Post Game - Celtics vs. Dallas Mavericks - Thursday, June 06, 2024 - Game 1 NBA Finals (W 1-0)

I must admit, I had a bit of a pucker factor when the lead went from 29 down to 8 with still 4 1/2 left in the 3rd.  We weathered their run and got it back up to 20 with a 14-2 run in those final 4 1/2 minutes to finish the 3rd, winning going away by 18.  That has to be disheartening.  They clawed it back to a 3 possession game with > 16 minutes left to play and then it turned out to be all for naught.




Luka with 30 but 4-13 from 3.  He also only had 1 assist and 4 turnovers.  Every time he went deep into the paint he got swarmed and his pass outs were questionable.  It blows my mind that players can't stay in front of him, he's not that quick but that's his greatness.

Kyrie was 6-19, 0-5 from 3.  I'm not counting on another one of those.

We won by 18 despite Tatum having an overall pretty poor game.  11 boards and 5 assists but also 6 turnovers.  I really don't understand why Joe's not running our offense through our two excellent point guards but maybe I'm just too old school.  Just as I'm not expecting another Kyrie stinker of those proportions I'm expecting better games in the future from Jayson to offset him.

We keep forgetting that Jaylen Brown's calling card when he entered the league was his defense.  He was absolutely magnificent last night on help defense.  M2M vs Luka?  Not as good but one can say that about just about every defender in the league.  Jaylen's offense stopped the bleeding on their run and got the lead back up into the mid-teens and broke their spirits.  Not too much after that Jason Kidd threw in the towel.  Irked by his 6-11 from the line, but otherwise he was HUGELY impactful.  The only Celtic player in Finals history to have 20+ points, 3 blocks and 3 steals.  Think about how many great Celtic players have played in NBA Finals (Russell, Cowens, KG, Hondo, Tommy) and that's a pretty amazing stat.  When asked about what that meant in his presser Jaylen said "it means nothing.  You just get ready for the next one".  Now that's maturity.  That's the EC Conference Playoffs MVP talking like he wants to be the NBA Finals MVP too.




There is no reason for Porzingis to rush a shot in this series.  I realize it's only one game but I'm not seeing any player on the Mavs that can mess with his shot.  All he needs to do is get to wherever he wants the ball and call for it, turn and shoot like it's an off-day shootaround, like they're fritos and nobody's there.  That's one of the differences between the Celtics and the Mavs.  All our players can defend multiple positions with more than one or two able to defend all of them.  The Mavs don't have personnel that versatile.  They can't switch when Zinger sets a pick for a guard because their guards cannot stop him.  His defense changed the game too.  3 blocks, 2 in the first quarter.  Not a bad "welcome back" game for any player, and coming off the bench?!  That oughta be criminal.  The Unicorn is back!

The OG just keeps on chuggin' along.

hris Forsberg

@ChrisForsberg_
Luka Doncic when 38-year-old Al Horford was the primary defender in Game 1, per NBA tracking:

1-8 FG, 0-4 3PT, 1 BLK, 2 PTS

Mavs were 5-19 FG (26.3 FG%) vs Horford overall. Team-high 13 shots contested, 3 deflections.


I think this goes to a key reason why I think the Celtics will win this series.  It's not just the quality of the talent, it's also the depth and breadth of it.  The Mavs have two superstars, Luka and Kyrie.  Just as it was tough for us to win when all our superstardom was concentrated in similar position players I think it will be tough for them too.  Furthermore, unlike almost every other team, we have multiple elite defenders we can put on Kyrie (DWhite and Jrue) and multiple elite defenders we can put on Luka (Jaylen and Al and Jayson).  Different defensive looks, different sized defensive players.  We can wear their asses down-and-out without taking any one of ours out of their games for long since we can, for example, put Al on Luka for a while and let Jaylen have an easier defensive assignment and score more; or we can sit Jaylen while Luka's out there fighting Al and then bring in a fresh Jaylen.  If they have Kyrie and Luka both on the floor, which they absolutely need to have, then who is going to stop the Js and Z without fouling the Mavs into the penalty?  And, as we all know, DWhite can go off and neither Kyrie nor Luka will be able to do a damn thing to stop him because they're energetic but mostly ineffective defenders themselves.  Their teams need them to save their energy for offense (like the way Milwaukee and Seattle needed Ray Allen to do).  If they're getting tortured by Derrick on offense then Dallas is doomed because if they switch either of those two off of Derrick and put them on a J they're still doomed.










13 down, only 3 left to go.  


Bob


.

Great way to start the series.

