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Saturday, June 15, 2024
Mavericks Rout Celtics, Avoid Being Swept
The Boston Celtics' coronation will have to wait at least one more game; after taking a 3-0 NBA Finals lead, the Celtics suffered a record-setting 122-84 loss to the Dallas Mavericks. The defeat snapped Boston's franchise record 10 game playoff winning streak and prevented the Celtics from becoming the first team to ever notch a sweep in the Conference Finals and the NBA Finals in the same postseason. Luka Doncic scored a game-high 29 points in just 33 minutes on 12-26 field goal shooting while also grabbing five rebounds, passing for five assists, and committing just one turnover. Dallas Coach Jason Kidd provided a not so subtle rebuttal to Doncic’s critics by correctly noting that Doncic played the same excellent way that he usually does. Kyrie Irving had his second good game in a row at home after being a nonfactor in games one and two on the road; he finished with 21 points, six assists, and four rebounds. The Mavericks emptied their bench for the entire fourth quarter, so their other individual numbers are skewed by what Marv Albert would call "extensive garbage time."
The Celtics shot 29-80 (.362) from the field. Jayson Tatum was their leading scorer with just 15 points on 4-10 field goal shooting. Jaylen Brown (10 points on 3-12 field goal shooting) and Jrue Holiday (10 points on 4-10 field goal shooting) were their only other starters who scored in double figures. The Celtics jacked up 41 three pointers and were outscored in the paint 60-26. They missed the imposing presence of the injured Kristaps Porzingis at both ends of the court, but the larger issue is that they played like a team enjoying a three game cushion while the Mavericks played like a team facing not only elimination but humiliation.
Despite frequent talk about "clutch statistics," the reality is that the NBA is often a first quarter league--and this game is an excellent example of that, with Dallas never looking back after jumping out to a 34-21 lead in the first 12 minutes. The Mavericks led 61-35 at halftime as Doncic poured in 25 points to break Dirk Nowitzki's franchise record for points in one half of an NBA Finals game. The Mavericks had the second largest lead at the end of the third quarter in NBA Finals history (92-60), and they ended up enjoying the third largest win in NBA Finals history.
After game three, ESPN's Brian Windhorst led the charge of the bloviators bleating about how terrible Doncic is and how Doncic must dramatically alter his game to ever have a chance of leading the Mavericks to an NBA title. Doncic had 27 points on 11-27 field goal shooting in 38 minutes in game three, with six rebounds, six assists, and three turnovers--numbers that are virtually identical to his game four statistics--but much will be made of how Doncic "responded to the critics" in game four when the reality is that he has been Dallas' best player throughout this season, this postseason, and this series; the difference in game four is that he received a lot more help from his teammates at both ends of the court.
In the wake of game four, the predictable narrative is that Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are failures because they did not lead the Celtics to a sweep, ignoring the fact that NBA Finals sweeps are rare: there have been just nine of them—little more than one per decade in the league’s history, and just three since 1996—with Bill Russell notching just one in his record-setting 11 championship runs, and Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Michael Jordan never achieving an NBA Finals sweep. Jordan's 1996 Chicago Bulls--arguably the greatest NBA team of all-time with Hall of Famers Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman alongside Jordan--took a 3-0 NBA Finals lead only to suffer back to back losses before winning game six. The 1982 L.A. Lakers led by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson won their first nine playoff games and enjoyed a 3-1 NBA Finals lead versus Julius Erving's Philadelphia 76ers before losing game five, 135-102. Abdul-Jabbar scored just six points in that loss, and Magic Johnson had 10 points on 4-9 field goal shooting with a game-high five turnovers. The Lakers won game six 114-104 to clinch their second title in three years en route to winning five championships in the 1980s.
It is funny to listen to the talking heads/screaming heads and observe how little they know about basketball history and how little they understand about the natural ebbs and flows of competition. Every possession and every game is not a referendum on a player's legacy, and to suggest otherwise is to demonstrate that one is more interested in providing clickbait than in providing intelligent analysis. The first letter in ESPN stands for "entertainment," not intelligence, and the network decided a long time ago to prioritize sound and fury over logic and reason, with Hubie Brown and Tim Legler being rare, welcome exceptions--but Brown has a reduced role now, and Legler is mostly relegated to cameo SportsCenter appearances.
