And then there were two.
In a corner, outside the Eastern Conference: the Boston Celtics. No team won more games than Boston, which went 64-18 in the regular season. That’s quite an accomplishment considering no team has won 60 games in the 2022-23 season. To reach the NBA Finals, the Celtics beat the No. 8 seed Miami heat in five games, the No. 4 seed Cleveland Cavaliers in five games and swept the No. 6 seed Indiana Pacers. Boston didn’t need to face No. 2 New York Knicks or the number 3 seed Milwaukee Buckstwo teams fell against the Pacers.
In the other corner, outside the Western Conference: the Dallas Mavericks. Although the Celtics won’t face a single top-three seed in the playoffs, Dallas made it to the NBA Finals by beating the fourth seed. Los Angeles Clippers in six games, the top seed Oklahoma City Thunder in six games, and the No. 3 seed Minnesota Timberwolves in five matches. Dallas didn’t need to face the second seed Denver Nuggetsthe defending champions who lost a Game 7 to the Timberwolves despite leading by 20 points in the third quarter in the semifinals.
The Celtics will look to break the tie with the Minneapolis the Los Angeles Lakersthe two franchises with 17 NBA championships. Sure, starting in 1959, Boston won eight straight titles (eight titles? Octo-peated?) and nine of the ten NBA titles of the 1960s and has only won one title since 1986, but all of their championships have took place during the shooting. -era of the clock. Standing in his way is a team looking to win its second championship and make its first NBA Finals appearance without involving the Miami Heat and Dwyane Wade; Dallas lost the 2006 Finals (Wade was MVP) but won in 2011 (Dirk Nowitzki was MVP).
There are a lot of numbers to cover over the next week, so here’s a first look at some of them:
1
When it comes to rankings, the Boston Celtics are at the top of the list in several notable categories this season. As part of the NBA’s best offense, the Celtics had the lowest turnover percentage in the league, an advantage they should maintain against a Mavericks defense ranked 17th in opponent turnover percentage. A player to follow here: the shooter Derrick Whitewho led Boston with 5.2 assists per game and averaged just 1.5 turnovers per game.
The only defense better than the Celtics this season was the Timberwolves. But no team has kept opponents from the free throw line as well as Boston. This might not be a problem against the Mavericks since they ranked 13th in free throw attempt rate this season. Boston also led the league for the season in rim protection, although the Mavericks were the better defense in rim protection. after the All-Star break. Who has postponed to playoffs.
33.9
Luka Doncic led the NBA in scoring this season with 33.9 points per game, and he is the first scorer to play in the NBA Finals that season since Stephen Curry in 2016. Curry Warriors of the Golden State won a league-record 73 games and had a 3-1 lead in the 2016 NBA Finals, but the Cleveland Cavaliers fought back to win a Game 7 on the road to winning the championship.
Dončić is trying to be the first scoring champion to win a title in the same season since Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal did it with the Lakers in 2000. Overall, the champions Scorers are 11-8 in NBA Finals, with Hall of Famer. Michael Jordan accounts for six of the 11 wins.
Other players who won a scoring title in the same season they won the league championship: Joe Fulks with the 1947 Warriors, George Mikan with the 1949 and 1950 Lakers, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then known as Lew Alcindor) with the 1971 Bucks.
1,056
The Mavericks averaged 1.056 points per possession on all isolation plays, which was second best in the league behind the LA Clippers, according to Synergy. The Celtics rank third with 1,036 points per possession.
This series features four of the 33 players who have held at least 200 isolation possessions (including passes) this season: Mavericks shooting guard Dončić. Kyrie Irving and the Celtics stars Jayson Tatum And Jaylen Brown. This will be an exceptionally isolation-heavy series between two teams ranked in the bottom 10 in passes per game in the regular season.
16.5
Expect an abundance of 3s in this series. Boston led the league in makes (16.5) this season, while Dallas (14.6) was third behind Golden State in makes. The Celtics also finished first in 3-point attempts (42.5) while Dallas was second (39.5).
