2024 NBA FINALS: #1 Boston Celtics vs #5 Dallas Mavericks (BOS leads 3-0)

[Riverwalk2021]

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Softzingis: Hold me back fellas

[BigDan245]

If KP is out or plays and isn't the same, I expect Dallas to put up a better fight offensively...I think it will come down to whether or not the Celtics offense wakes up. If we get the Celtics offense from 1 and 2, Dallas will win.

[zshawn10]

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[KG Leonard]

It is funny how podcasts, som fans are reacting to KP injury like he was dominating for Celtics whole playoffs, like we lost Brown or Tatum and now Dallas can win the series easier. I love his play during RS, his rim protection is elite but the guy missed all the unbeaten away playoffs run, played 20 minutes on restriction. He was always a bonus addition.

[Yinwest]

Tough break for the Celtics. Porzingis is a huge part of their success this season and these first 2 games.

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Holy shitttttt

[Riverwalk2021]

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I will eat my hat if he plays game 3

[OpiumDose]

It is funny how podcasts, som fans are reacting to KP injury like he was dominating for Celtics whole playoffs, like we lost Brown or Tatum and now Dallas can win the series easier. I love his play during RS, his rim protection is elite but the guy missed all the unbeaten away playoffs run, played 20 minutes on restriction. He was always a bonus addition.

Celtics are +25 in the minutes KP played against Mavs. And they are literally tied (0) in the minutes he has sat out so..

[therealbig3]

People have underrated the Celtics all season, it was a joke how much better than the rest of the league they were all year. I get that RS is different, and there have been some questions about whether or not the Celtics in particular could deliver in the playoffs, but typically when a team has that big of a gap than everyone else, it’s for real.

KP or not, they’re still a significantly better team than Dallas. Especially since Kyrie has been crapping the bed.

[zshawn10]

It is funny how podcasts, som fans are reacting to KP injury like he was dominating for Celtics whole playoffs, like we lost Brown or Tatum and now Dallas can win the series easier. I love his play during RS, his rim protection is elite but the guy missed all the unbeaten away playoffs run, played 20 minutes on restriction. He was always a bonus addition.

The celtics went 12-2 without kp and I believe 11-1 with horford as the starting center

[HotRocks34]

Feel terrible for Porz.

Kyrie:

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[HotRocks34]

Luka's getting the job done and he's got to stay with it until some of his teammates join the party.

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[Cricket23]

Kornet and Tillman are solid backups but if they play then Dallas suddenly has guys they don't have to guard. I wouldn't be surprised if the backup center becomes Tatum with Hauser and Pritchard getting more minutes. Double down on the ball movement and shooting.

[KG Leonard]

It is funny how podcasts, som fans are reacting to KP injury like he was dominating for Celtics whole playoffs, like we lost Brown or Tatum and now Dallas can win the series easier. I love his play during RS, his rim protection is elite but the guy missed all the unbeaten away playoffs run, played 20 minutes on restriction. He was always a bonus addition.

The celtics went 12-2 without kp and I believe 11-1 with horford as the starting center

Yeah we seem to be the only ones who remember those games, KP had an amazing 20 minutes Vs Dallas in game 1, apparently has 25+ when he was in the game. Lively, Gafford,PJ will crush Celtics from now on. It is over for Celtics.

[HotRocks34]

Podcast P!

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[Mavrelous]

Podcast P!

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Nevee listened to his podcast, but feom short clips, he's pretty cool and entertaining, definitely more than JJ and RJ.

[hugepatsfan]

Luka's getting the job done and he's got to stay with it until some of his teammates join the party.

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LMFAO

you know your defense is bad when your fans pick out one single defensive play and call it a "sequence"

[xdrta+]

It is funny how podcasts, som fans are reacting to KP injury like he was dominating for Celtics whole playoffs, like we lost Brown or Tatum and now Dallas can win the series easier. I love his play during RS, his rim protection is elite but the guy missed all the unbeaten away playoffs run, played 20 minutes on restriction. He was always a bonus addition.

Celtics are +25 in the minutes KP played against Mavs. And they are literally tied (0) in the minutes he has sat out so..

I know, right? It's no big deal, but......."+27.7 net rating in Porzingis’ 44 minutes on the court while playing Dallas exactly even (0.0 net rating) during his 52 minutes on the bench."

[bigboi]

So what excuses will Mavs have now?

[hugepatsfan]

Losing KP if he's truly a nothing the rest of the way is obviously a blow. It makes it harder to win games. But from a different angle, I still like our chances to just NOT LOSE 4 out of 5 games. Even without KP, I think they're still very much good enough where I don't think Dallas is 4 out of 5 games better than them.

In the 4 game Pacers series, Horford played 34.7 minutes per game. And that's including game 2 where it was a blowout so he got some rest and only played 24:58. The other 3 games was about 38, though that's somewhat inflated by the OT in game 1 too. If this thing does go 5 more games, chances are at least 1 or 2 of those are blowouts where he can rest too. I'm confident he can dial the clock back and play big enough minutes for us the rest of the way. Not the same rim protector or shot blocker KP is, but he spaces the floor as well so they'll continue to pull the bigs away from the basket and he's actually less exploitable on the switch. I think they'll still be in line for plenty of good C play.

Obviously the concern is in the other 10-15 minutes per game that someone else has to play the 5 spot. My guess would be Tillman. That's going to hurt the Celtics a lot on offense. But, to be fair, Tillman is definitely a better defender when switched onto the perimeter than KP. So BOS loses the shot blocking on that end but can be less dedicated to making sure one guy doesn't get switched onto Luka/Kyrie. They've been working hard off the ball to shield him from that.

KP out is going to open up some opportunities for DAL and give BOS some exploitable holes to cover up. But they still have advantages up and down the lineup vs. DAL to where they should be able to win 2 out 5 games against this team still IMO.

[FlatearthZorro]

I love how people flip flop.. First it was around 50-50 with most people voting Celtics obviously being Celtics fans.. Now, even though it's game 3 and it's likely the Mavs win, it's 67-30 Celtics..

Oh and Luka is a magician on offense, that's true, but dang, how's nobody calling him out on his god dang awful defense(and physical shape he's in). The amount that Luka gets away with in neutral fans' eyes is hilarious:

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