2024 NBA FINALS: #1 Boston Celtics vs #5 Dallas Mavericks (BOS leads 2-0)

[Ben-N1ce]

Pritchard and Tatum shot 6/23 and still barley won by 18. Celtics in trouble.

[brackdan70]

Doncic adjusts, blows Boston out of their building.

What adjustments do you expect him to make?
I think the Mavs need to move the ball around more, have Doncic moving without the ball.

[Texas Chuck]

Way I see it, nothing's changed. Still need 4 more wins.

[SA37]

Carrying over some observations from Game 1...

Mavs with only 9 assists. Luka with 1 assist and only 6 potential assists.

Mavs with only 3 attempts and 1 make on corner 3's.

Mavs with zero lob dunks.

Celtics took away basically everything Dallas wanted to do. How do the Mavs adjust?

I don't see any path to victory for the Mavs that isn't just insane shooting and barrage scoring from Doncic and Irving. Where Boston can get into trouble is if they panic and start leaving role guys open to collapse on Irving/Doncic and the role guys start contributing double-digit points.

It's one thing if Doncic gets 30-40, but has under 5 assists; it's another if he gets 30-40 and has 10+ assists. You can't let him get both.

[MrGoat]

What is it with Dallas and game 1s? I guess winning game 1 in Minnesota had to be a fluke, this is more in line with how the Mavs start series.

Lively got in foul trouble, and Kidd got baited into going small instead of sticking with the team's identity. Not a good combination with a no show by Kyrie. When Lively got his 5th foul I knew it was over, Gafford needs to show more defensive awareness so Kidd doesn't play into Boston's hands and try to go small against them again. And let's not give Jaden Hardy 1st quarter minutes next time.

[hugepatsfan]

What is it with Dallas and game 1s? I guess winning game 1 in Minnesota had to be a fluke, this is more in line with how the Mavs start series.

Lively got in foul trouble, and Kidd got baited into going small instead of sticking with the team's identity. Not a good combination with a no show by Kyrie. When Lively got his 5th foul I knew it was over, Gafford needs to show more defensive awareness so Kidd doesn't play into Boston's hands and try to go small against them again. And let's not give Jaden Hardy 1st quarter minutes next time.

It’s going to be tough for Dallas to play big. Both the Celtics centers pull them away from the rim with their shooting so they aren’t able to be rim protectors like they have been. And then on the other end, the combination of the BOS bigs not being undersized and their perimeter guys not needing a double on Luka or Kyrie doesn’t create the easy lob opportunities. Obviously they’re good players and will have their moments but the matchup wise the Cletics really neutralize their skill sets on both ends of the court. This is not an ideal matchup for them.

[ajones9219]

I think it's funny that Mavs fans spent the last week saying all the statistical evidence saying Boston was likely to dominate didnt count because "TrAdEz". Then Boston comes out, the game goes literally the exact same as the 2 regular season games and now Dallas fans act like this was a fluke again and they can adjust for that.

The Mavs had plenty of film. All I heard was the Mavs were going to cook us with lobs, and Kyrie was different.

Let's call a spade a spade here, there aren't enough adjustments to make up for the massive talent mismatch.

[Wallace_Wallace]

Keep the Dallas role players in check. Irving and Doncic can’t be stopped, best Boston can do make them work on both ends (did great in game 1). Pound for pound, the Celtics have better players, as long as they don’t implode mentally, they’ll be fine going forward.

Doncic may make some good defensive plays, but attacking him on dribble drives can wear him down especially with his injured knee….very similar to Curry’s MCL sprain in the 2016 finals

[sol537]

Kleber is awful.. why does he get so many minutes? He refuses to shoot and he doesn’t do much else out there.

Give those minutes to Hardy/Green like Kidd did before Maxi came back from injury…

[MrGoat]

What is it with Dallas and game 1s? I guess winning game 1 in Minnesota had to be a fluke, this is more in line with how the Mavs start series.

Lively got in foul trouble, and Kidd got baited into going small instead of sticking with the team's identity. Not a good combination with a no show by Kyrie. When Lively got his 5th foul I knew it was over, Gafford needs to show more defensive awareness so Kidd doesn't play into Boston's hands and try to go small against them again. And let's not give Jaden Hardy 1st quarter minutes next time.

It’s going to be tough for Dallas to play big. Both the Celtics centers pull them away from the rim with their shooting so they aren’t able to be rim protectors like they have been. And then on the other end, the combination of the BOS bigs not being undersized and their perimeter guys not needing a double on Luka or Kyrie doesn’t create the easy lob opportunities. Obviously they’re good players and will have their moments but the matchup wise the Cletics really neutralize their skill sets on both ends of the court. This is not an ideal matchup for them.

