Thunder or anything close to them.

You are correct. But this isn’t college football where people vote who deserves to win.

It is settled in the floor. I would say the road to the finals is irrelevant unless there is an injury issue that carries over.

[ajones9219]

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.

I am a fan of Tatum, and agree with everything you say. I just don't think he's a guy teams will send hard double teams to at halfcourt to get the ball out of his hands due to being such a scoring threat. Both Luka and Shai see that routinely. He is certainly elite though, and I'd take him as one of the 5-7 best players in the league.

If the Mavs don't hard double Tatum, this will be a sweep

[jfs1000d]

Celtics haven’t played anyone good lol

So? Like, it isn’t like this is a surprise to any of them. 6 of their top 8 players has nba finals experience.

[Jellybeans]

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 here