Unfortunately, the NBA season is coming to an end with the NBA Finals starting tonight between the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks. This is a fun and interesting series as there is a lot of interconnectivity between the two teams. Kyrie and Kristaps playing against their former teams, the two teams that got rid of Grant Williams, the BOSSMAN99 Bowl, the list goes on and on. The Celtics breezed through the crippled eastern conference finals, while the Mavericks beat 3 50 win teams to earn their spot. Let’s breakdown the matchup and I will give my prediction at the end of the article.
The Boston Celtics beat up on their Eastern Conference foes en route to the NBA Finals. There has been plenty of talk about the Celtics beating no one and had an easy road to the finals but they did win 64 games in the regular season and have been favored to win the Finals since the season began in October. In my opinion, the Celtics have the best starting 5 since the 2018 Warriors. Led by Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brown, the J’s are joined by Derrick White and the two giant offseason additions in Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis. Having 5 All-Star caliber players is unheard of in today’s NBA. On paper, the Celtics should dominate every team they play. They have lost less than 25 games total this season but something about them still doesn’t pass the eye test. They seem to collapse sometimes in the clutch and are not a deep team. The Celtics have been the most consistent team since Tatum was drafted and now he has another chance to get his first ring and cement himself as one of the biggest superstars in the NBA. One of the more interesting teams, the Celtics have all the pressure on them to win this series.
I really liked what the Mavericks did this offseason starting with the NBA Draft when they offloaded Bertans contract for Derrick Lively. I loved what they did at the trade deadline when they traded for PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford. I even tweeted on 2/8 “Winners (of the trade deadline) had to be the Knicks and the Mavericks.” I was a big fan of the trade deadline acquisitions and the two of them have seemlesly joined Luka and Kyrie in the starting lineup to help lead the Mavs to their first finals appearance since 2011. I was not surprised by this run either as I preidicted before the playoffs started that the Mavs would make it to the Western Conference Finals.
Luka and Kyrie have been so much fun to watch this playoff run taking turns hitting big shots and taking over different quarters. Kyrie has matured into a great leader for the rest of the young team. I am excited to see Kyrie play against his former team where no love is lost between Kai and the city of Boston. The Mavs bench, led by the rookie Derrick Lively, has been solid and Maxi Kleber coming back during the WCF should give them a nice boost. I wonder if we will see Tim Hardaway Jr this series as he got benched against the Twolves.
The best part about the Celtics starting 5 is the way they can defend the perimeter. With Jrue and Derrick White both earning second team all defense honors this year, they give opposing guards trouble. Both Tatum and Brown are also great defenders when they want to be and I expect this to be the difference in the games. Luka Doncic is the best player in the NBA and there isn’t anyone that can guard him, especially with Kyrie Irving, two knockdown corner shooters and hyper-athletic bigs but the Celtics have the depth at guard to be able to throw different looks at Luka and Kyrie. The guards of the Celtics are all threats to score as well meaning Luka and Kyrie are going to have to work on both ends of the floor. I fully expect Luka to get his in each game and it is likely that the games will be decided by the Kyrie, DJJ, and PJ Washington’s ability to knockdown open shots.
Luka seemed very hurt in the Minnesota series and even though he had a week off to recover, if he is not 100%, it is going to be tough to carry the Mavs to a championship. Even through the pain, Luka is the best player in the series, but, I feel that the Celtics are the more well rounded team. Derrick White will provide to be the ultimate X-Factor in this series making big plays on both side of the ball. If the Celtics can take care of business in the clutch and not run dumb isolations like they did against Indiana, they shouldn’t have a problem. The Celtics also can ease Porzingis back as Al Horford has turned into a knockdown three point shooter and is hungry to win his first ring in his 17 year career.
I expect the Boston Celtics to win the NBA Finals in 6 games and Jayson Tatum to win his first Finals MVP. Tatum has been on the cusp of superstardom in the NBA since he dunked on Lebron in his rookie year during the ECF but has not gotten over the hump. The NBA seems to be obsessed with finding the “next face of the league” but Tatum is not mentioned in these conversations. Winning the Finals MVP and then going to Paris to win gold this summer will surmount Tatum on top of the basketball world. I understand all the talk about Tatum being drafted to a superteam and all of that but it is Tatum’s team and I expect him to prove that this series. This Celtics team is built for a championship and grew a lot since their loss to the Warriors in the 2022 Finals. I am super excited to watch this finals even though the outcome of the Finals doesn’t really matter to me.
Not mentioned in the article but I am hoping to see Payton Pritchard and Jaden Hardy matchup. Two of my favorite offense players that get limited run to watch, it should be a fun little sub-matchup to the real basketball sickos.
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