Despite all of the ranting and raving to the contrary, momentum does not exist in an NBA playoff series; the Danny Ainge quip from decades ago is still apt: This is not the Tour de France. In other words, a team that wins by 38 points does not start the next game with a 38 point lead, unlike riders who win a Tour de France stage. Game five will likely have a different flow and tone, and the Celtics will likely finish off the Mavericks to clinch their record 18th NBA title.
Celtics Deliver Knockout After Withstanding Mavericks' Initial Punch
The Dallas Mavericks opened game three of the NBA Finals by hitting the Boston Celtics with a 22-9 punch, but the Celtics delivered a knockout by posting a 106-99 win to drop the Mavericks into a 3-0 hole from which no NBA team has ever recovered. The Celtics are the fourth team to take a 3-0 lead in each of the last two playoff series in a season, joining the 1983 Philadelphia 76ers, the 1996 Chicago Bulls, and the 2017 Golden State Warriors. If the Celtics win on Friday night, they will become the first such team to sweep both series.
Jayson Tatum scored a team-high 31 points while also contributing six rebounds and five assists. Jaylen Brown had an even better all-around game (30 points, team-high eight rebounds, game-high eight assists). Tatum did most of his damage early, registering 20 first half points, while Brown poured in 24 second half points. Tatum and Brown became the first Celtics duo to each post a 30-5-5 stat line in an NBA Finals game. Derrick White was the only other Celtic who scored in double figures (16 points). Kristaps Porzingis, the MVP of game one and a major factor at both ends of the court, missed game three with a rare lower leg injury suffered late in game two of the NBA Finals. His absence was particularly felt on the boards--Dallas outrebounded Boston, 43-36--and in the paint (Dallas outscored Boston 52-36 in the paint), but the Celtics are so big and talented that they can survive without a player who would be the second option on some very good playoff teams.
Kyrie Irving finally showed up three games into a series that may only last four games, and he scored a game-high 35 points on 13-28 field goal shooting. Luka Doncic added 27 points, but he shot just 11-27 from the field before fouling out with 4:12 remaining in the fourth quarter. He also had six rebounds and a team-high six assists. Those are good boxscore numbers for most players, but they are also acceptable numbers from Boston's perspective considering that the Celtics are containing the 2024 regular season scoring champion primarily with single coverage, which limits the lob dunks and corner three pointers that are the twin cornerstones of the Mavericks' offense. P.J. Washington had 13 points on 3-9 field goal shooting, and he grabbed eight rebounds. Dereck Lively II contributed 11 points on 5-6 field goal shooting and a game-high 13 rebounds off of the bench.
This game was even more of a roller coaster ride than usual for an NBA that has become overrun with high variance three point shooting, but the one constant is that Boston's size poses a lot of problems for Dallas. Correctly deployed size leads to high percentage shots in the paint, wide open three pointers after the opposing defense collapses into the paint, and low percentage shots for a smaller team forced to pass and shoot against long, outstretched arms. Doncic (13 points) and Irving (nine points) came out blazing in the first quarter as the Mavericks built that early 13 point lead, but Tatum countered with 13 first quarter points as Boston trimmed the margin to 31-30 by the end of the opening stanza. The second quarter was a 20-20 tie, but Boston dominated the third quarter 35-19 while shooting 13-20 (.650) from the field, including 5-11 (.455) from three point range. The three point shooting catches the eyes of casual fans and "stat gurus," but the real story is Boston's suffocating defense that limited Dallas to 8-21 (.381) field goal shooting and that has not yet given up 100 points to the Mavericks in a game.
Just when the Celtics seemed poised to blow out the Mavericks, the Celtics lapsed into poor fourth quarter shooting (7-18, .389) and sloppy ballhandling (five turnovers) as the Mavericks wiped out what had been a 21 point deficit to trail by just one point (93-92) after Irving nailed a jumper at the 3:37 mark. The Celtics closed the game with a 13-7 run, limiting Irving to just two points in that critical stretch.
The story of this game--and this series thus far--is Boston's great defense, but there are media members who are predictably mesmerized by Irving's flashy play. J.J. Redick--who repeatedly slanders the great players of the past while shamelessly acting like Irving's biggest fan--described Irving as a "wizard" and as an "ethical scorer" who does not flop and flail. However, Redick neglected to mention that two major components of Irving's "wizardry" are palming and traveling. Irving's space-creating moves would be much more impressive if he could accomplish them within basketball's traditional rules, because the game he plays now would result in more turnovers than field goals made if Irving played in previous eras when the rules were correctly enforced.
