NBA Finals Takeaways: Porzingis returns in style as Celtics make statement in Game 1

The Boston Celtics seemed determined to remind everyone, that yes, they were the best team in the regular season by a significant margin and they have followed that up with a 12-2 romp through the Eastern Conference playoffs, in each case racking up double-digit point differentials. 

The Dallas Mavericks as worthy challengers? Um, no. 

At least that seemed like the message Boston seemed determined to send as they rode a 29-point second-quarter lead all the way to a 107-89 blowout win to take a 1-0 lead in the Finals. The Mavericks made it interesting, cutting Boston’s lead to eight midway through the third quarter, but the Celtics put an end to that, sprinting away with a 14-0 run to restore Boston’s edge to 20 to start the fourth and Dallas never threatened after that. 

Boston shot 16-of-42 from three, blocked nine shots and had six players in double figures, led by Jaylen Brown with 22. The Mavericks shot 7-of-27 from three and had only nine assists on 35 field goals. Luka Doncic led all scorers with 30 points, but the playoff leader in assists only had one against Boston. 

Game 2 is Sunday night, but for now some takeaways:

1. Turns out Kristaps Porzingis was an important piece for the Celtics. The significance of the seven-foot-three Latvian had kind of slipped from the consciousness given he pulled a muscle in his calf on April 29^th and missed the end of Boston’s first-round against Miami, all of its second-round series against Cleveland and the Eastern Conference Finals win against Indiana.

That Porzingis was out was overlooked somewhat because everyone Boston played was missing a key player or two also: Miami was without Jimmy Butler, the Cavs were without Jarrett Allen and then Donovan Mitchell missed the final few games and Indiana had Tyrese Haliburton for only two games in the conference finals.

For his part, Porzingis was excited to be back.

“Getting that kind of support was unreal, the adrenaline was pumping through my veins and that definitely helped,” said Porzingis after Game 1.

It certainly seemed that way. You could argue that the game was decided when Porzingis checked in with 4:43 left in the first quarter and Boston trailing by one. He went on to deliver a five-minute, two-way masterpiece as he scored 11 of his 20 points on five shots and added two of his three blocked shots as Boston finished the first quarter on a 25-7 run that gave the Celtics a 17-point first quarter lead they never surrendered.

2. So much of the premise that Dallas could be well-positioned to upset the Celtics hinged on the idea of Doncic being the best player in the series and perhaps the best player in the world. There were other factors, but any chance the Mavericks were given and have for the remainder of the series starts and ends with Doncic.

He came into the series leading the playoffs in points, rebounds and assists. He was shooting 44 per cent from three and averaging 29.1 points a game in his last 10 playoff starts, all against Oklahoma City and Minnesota, the fourth-best and best regular season defences, respectively.

But Doncic, who sent the Timberwolves home by himself with his tour de force showing on the road in their elimination win on Game 5, was a non-factor in the early going against the Celtics.

At his best Doncic plays the game at his own pace, slowing the game down and using his size and vision to get any shot he wants or pick the defence apart when they try to take his offence away. But sometimes Doncic looks slow, a little out of shape and getting back on defence seems so, so hard.

Game 1 of the NBA Finals in the Boston Gardens after a six-day layoff is an odd time for ‘Tuesday night in January Luka’ to show up, but that’s how it appeared in the first half against Boston.

It didn’t help that the Celtics looked like they’d been shot out of cannon, with the crowd in Boston lighting the fuse, but the game looked fast for Doncic.

What’s more concerning is that it’s not like Boston was turning its defence inside out to stop him. Jrue Holiday and Jaylen Brown were able to slow him 1-on-1, and there was plenty of help lurking nearby, with Porzingis at the rim. The few times Doncic drew mismatches on switches, he hardly punished them. He had 17 of his 30 points on 7-of-14 shooting in the first half but had only one assist and three turnovers. He wasn’t able to connect for lobs, his pet play, or find his teammates for corner threes, Dallas’s lifeblood during the playoffs to this point.