To state the obvious, KP was just electric. He was fantastic in that run in the first half. If he can just stay healthy, the Mavs can't beat us. However, Jaylen was once again the player of the game. He just does it all. His defense and shot blocking were great all night and when Dallas closed the lead to 8, he hit the big hoops to push the lead back to 20. I was a little disappointed in his FT shooting (6-11), but have to give him a pass as he's just stepping up big time.

I thought the Celtics intensity was off the charts. However, believe or not I think we can play better. Other than the two big runs in each half I actually thought we were a little rusty. Our spacing seemed a little off and our passing was a little off. This is really a good thing because we will regain our sharpness as the series progresses. JT just couldn't get his game going. He was bottled up all night. I think some of that is rust. I really believe JT maybe sitting on a big game Sunday. PP's shooting was off. He will find his stroke. On the flip side, Kyrie shot the ball poorly. You can't count on that again. Dallas also missed some open threes. You have to expect they will play better in game 2.

Jaylen said it best after the game, this is just one game and we got to get better.

3 more to go. Go Celtics!!!

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5547986/2024/06/07/boston-celtics-dallas-mavericks-game-1-nba-finals/?source=freedailyemail&campaign=601983&userId=13921316


MY NOTE:  This is from the NY Times.


Celtics’ 14-0 response after timeout makes Joe Mazzulla look like coaching wizard


By Steve Buckley
6h ago




BOSTON — As nobody has come up with a Top 100 Greatest Timeouts in Sports History, would it be OK if we submitted Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla, Game 1, 2024 NBA Finals, for consideration?

You be the judge. For while the Celtics’ 107-89 victory over the Dallas Mavericks Thursday night at TD Garden doesn’t hint at much in the way of drama and late-night intrigue, Boston was leading by just 8 points with 4:27 remaining in the third quarter. Which is when Mazzulla called for the timeout. For context, it should be noted that Boston led by as many as 29 points in the first half, what with the fully armed and operational battle station known as Kristaps Porziņģis coming off the bench and scoring 11 points in the first quarter alone.

Imagine: Up by 29, and then up by 8.

But then came a 14-0 Celtics run that effectively ended the Mavericks’ hopes for a never-to-be-forgotten NBA Finals victory. For those looking for even more context, let’s not forget that one of the biggest criticisms leveled at Mazzulla last year, when Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens plucked him from a pack of obscure lieutenants and handed him the coaching keys, was the how and the why of Mazzulla’s timeouts. He was criticized for calling them too soon, too late, too often, and, to be honest, it was one of the reasons Mazzulla’s critics wanted him one and done.


So, yes, if the guy calls a timeout after a 29-point lead has been frittered away to an 8-point lead, and if the result of that is an exciting 14-0 run, that’s big news. Especially if the 14-0 run is stitched together by one of those beloved-by-coaches Total Team Efforts, this one including a dunk by Porziņģis and 3-pointers by Al Horford, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. Add three free throws by Brown, and, presto, you’ve got your 14-0 run and a timeout screaming for a documentary, even if the coach who called it didn’t do much screaming at all.

What did Mazzulla say?

“I don’t know,” Porziņģis said, “but Joe always gives us the right message. He can be emotionless if that’s what we need. He can come in completely even keel and give us the right message and what to focus on. And then he’ll give us some motivation if that’s what we need, some energy. I think he was just even keel and giving us some answers to what we needed to do out there. And that was it. We trust him with his leadership.”


For Porziņģis, trust in Mazzulla extended beyond the timeout. Game 1 of the NBA Finals turned out to be the setting for Porziņģis to return to action after being out since April 29 with a calf injury. But rather than simply press a button that would have had Porziņģis in the starting lineup, Mazzulla kept him on the bench for about the first five minutes of the game.

“We had a conversation,”  Porziņģis said. “He just came up to me. He knew I was going to be fine with whatever. He just told me, what do you think about this, and I said, ‘Of course, let’s do it,’ and that’s it. It was no big deal. I trust Joe and he trusts me.”

Except it was a big deal, given the uncertainly of Porziņģis’ status. And the timely timeout absolutely was a big deal. The math says so … even if Mazzulla was reticent to say so.

Asked what he said to his players during the timeout, Mazzulla, trying to be coy, replied, “Which … the one where they cut it to eight?”

Yes, Joe, that timeout.

“Yeah, listen, it’s the NBA Finals, you’re playing against a great team and they’re going to make runs,” he said. “It’s just building on awareness to why the run was made and, you know, that team does a great job of making defensive adjustments on the fly and sometimes it takes us a possession or two to recognize that.

“So it’s just understanding the run, what could we do to change it, and how can we get better coming out of that. I thought the guys’ poise out of that timeout was big. (The Mavericks) are going to go on more runs and we’re going to have to fight through ‘em.”