After the game, ESPN's Brian Windhorst declared that Doncic's performance was "unacceptable" and that Dallas can never win a title until Doncic vastly improves his defense and stops complaining so much to the referees. Windhorst is correct that Doncic has reverted to being a defensive liability after playing acceptable defense in earlier playoff series, and Windhorst is also correct that Doncic's whining is not helpful--but Windhorst failed to mention that Irving's plus/minus number in game three was -3, while Doncic's plus/minus number in game three was a team-best +9. Somehow, despite Doncic's "unacceptable" performance the Mavericks won Doncic's 38 minutes by nine points and lost the 10 non-Doncic minutes by 16 points. Further, Windhorst also neglected to note that Irving scored just 28 points on 13-37 (.351) field goal shooting as Dallas
fell into an 0-2 hole versus Boston with eight assists, five turnovers, and a
-22 plus/minus number. Irving shot 0-8 from three point range and 2-2
from the free throw line in the first two games of this series, meaning that he was not successful from either
long range or by drawing fouls.
If Irving were as great as his fans suggest, then Doncic fouling out of game three should not have been fatal. In game four of the 2000 NBA Finals, Kobe Bryant took over after Shaquille O'Neal fouled out, leading the Lakers to a 120-118 overtime win and a commanding 3-1 series lead en route to a 4-2 series win.
Windhorst's Doncic-bashing combined with white glove treatment of Irving only makes sense when you realize that LeBron James loves Kyrie Irving, as recent quotes from James show. Windhorst's media career is founded on following James around and presenting whatever narratives best suit James. Criticizing Irving would not sit well with James, so Windhorst knows the assignment. "Windy" is too busy blowing hot air to fairly assess Irving's play, let alone bother to mention Irving's unrepentant antisemitism and Irving's profiting from Chinese human rights abuses, two storylines that are very relevant not only in the big picture but in this series because Irving literally wears his passions on his head, around his neck, and on his feet; Irving openly advertises how he thinks and feels, but no one who is on James' payroll is going to ask questions that punch holes in the popular Irving redemption narrative.
In my series preview, I picked Boston to beat Dallas because the Tatum-Brown duo is superior to the Doncic-Irving duo, and because Boston has the league's best, most versatile starting lineup. Doncic is a great player, and Irving has flashes of greatness, but Tatum and Brown are bigger and more athletic while also being much more committed to playing elite defense. Regardless of what the talking heads say--and fail to say--the reality is that Tatum and Brown are getting the job done at both ends of the court, while Doncic and Irving have to battle to get off quality shots before being hunted on defense.
Even without Porzingis, the Celtics do not look like a team that will make history by blowing a 3-0 NBA Finals lead--and the Mavericks do not look like a team capable of beating the Celtics four straight times.
Jerry West passed away Wednesday morning at the age of 86. Younger fans may not understand why West's silhouette has been embedded in the NBA's official logo for over 50 years, but even a brief review of West's accomplishments makes it clear that West is not only one of the greatest basketball players ever but one of the most important people in basketball history.
West earned induction in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in three separate roles: as a player (1980), as a member of the Team USA squad that won the gold medal in the 1960 Olympics (2010), and as a contributor (2024, in what will now be a posthumous honor). He was one of 11 players selected to the NBA's 35th Anniversary Team (1980). West was also selected to the NBA's 50 Greatest Players List (1996), and the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team (2021).
West made the All-Star team in each of his 14 seasons, he earned 10 All-NBA First Team selections (tied for fourth all-time behind only LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Karl Malone), he won the 1970 scoring title, he won the 1972 assist title, and he made the All-Defensive Team in each of the first five seasons that honor was presented at the end of his career (1969-73). West was the third player to surpass the 25,000 point plateau, and he retired with the third highest regular season scoring average (27.0 ppg), trailing
only Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor. West finished second in regular season MVP voting four times in an era when only one non-center (Oscar Robertson, 1964) won an MVP between 1957 and 1981.
West finished his playing career with a 1-8 NBA Finals record, but he
earned the nickname "Mr. Clutch" because of his tremendous performances
in the biggest games. West declared, "If it comes down to one shot, I like to shoot the
ball. I don't worry about it. If it doesn't go in, it doesn't go in." West holds the career NBA Finals scoring record
(1679 points), ahead of LeBron James (1562), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1317),
and Michael Jordan (1176). West has the third highest career NBA Finals scoring average (30.5 ppg), trailing only Rick Barry (36.3 ppg) and Michael Jordan (33.6 ppg). West won the inaugural NBA Finals MVP award in 1969, and he remains the only player to earn that honor as a member of the losing team.