What will vary is teams’ approach to hoisting these 3s. By second spectrum, Boston had the most catch-and-shoots per game this season with 11.4, while Dallas ranked 20th (9.0). But Dallas has the leader in pull-up 3s in Dončić, who has made 221 of Dallas’ league-leading 414 pull-up 3s. Boston ranked second behind Dallas in pull-up 3s, with Tatum making 145 pull-up 3s to rank fourth in the league behind Dončić, Curry and Milwaukee Bucks All-Star. Damien Lillard.
Dallas has reduced its 3-point attempts during the season as 44.9% of the Mavericks’ field goal attempts before the All-Star break were 3s, ranking second behind Boston. After the All-Star break and with a bolstered roster of improved bigs in starters PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford, the Mavericks’ 3-point attempts dropped to 42.4 percent, ranking sixth. In the playoffs, 40.9 percent of Dallas’ field goal attempts were 3s, which would have ranked them ninth in the regular season. The Mavericks are still relatively heavy on jump shots, but not as extreme as a Celtics team that has 3-point shooters among its top eight players when fully healthy.
ten
Are the Celtics fully healthy? Downtown Boston Kristaps Porziņģis missed the Celtics’ last 10 Eastern Conference games due to right soleus (calf) strain. With the Celtics winning nine of those 10 games, the former Maverick will be key to Boston having an interior presence on both ends of the court. Porziņģis is an elite rim protector, can space the floor and has a postgame that Dallas fans probably won’t recognize.
During the regular season, Boston averaged 120.3 points per 100 possessions and allowed just 109.4 in the 623 minutes that Porziņģis shared the floor with Tatum, Brown, White and Jrue Vacations. With this same programming, with the exception of Al Horford instead of Porziņģis, Boston only outscored opponents 118.5 to 115.8 per 100 possessions in 311 regular season minutes.
As Porziņģis prepares to face his former team, Irving will be looking to do the same thing as a former Celtic man. This is Irving’s first time back in the Finals after requesting a trade from Cleveland in 2017 that brought him to Boston for two seasons. Irving, the first overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft, already has a championship with the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers. A Mavericks championship would put Irving to join Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton, Mychal Thompson, Magic Johnson, Mark Aguirre, James Worthy, Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, O’Neal, Tim Duncan and LeBron James as the No. 1 pick with multiple NBA championships.
4-0
That’s Boston head coach Joe Mazzulla’s record against Dallas head coach Jason Kidd. Prior to Mazzulla’s promotion to head coach just before 2022 training camp, the Mavericks had beaten the Celtics four straight times. Not only has Mazzulla never lost to the Mavericks, but all of Mazzulla’s wins against Dallas have been by at least nine points.
Additionally, Mavs fans shouldn’t overreact to the first game. Dallas head coach Jason Kidd has lost the series opener five times. The only time he didn’t win the series opener was in the 2022 Western Conference Finals against the eventual champion Warriors. Mazzulla and Kidd have won five of their six series as head coach of their respective current teams.
5
Dallas was the fifth seed in the Western Conference and is the sixth team in NBA history to advance to the Finals as the fifth seed or lower. The previous five teams that reached the finals after being seeded fifth had to do what Dallas faces: face the top seed from the opposite conference:
5 seeds or less, NBA Finals history
2024 #5 Mavericks: TBD vs. #1 Celtics
Heat n°8 2023: lost in 5 against the nuggets n°1
Heat n°5 2020: lost in 6 against the Lakers n°1
1999 #8 Knicks: lost in 5 to #1 Spurs
1995 #6 Rockets: Sweep ???? against #1 Magic
1981 #6 Rockets: lost in 6 against the #1 Celtics– Law Murray ???? (@LawMurrayTheNU) May 31, 2024
Required reading
Cato: Mavericks’ Luka Dončić is on the verge of greatness
Hollinger: In the NBA Finals, the Celtics and Mavs face different challenges than the ones they just conquered
King: How Jaylen Brown used Luka Doncic to improve himself
Weiss: Why Jaylen Brown was surprised to win series MVP
(Photo by Luka Doncic and Jayson Tatum: Brian Babineau / NBAE via Getty Images)