Gafford's the main issue. Lively is a capable perimeter defender on top of being a rim protector but he can't play 48 minutes and if he gets in foul trouble like game 1... Gafford is easier to exploit but giving Maxi minutes at the 5 isn't the answer. Although the offense lost them the game more than the defense, Kyrie's no show made it a lot easier to cover the lobs for Boston. I'm not panicking yet, aside from the Minnesota series Dallas has a history of truly dreadful game 1 performances under Kidd, though the main adjustment is they need Kyrie to do something, he was pitiful in game 1

[meh]

I hate this stretched schedule (2 days off between all but 2 games). I guess it does help the Celtics as it gives Porzingis more days to recover, but it just sucks on the in between days.

[hugepatsfan]

What is it with Dallas and game 1s? I guess winning game 1 in Minnesota had to be a fluke, this is more in line with how the Mavs start series.

Lively got in foul trouble, and Kidd got baited into going small instead of sticking with the team's identity. Not a good combination with a no show by Kyrie. When Lively got his 5th foul I knew it was over, Gafford needs to show more defensive awareness so Kidd doesn't play into Boston's hands and try to go small against them again. And let's not give Jaden Hardy 1st quarter minutes next time.

It’s going to be tough for Dallas to play big. Both the Celtics centers pull them away from the rim with their shooting so they aren’t able to be rim protectors like they have been. And then on the other end, the combination of the BOS bigs not being undersized and their perimeter guys not needing a double on Luka or Kyrie doesn’t create the easy lob opportunities. Obviously they’re good players and will have their moments but the matchup wise the Cletics really neutralize their skill sets on both ends of the court. This is not an ideal matchup for them.

Gafford's the main issue. Lively is a capable perimeter defender on top of being a rim protector but he can't play 48 minutes and if he gets in foul trouble like game 1... Gafford is easier to exploit but giving Maxi minutes at the 5 isn't the answer. Although the offense lost them the game more than the defense, Kyrie's no show made it a lot easier to cover the lobs for Boston. I'm not panicking yet, aside from the Minnesota series Dallas has a history of truly dreadful game 1 performances under Kidd, though the main adjustment is they need Kyrie to do something, he was pitiful in game 1

Lively is capable on the perimeter relative to other rim protecting centers, but his ultimate value comes from guarding the rim and lob threat. He might not be one of those centers that you can just get switched onto a ball handler and mercilessly attack him like some other rim protecting types, but the Celtics don’t have to do that. Even just having him standing out by Horford or Porzingis at the 3 point line is pulling him away from the rim where his real value is derived. And Dallas depends on that to cover for Luka and Kyrie on the defensive end.

And it’s not uncommon for teams to try and scheme out rim protectors like this. But usually it means taking their own rim protector off the court to put a shooter out there instead. And then the big rim protecting center can punish that team either with lobs or post ups if they’re skilled enough. The Celtics are unique in that between Porzingis and Horford they can go all 48 minutes with both shooting AND rim protection out there. It’s so rare to not have to sacrifice one for the other. They’re really uniquely personnel-ed to neutralize someone like Lively or Gafford.

[ajones9219]

Kyrie telling the police who hurt him after game 1

[zimpy27]

I had Celtics winning game 1
I have Mavs winning game 2

[Fencer reregistered]

Doncic adjusts, blows Boston out of their building.

What adjustments do you expect him to make?
I think the Mavs need to move the ball around more, have Doncic moving without the ball.

Take things a little more seriously?

Doncic got blocked by Al Horford and stripped by Sam Hauser. Perhaps he can avoid repeats of that.

[Celts17Pride]

I had Celtics winning game 1
I have Mavs winning game 2

Looks like you are half right

[Tyakack]

I had Celtics winning game 1
I have Mavs winning game 2

Me too, I hope we are both wrong though.

[UNCBlue012]

Doncic adjusts, blows Boston out of their building.

Man, he must be magic to be able to single-handedly score the 100+ points needed to beat another team.

[TommyPoints]

I don’t want to seem cocky and there is a lot of series left, but this is the most confident I’ve ever felt with Boston going into a Finals. They have too many weapons and this core is just hungry and have been so close. They aren’t going to let it slip away.

We will see how the Dallas supporting cast is able to adjust because Doncic and Irving aren’t beating Boston without someone stepping up. I can see Luka being gassed trying to do it all.

[UNCBlue012]

Before the series, I picked the Mavs to win Game Two, but Boston takes it now that I know Porzingis is healthy.

I'll go Celtics, Celtics, Mavs, Celtics, Mavs, Celtics - done.