Robertson and West ranked 1-2 (in whatever order you prefer) all-time among guards until well into the 1980s when Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan made their marks.
Baylor and West were known as "Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside," and they are still one of the greatest duos in NBA history. West was a big-time scorer while playing alongside Baylor, but when Baylor missed all but five minutes of the 1965 playoffs West took his game to a record-setting level, averaging 46.3 ppg on .453 field goal shooting as the Lakers won 4-2 versus the Baltimore Bullets in the Western Division Finals. West then scored 33.8 ppg versus the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals, but Bill Russell and a lineup filled with other Hall of Famers crew beat the Lakers, 4-1. Russell's Celtics were West's greatest nemesis, defeating West's Lakers six times in the NBA Finals.
Chamberlain joined Baylor and West for the 1968-69 season, but by that stage of their careers those three players were rarely fully healthy at the same time. The otherwise incredibly durable Chamberlain missed 70 games during the 1969-70 season because of a knee injury, and during the trio's four seasons together with the Lakers, Baylor played in 76, 54, two, and nine games before retiring early in that fourth season. Without Baylor, but alongside Chamberlain and Gail Goodrich, West finally won an NBA title in 1972 as a key member of one of the NBA's greatest single season teams; the Lakers won a still-record 33 straight regular season games before storming through the postseason with a 12-3 mark, including a 4-1 rout of a New York Knicks team that won NBA titles in 1970 and 1973.
West is a member of my basketball Pantheon, and is without question one of the top five guards of all-time, along with fellow Pantheon members (listed chronologically) Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and Kobe Bryant.
West, Johnson, and Hakeem Olajuwon are the only players to win an NBA
Finals MVP, an NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player award, and an
Olympic gold medal.
How great was West? Picture Stephen Curry with an excellent vertical
leap and elite defensive skills--or, as West put it, "A wolf who ate
dogs":
I described West's 2011 book West by Westas "a unique contribution to sports literature: it is not an autobiography
or even an 'as told to' story; West writes (p. XII), 'the approach that I
have taken, in collaboration with Jonathan Coleman, is one that is
built on deep reportage...nothing less than a full-scale attempt to
bring forth the truth, to rely not just on my recollection of things,
but to do something more ambitious: investigate myself, speak with
others, and come to grips with what I find.'" I encourage anyone who is not familiar with West's life and career to read my review--and then to read West's book.
West was an important basketball figure from the late 1950s when he was a collegiate star at West Virginia through 2024 when he served as an executive with the L.A. Clippers until his death. After his playing career ended, he posted a 145-101 record in three seasons as the Lakers coach, including the best record in the league (53-29) in the 1976-77 season. West then moved to the Lakers front office and played a major role in building two of the greatest dynasties of the past 40 years: the Showtime Lakers won five NBA titles in the 1980s, and the Shaq/Kobe Lakers of the early 2000s won three straight championships. West felt disrespected by Lakers Coach Phil Jackson, and West moved on to Memphis, where he built the Grizzlies into a 50 win team in 2004 after the franchise had never won more than 28 games in each of its first eight years of existence. He then worked in the Golden State Warriors front office during that team's 2015 and 2017 championship seasons. West only won the Executive of the Year award twice (1995 with the Lakers, 2004 with the Grizzlies), and I agree with former Utah executive Scott Layden, who declared that the award should be named after West; a strong case could be made that West is the greatest executive in NBA history, if not North American team sports history.
It is a cliche to call a person "unique": few people have qualities
that are unusual or rare, and even fewer people fit the literal
definition of "unique" by being truly "one of a kind."
Jerry West's combined record as a player, coach, and executive is unique: no one else has ever played at an elite level in the NBA, then coached a team to the best record in the NBA, and then built multiple NBA championship teams as an executive.
Jerry West will be deeply missed, but never forgotten.