And then Mazzulla did a breakdown of the timeout by pointing out that “… out of the three minutes, two-and-a-half of it they’re by themselves. They communicate well with each other, they have great relationships, so I’m sure during the time the coaches are meeting that they’re having that communication with each other.”

But somebody had to call the timeout that led to Brown, Horford, Porziņģis’, etc., doing all that communicating with each other.

It was Mazzulla who did that.

Brown’s take on what the players were saying to each other while the coaches were doing their thing: “Just breathe, just keep playing basketball, if you have a shot that’s open, take it with confidence. No turnovers. Take care off the basketball and just play our game. We gotta get some stops.”

Has a lot happened with the Celtics over the past year or what? Porziņģis and Jrue Holiday were added to the roster, Derrick White cut off his hair, legendary play-by-play voice Mike Gorman retired … and, oh, by the way, now we have Joe Mazzulla rebranding himself as the wizard of the timeout.


Bob


.

I expected a game 1 win.

One has to wonder how the logic of the talking heads can actually infect the minds of people.  Then you start hearing folks parroting what they heard.  The Mavs beat (3) 50+ win teams as though that defines winning.  No one seemed to put a lot of stock in the obvious...the Mavs went 0-2 vs the Celtics during the regular season and also beating multiple 50 win teams is not close to beating one 64 win team.

Everything pretty much went according to plan last night.  

KP returns and comes off the bench, as I suggested he would and also played limited minutes.  Has he really been gone for 38 days?  He played great!  He killed them.

JT continues to struggle in terms of scoring efficiency.  The Mavs clearly have watched a lot of film from the previous rounds and have decided to stop  JT at all cost.  JT is getting blitzed every time he touches the ball.    He looks frustrated because he knows he is a great scorer but he cannot find the creases in the defense.  He had 5 assists and 6 turnovers.  I mentioned in the previous series that maybe CJ should run more plays for him.  Right now his scoring seems to be coming off of ISO plays.  

JB apparently carried his ECF MVP level of play into game 1 of the finals.  

The Celtics derived excellent play from up and down the roster.  It's strange that this is how the Celtics have played and won all year long but somehow all the Celtics haters ignore that reality.

The single biggest factor in our game one win was our defense.  That was  a Grade A Prime cut.

The difference makers reside on the defensive side of the ball.  But we cannot overlook the offense.  The Celtics shot 16-42 from deep and Mavs shot 7-27.  The Mavs cannot win unless they win or at least match the 3 point shooting barrage from the Celtics.  Teams have won but only in a game or so because either you are a high volume 3 point shooting team or you are not.  You cannot morph into something that you cannot morph into.  

I expect there will be adjustments made for game 2 but at some point there are a few too many holes to plug in the proverbial wall.

My god...now we want to rank timeouts?

The 29 point lead was in the first half for crying out loud.   At halftime it was a 21 point lead.  How should we rank the Celtics full timeout at 7:43 in the 3rd after the lead was to cut to 16 (68-52) ?

So after that timeout the lead is cut in half down to 8 points which takes us to the 3rd QTR timeout at 4:07 .  Ok so we  will from here and forevermore refer to that timeout as the mother of all timeouts.

Something's going to break again in G2 and it won't be us.  Mavs are 3-0 after losing G1.  We're done losing G2's.  We just ended the Mavs road streak.  We'll end it further the same way we ended IND's home game winning streak...with another loss for DAL Sunday.  

Rosalie had to love it when Luka's smirky face caught by the camera in their comeback got punched into next week by the Celtics answer and eventual comfortable G1 win.  Poise.  Take your smirk back to DAL Luka.  Don't worry Rosalie.  Much more face punching along with some always entertaining heart stomping and wood chippering to come! 

But yeah, dboss, the holes to plug by DAL are too much and too many.  Not enough fingers.  It won't be overcome in one game Sunday.  DAL may have lost their only chance to win this series.  Boston wins G2?  We're not coming back to Boston to play.

db

db

Pretty amusing that the Mavs bandwagoners talked about how great a road team they are.  After last night's game they are 7-3   While the Celtics are 6-0.  And let's not forget how badly the Celtics have struggled at home at 7-2.  Of course the mighty Mavs are 5-3 at home.

So far no one can convince me that Kuka Doncic is the best player in this series.  No one can convince me that this series is all about Doncic vs Tatum.  And no one can convince me that our team top to bottom and on both sides of the ball, is not the better team.

