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


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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


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