Kyrie Irving's Unrepentant Antisemitism and his Profiting from Chinese Human Rights Abuses Are Ignored by Most Media Outlets
Kyrie Irving arrived to game two of the NBA Finals carrying a keffiyeh. This is not the first time that Irving has displayed a keffiyeh at an NBA game; regardless of what the garment may have represented in the past, what it represents now is support for Hamas' October 7, 2023 mass casualty terrorist attack against Israel, and Hamas' declaration of its intent to perpetrate such attacks "again and again and again" until Israel is destroyed. Irving has also worn a necklace with a map of Israel covered by a Palestinian flag, and after the October 7 attack he has been silent about Jewish victims but instead posted to social media, "Where are all you tough talking Media Heads
that get on TV and social platforms to condemn people who stand by the
oppressed?? Crimes are being committed against humanity and most of you
are silent. Cat got your tongue? Or you’re afraid of actually standing
for something real." Thus, Irving not only blatantly ignores the full dimension of the atrocities committed by Hamas, but he falsely accuses Israel of war crimes while advocating--via the symbols he proudly wears--the replacement of Israel with a Palestinian state (i.e., advocating genocide of Jews). Anti-Zionism is antisemitism, and Irving is a raving anti-Zionist who is not criticizing specific Israeli policies but rather advocating that Israel be destroyed and replaced by a Palestinian Arab state.
It would be considered unacceptable for an NBA player to deny the horrors of the Transatlantic slave trade, or to post social media comments making false allegations against Black people, so it is also unacceptable for an NBA player to openly display antisemitism--and Irving's conduct documented above demonstrates that he is antisemitic.
Irving has the right to wear or display whatever garments he wants to wear/display, but the NBA also has a right--and an obligation--to make clear where it stands. The NBA has been very vocal about supporting Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ rights, and other selected causes, so its silence about surging antisemitism is noteworthy and disturbing. The Mavericks' majority owner, Miriam Adelson, is Jewish, as is minority owner Mark Cuban, and it is disappointing that using Irving's talents to try to win an NBA title is apparently more important to them than the deplorable stances that Irving takes regarding the Jewish people and Israel.
I have often written about racism and the Civil Rights Movement, and I have drawn attention to movies like "Black Magic" that powerfully describe history that must never be forgotten. I have written about Chinese human rights abuses, as noted above. Collectively, the Jewish people have been vocal supporters of the Civil Rights Movement, and some Jews paid the ultimate price for such support. Jews spoke out for Blacks because it is the right thing to do, without expecting anything in return--but the widespread and growing antisemitism in the Black community, as reflected in the support that Irving receives in the Black community for his antisemitism, is very disappointing.
Between games one and two of the NBA Finals, Vince Goodwill asked Boston Coach Joe Mazzulla a rambling, incoherent questions about Black NBA coaches, and then Goodwill wrote a rambling, incoherent column after Mazzulla failed to take the (race) bait. Does Goodwill's attempted foray into social advocacy extend to antisemitism and to Chinese persecution of Uighur Muslims, or does he specialize in selective outrage calculated to bring maximum attention to himself? I have mixed feelings about giving Goodwill the attention that he craves, but he is already a national media figure, so calling him out for failing to ask the most important questions is important even if that gives him more attention.
Goodwill is not alone in his selective approach regarding bigotry and persecution. Will Brian Windhorst, Dave McMenamin, Mike Wilbon, Stephen A. Smith, or any of the other national media members covering the NBA Finals report about Irving's antisemitism and Irving's promotion of shoes built by Chinese companies that are flagrant abusers of human rights?
Chet Walker Made a Significant Impact on and off the Court
Chet Walker--a key member of Philadelphia's 1967 NBA championship team that set a since-broken record for regular season wins (68)--passed away on Saturday at the age of 84 after a long illness. Sam Smith, who now works for Bulls.com after making his name covering the team for the Chicago Tribune and writing the best selling book The Jordan Rules, penned a must-read tribute to Walker, tracing the arc of Walker's life from childhood in Mississippi and Michigan to leading Bradley University to the 1960 NIT title to a great NBA career highlighted by seven All-Star selections, an 18.2 ppg career scoring average, and tremendous durability (he played at least 76 games in each of his 13 NBA seasons). Walker played seven seasons for the Syracuse Nationals/Philadelphia 76ers before playing six seasons for the Chicago Bulls. Walker averaged at least 21.5 ppg in each of his first three seasons with the Bulls, and he set a franchise single game regular season scoring record (56 points) that stood from 1972 until Michael Jordan scored 58 points in a 1987 game.