Bring on G2.  The Celtics have a lot of work to do.   They win G2 as long as they stay with what worked.  There will be some adjustments by both teams.  The 27 3PA by the Mavs just ain't going get it.  So look for them to increase that margin.  The Celtics scored 48 points on 16 made 3 pointers and the Mavs only managed to make 7 (3) pointers for 21 points.  Do they math.

That timeout was an all-time Muthuh, eh ? (Tip o’ the cap to dboss)
But that’s not what I want to bring up. Which is, Coach played two bigs together a lot last night.
I know we saw that some during the first 82, but my impression was that Mazzula did more of that than we’d seen before. Among all the people here who are so good with data, anyone have a data-take on that?
A bunch of benefits came from that strategy last night. Not to belabor the obvious …
As many have said, our D is top tier. Our all-the-way-around switch ability is the Best. The Double Big lineup was a significant part of that inn Game 1.
Defense - Two Bigs was part of how we squashed the Doncic to Lively (he sure is) rim lobs. They’ve been a potent weapon for the Mavs during this post-season run. We took that away last night, Lively’s foul trouble helped too, but even when he was in, Doncic couldn’t get it to him. And Kyrie has said he doesn’t do that so well - that’s pretty much Doncic’s baby.
Offense - Al pops out for a 3. KP strolls into a 3. Two centers you can’t / don’t want to leave open out there.

Two headed monster, that lineup. I don’t know how many minutes they were on the floor at the same time. But it looked, to me, like more than … more than I expected.
… a wrinkle that worked v well. So I’ve been surprised no one’s made much of it. Makes me think maybe I’m making.too much of what I thought i saw.
Need DATA ! (s).
Tip o’ the cap to all geeks n nerds. Worthy folks, all.

Mikl

RosalieTCeltics wrote:i  truly believe, if KP had been in the lineup, we would have swept all three teams

Sometimes a loss is good therapy to adjust your thinking. I do not think KP would have made a difference in our Round 1 game 2 loss to the Heat. Remember they made an unprecedented 23 three point shots.

Bigpygme

See below  2 player lineups for Celtics during the playoffs.

https://www.nba.com/stats/team/1610612738/lineups-traditional?GroupQuantity=2&dir=D&sort=MIN

Horford/Porzingis 5 games played together in the 2-big lineup but only 6.1 MPG so I would say that we have seen very little 2-big lineups in the playoffs. I do not think that we will see much of that. Kidd is not playing Gafford and Lively together.

dboss wrote:db

Pretty amusing that the Mavs bandwagoners talked about how great a road team they are.  After last night's game they are 7-3   While the Celtics are 6-0.  And let's not forget how badly the Celtics have struggled at home at 7-2.  Of course the mighty Mavs are 5-3 at home.

So far no one can convince me that Kuka Doncic is the best player in this series.  No one can convince me that this series is all about Doncic vs Tatum.  And no one can convince me that our team top to bottom and on both sides of the ball, is not the better team.

Bring on G2.  The Celtics have a lot of work to do.   They win G2 as long as they stay with what worked.  There will be some adjustments by both teams.  The 27 3PA by the Mavs just ain't going get it.  So look for them to increase that margin.  The Celtics scored 48 points on 16 made 3 pointers and the Mavs only managed to make 7 (3) pointers for 21 points.  Do they math.

I’d take Jaylen over both Doncic and Tatum

So I finally saw a bigger blowhard than Perk last night, it’s Shaq. Not only did he pick the Mavs, he talks in a mumbled tone that is hard/annoying to listen to and kept on saying at this level or Finals stage your superstars have to carry you. No they don’t. Kenny Smith had just made a point that we have more talent and our stars have other borderline stars that can step up anytime and carry this team enough to a victory, that our top stars can be off; like Tatum last night, and we can still win at this final level. Mavs can’t do that, they need both their stars on to win against us. 3-6 our team is so much better, Holiday is an all star as was Zinger and every team knows how good both ends DWhite is. Love Al starting with Zinger coming off the bench. Doncic had alot of moments he looked exhausted last night. The key stretch of the game was at about 3 minutes left in first quarter, Doncic came out with Mavs behind by 6; by the time he came back in 2nd quarter our new 6th man was leading a pummeling and they were down 17.

That lead would grow to 29 I believe and the game was pretty much over at halftime. The Celtics medical and training staff did an amazing job with Zinger, we kind of rope a doped the whole media. I don’t think anyone thought Zinger had that kind of performance coming up. We can actually play a lot better, Tatum was more off again than on and a turnover machine. Doris was giving him credit for not doing too much, okay Shaq we just gave them a total beatdown and your harping we need Tatum’s A+ game to pull this off this series….whatever.

