The Boston Celtics had been a heavy favourite coming into the 2024 NBA Finals towards the Dallas Mavericks, and thru two video games they’ve cemented the concept that they’re the higher staff. The Celtics proved they might ship an early knockout punch in Game 1, after they blitzed the Mavs from the opening tip and turned the sport right into a rout earlier than halftime. In Game 2, the Celtics confirmed that they’ll win even after they’re having their greatest offensive night time.
The Celtics knocked off the Mavericks, 105-98, in Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Sunday night time. Boston leads the collection 2-0, sending the Mavericks again to Dallas in desperation mode. A playoff collection supposedly doesn’t begin till the house staff loses a sport, but it surely positive feels just like the Mavs are encountering issues with out attainable options proper now.
The first two video games of the 2024 NBA Finals had been completely completely different, however each led to Boston wins. Here’s how we’ve realized in regards to the collection up to now.
1. The Celtics can win even when Jayson Tatum struggles to attain
Don’t let folks inform you Tatum performed poorly in Game 2. His skill to drive the ball into the enamel of the protection and get Dallas’ protection in rotation began the cascade for thus many straightforward Boston buckets. Tatum hit the glass (9 rebounds), dimed up his teammates all night time (12 assists), and stood robust defensively.
Still, Tatum shot 6-of-22 from the sphere. This is the kind of sport that might have gotten him roasted for not being a real Tier 1 famous person, however the actuality on the middle of this Boston staff is that they don’t want him to be. Boston can win even when Tatum has a poor capturing night time as a result of the remainder of the Celtics are proficient sufficient to select up the slack.
Jaylen Brown’s bodily downhill driving is a continuing for Boston. Jrue Holiday and Derrick White really feel like probably the most overqualified third and fourth choices within the league. Kristaps Porzingis takes the Celtics to the following degree when he’s enjoying properly, as we noticed in Game 1, however even that isn’t mandatory for a Boston win.
The Celtics are a lot larger than one participant. This is a really cohesive staff on each ends of the ground, and so they confirmed it in Game 2.
2. The Celtics can win even after they don’t shoot properly
The Celtics shot 10-of-39 from three. If there was ever a method for the Mavs profitable a sport in Boston, you can begin with the Celtics having a chilly capturing night time. Boston depends on the three-point shot greater than any staff within the league, rating No. 1 in three-point makes an attempt and No. 2 in share through the common season. As a lot because the Mavs love ripping threes, it’s not the one means they’ll win.
The Celtics can get the Mavs in rotation so simply because of their calvary of expert drivers and ball handlers. White and Holiday can put the ball on the ground and assault defenses off the bounce each time a lane opens up. Tatum and Brown have every grown immensely as playmakers over the past two years, and already put a lot strain on defenses as scorers. Oh yeah, the Celtics can tilt the maths of their favor from the free throw line, too, and in Game 2 they sank 19-of-20 freebies.
3. The Mavs can’t afford a nasty Kyrie sport
Kyrie Irving appeared so at peace because the Mavericks tore by the Western Conference to punch a ticket to the NBA Finals. His mix of area creation and shot-making was speculated to make him scheme-proof even towards the perfect defenders on this planet.
It hasn’t occurred by the primary two video games. Irving has wanted 37 photographs simply to attain 28 factors to this point. The Celtics’ group of bodily defenders have utterly shut him down, and Dallas’ offense hasn’t been capable of finding a rhythm due to it.
Boston has so many good defenders within the lineup that it believes it doesn’t want to assist towards Doncic and Irving. While Luka ultimately compelled their hand along with his unbelievable Game 2 efficiency, Irving hasn’t been capable of get Boston to regulate to him. Kyrie isn’t capable of burn Boston off the dribble, he’s not making his open spot-up threes, and he’s not capable of get sizzling as a pull-up shooter. Irving carries so an enormous creation position subsequent to Doncic that Dallas doesn’t actually have a Plan C for when one among their stars is enjoying poorly. If Irving doesn’t flip it round shortly, this collection shall be over.
4. Luka Doncic can’t do it by himself
Doncic was completely cooking within the first half of Game 2. He entered halftime with 23 factors, however the Mavs had been nonetheless down by three. Doncic was hitting some extraordinarily tough photographs and doling out some unbelievable passes, but it surely’s unimaginable to beat a staff just like the Celtics all by your self.
The non-Luka Mavericks shot 2-for-17 from three-point in Game 2. That’s a ghastly quantity. The Mavs are largely filling out the lineup with larger, longer, extra athletic gamers who’re speculated to get stops round Doncic and Irving, however proper now these gamers are getting burned defensively and don’t have the talent to make Boston pay offensively. It seems like Dallas wants both Derrick Jones Jr. or PJ Washington to get tremendous sizzling from three (as Washington did within the second spherical collection vs. the Thunder), however proper now the Celtics are leaving these guys open and so they can’t punish it.
5. The Celtics’ protection is the true MVP
The Celtics’ defensive sport plan begins with taking away nook threes, sagging means off Washington and Jones on above the break spot-ups, and making use of early ball strain to Dallas stars to empty the shot clock. It’s working so properly by the primary two video games. After maintain the Mavs to a horrible 96.7 offensive score in Game 1, Boston held Dallas to a 105.4 offensive score in Game 2. Both of these numbers would have completed lifeless final within the NBA within the common season.
Boston has two tremendous robust defensive guards in White and Holiday who patrol the courtroom just like the NFL’s scariest duo of cross rushers. It has rim safety with Horford, a switchable massive defender in Tatum, and a barrel-chested on-ball stopper in Brown. There aren’t any weak factors on this lineup … particularly not with the league-worst offensive effectivity Dallas is taking proper now.