Boston was down by 21 and it didn’t feel like Doncic had imprinted the game. He was front-and-centre when Dallas started the third quarter on a 22-9 run to cut the lead to eight, but without being able to involve his teammates, it wasn’t sustainable.

3. It was a bad time for Kyrie Irving’s disappearing act.  

The other primary reason that Dallas is considered better than your average underdog is that after six or seven seasons when Irving’s off-court kerfuffles (and injuries) took the focus off his on-court brilliance, the 2016 champion is playing some of the best basketball of his career.

But it was after winning that title alongside LeBron James in Cleveland that his career took a turn: he forced his way out of Cleveland, soured the well in Boston, was a constant source of distractions in Brooklyn and was considered damaged goods when he arrived in Dallas at the trade deadline in 2023.

One of the subplots leading into the series was how Irving would handle the vitriol from the Boston crowd.

“You just got to breathe through it,” was his strategy heading into Game 1. “To all my youngins out there that are dealing with some of the crowd reactions, what they’re saying to you, you have to breathe, realize that is not as hostile as you think it is. Don’t overthink it.

“Been able to work through that and understand that some of that is anxiety, some of that is nervousness. It could all be turned into a strength. There’s no fear out here, man. It’s basketball. The fans are going to say what they’re going to say. I appreciate them and the relationship they have to the game. But it’s about the players at the end of the day.”

If it wasn’t the crowd, maybe it was rust. Whatever the case, Irving came out flat. He was 3-of-9 in the first half. He dribbled a ball off his foot early in the third quarter, evidence of how out of sync he was.  The Mavericks need Irving to be Robin to Doncic’s Batman, but it didn’t happen early or often enough. He finished with 12 points on 6-of-19 shooting, which not going to be nearly enough if Dallas is going to push Boston.

4. Jaylen Brown: It’s not very often that an All-NBA forward and three-time all-star can win the Eastern Conference Finals MVP and arrive in the NBA Finals as somewhat of an afterthought. But such is the plight of Jaylen Brown, who — fairly or not — plays second fiddle to Jayson Tatum on his own team and to Doncic and Irving in the build-up to this series.

Now, don’t feel too badly for him — the five-year, $304-million contract Brown signed last summer was the largest in NBA history at the time — but in other circumstances, Brown would be the marquee name, rather than co-star.

More games like he played in Game 1 in this series and Brown will have a Finals MVP trophy to go along with his Eastern Conference Finals award.

At exactly the moment Boston needed him, Brown stepped up.

After a Doncic triple had cut Boston’s lead to eight with 4:28 left in the third quarter, Brown went to work. He bullied his way into the defence and earned himself a couple of pulse-settling trips to the free-throw line. He then blocked high-flyer Derrick Jones Jr. on an alley-oop and got him again at the rim when he tried to dunk again on the same possession, Brown then found Al Horford for a three. Finally, he counted another block on Irving and then hit a pull-up three from the top of the circle to complete the pivotal 14-0 run.

It was two-way basketball at its best, delivered by — in theory — Boston’s second-best player, and a live example of why the Celtics overall lineup quality might be too much for Dallas in the series.

5. Tatum is the Celtics star and looks every inch the kind of player who can win MVP awards and Finals MVPs by the fistful. He’s got size, athleticism, skill and has shown many times in his still-young career the ability to deliver giant games in giant moments.

But if there is a niggling question around Tatum compared to the other very top players in the game it’s that his feel — specifically his passing ability — isn’t quite at the level of the NBA’s upper-tier of game changers. In the 2022 Finals Tatum made 23 turnovers as Boston lost in six games to the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors felt they could force him into mistakes and were proven right. It was a problem for Brown too, as he gave the ball away 20 times in that series.

As well as everything went for Boston in Game 1, the one blemish was that Tatum coughed the ball up six times against five assists (Brown had two turnovers against his two assists). It’s too early to suggest it’s a weakness that the Mavericks can exploit — most of them seemed to be from Tatum trying too hard to make an extra pass, or just being careless driving through traffic — but I’d be surprised if they don’t try to make Tatum a passer in Game 2 and see if the turnovers keep adding up.

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