Joe did an amazing job getting the best out of our studs on defense. Having Zinger back made the defense even better, 7’3” shotblockers are good to have around. Jaylen was a wrecking ball, blowing up that
offense and treating Doncic like his bitch numerous times. How he didn’t make all defensive when he is easily the best wing defender in the league shows how flawed this system is? On a team with 2 all defensive players in the backcourt and loads of defensive talent, Jaylen was the primary attack dog and leader of the best defensive unit in the game. 2 stats really stood out to me Doncic, who all jokes aside is a really great offensive player, only had 1 assist and a staple of the Mavs is alley opp/lob dunks that we have seen all the time during their playoff run. They didn’t even have one the whole game. I couldn’t tell you technically how we did that, I’m not that smart, but have to give Joe credit. Udoka is supposed to be a master defensive coach, well Joe took away some huge attributes/staples of their offense. Holding that team to 89 points is a huge accomplishment. I love great hard nosed defense, we beat them to their spots and they didn’t score more than 25 points in any quarter the whole game. 3 more to go

RosalieTCeltics wrote:Other than the fact that he was a Laker and basically has rooted against the Celtics all season, Shaq has little to nothing to offer on those preview shows. You are right, his voice is hardly audible, almost to the mumble stage, but his dislike of Boston is obviously deep rooted.  I don’t watch him, can’t stand the show personally. At least Barkley and Smith show some intelligence.  I find it more enjoyable to just shut them off.  I have admitted before, I know I am a homer, but when they start talking so stupid that even I could hold down an argument with them, I have lost all interest

Yeah the most annoying thing is him mumbling the same point over and over that is barely intelligible. For the record Kenny and Charles picked Boston, after pointing out our superior depth and level both ends, how styles make fights and if Zinger is anywhere near himself, which now we know he is. Shaq just kept mumbling nonsensical BS, living in his own world.

cowens/oldschool wrote:

RosalieTCeltics wrote:Other than the fact that he was a Laker and basically has rooted against the Celtics all season, Shaq has little to nothing to offer on those preview shows. You are right, his voice is hardly audible, almost to the mumble stage, but his dislike of Boston is obviously deep rooted.  I don’t watch him, can’t stand the show personally. At least Barkley and Smith show some intelligence.  I find it more enjoyable to just shut them off.  I have admitted before, I know I am a homer, but when they start talking so stupid that even I could hold down an argument with them, I have lost all interest

Yeah the most annoying thing is him mumbling the same point over and over that is barely intelligible. For the record Kenny and Charles picked Boston, after pointing out our superior depth and level both ends, how styles make fights and if Zinger is anywhere near himself, which now we know he is. Shaq just kept mumbling nonsensical BS, living in his own world.

Maybe Shaq should just stick to selling pizza.

KP's legs should be as fresh as daisies.  He's missed a bulk of the playoffs.  With all the time off between games, he should be fine.  He sure doesn't look like Luka who looks like he's dragging a 2,000lb weight up the court each time.  We just need KP's fresh legs and smiles for the next 3 games.  

db

dbrown4 wrote:KP's legs should be as fresh as daisies.  He's missed a bulk of the playoffs.  With all the time off between games, he should be fine.  He sure doesn't look like Luka who looks like he's dragging a 2,000lb weight up the court each time.  We just need KP's fresh legs and smiles for the next 3 games.  

db

Luka did look draggy at times.  I think we have enough defenders to wear him down to a nub...lol

Watching the game again, I noticed in 3rd quarter after getting lead down to 8, then back up to 16 Luka had to go out for a rest again. The lead then went back to 22-24. Mavs are good, but we have too many high end players that will wear out his team.

dboss wrote:

dbrown4 wrote:KP's legs should be as fresh as daisies.  He's missed a bulk of the playoffs.  With all the time off between games, he should be fine.  He sure doesn't look like Luka who looks like he's dragging a 2,000lb weight up the court each time.  We just need KP's fresh legs and smiles for the next 3 games.  

db

Luka did look draggy at times.  I think we have enough defenders to wear him down to a nub...lol

Dboss you have the cutest grandkids in the history of grandkids!

bobc33 wrote:

dboss wrote:

dbrown4 wrote:KP's legs should be as fresh as daisies.  He's missed a bulk of the playoffs.  With all the time off between games, he should be fine.  He sure doesn't look like Luka who looks like he's dragging a 2,000lb weight up the court each time.  We just need KP's fresh legs and smiles for the next 3 games.  

db

Luka did look draggy at times.  I think we have enough defenders to wear him down to a nub...lol

Dboss you have the cutest grandkids in the history of grandkids!

Thank you and I just found out that KJ and his wife are pregnant again. That will make 11.