Walker was one of the "NBA 14" who paved the way for the huge contracts that today's players enjoy, but Walker's activism came at a price: his career ended abruptly when no team would sign Walker after a 1975 season during which he averaged 19.2 ppg in 76 games, and he had to wait a long time before being inducted in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, an honor that he belatedly received in 2012. Walker chose Billy Cunningham, Adrian Dantley, Earl Monroe, and Isiah Thomas as his presenters, and those four legends represent a cross section of Walker's impressive life on and off the basketball court: Cunnningham was his teammate, Dantley incorporated Walker's moves into his Hall of Fame caliber arsenal, Monroe played against Walker in the late 1960s through the mid-1970s, and Thomas shares Chicago roots with Walker. Walker produced "A Mother's Courage: The Mary Thomas Story," a movie about Isiah Thomas' mother that won an Emmy.
Years ago, I asked Cunningham--a teammate of Walker's on Philadelphia's 1967 championship team who later coached the incomparable Julius Erving on Philadelphia's 1983 championship team--to compare those two legendary squads, and he told me, "Dr. J would match up against Chet Walker.
Julius was obviously better in the open court offensively than Chet and
a better shot blocker. Chet was a better one-on-one player offensively
and would probably try to post up Julius and do things like that." I asked Cunningham to elaborate about the Erving-Walker comparison, and he replied, "Julius was the greatest open court player who ever played. Chet Walker
was a better jump shooter and he had, I think, a little bit more of an
arsenal in the set offense. But by no means am I taking anything away
from Julius Erving."
There is statistical evidence supporting Cunningham's description of Walker's offensive arsenal. Walker finished in the top 20 in field goal percentage six times--including sixth during Philadelphia's 1967 championship season--and he ranked in the top 10 in free throw percentage six times, including leading the NBA in that category in 1970-71. Walker ranked in the top 10 in free throws made seven times. Walker was a dependable third scoring option (19.3 ppg) behind Wilt Chamberlain (24.1 ppg) and Hal Greer (22.1 ppg) on the 1967 championship team, and when the Bulls needed a clutch basket during the early 1970s they usually relied on Walker.
Jaylen Brown would not be a $300 million player without Walker's sacrifices. A role player like J.J. Redick who shamelessly mocks the basketball stars from the past would not be a famous multi-millionaire without Walker's sacrifices that helped transform the NBA into a multi-billion dollar business. It would be great if Brown, Redick, and everyone else who benefits from the NBA's huge pot of gold acknowledged their debt to Walker and the other members of the "NBA 14."
Balanced Celtics Overcome Doncic's Triple Double to Take 2-0 Lead
Luka Doncic's seventh triple double of the 2024 NBA playoffs was not enough to prevent the Boston Celtics from beating his Dallas Mavericks 105-98 to take a 2-0 NBA Finals lead before the series shifts to Dallas for games three and four. It is a bad sign for the Mavericks that the Celtics won despite narrowly losing the rebounding battle (43-41) and shooting just 10-39 (.256) from three point range; this was the Celtics' "B" game at best, and they still nearly won by double digits. In game one,
the Celtics were at their best while building the largest first quarter
lead (37-20) in NBA Finals history before cruising to a 107-89 win, but in game two the Celtics demonstrated that they are so superior to the Mavericks in terms of overall size and in terms of having multiple players who are elite at both ends of the court that they have sufficient margin for error to win without being at their best.
Boston's Jrue Holiday was the best all-around guard--and perhaps the
best all-around player--in game two with a team-high 26 points on 11-14
field goal shooting, a game-high 11 rebounds, three assists, and no
turnovers in 41 minutes. Milwaukee's trade of Jrue Holiday for Damian Lillard--which resulted in Boston acquiring Holiday from Portland--turned out to be disastrous for the Bucks and a blessing for the Celtics. Holiday has 38 points and no turnovers so far in this series, the second most points with no turnovers in the first two games of the NBA Finals since the NBA began tracking individual turnovers in the 1977-78 season, trailing only Michael Jordan (70 points and no turnovers in the first two games of the 1998 NBA Finals, also known as the Chicago Bulls' "Last Dance.").
Jaylen Brown had another strong game, contributing 21 points, seven assists, and four rebounds, with the only blemish being his team-high six turnovers. "Stat gurus" who worship "advanced basketball statistics" may focus on Jayson Tatum's 6-22 field goal shooting, but Tatum had a game-high 12 assists plus nine rebounds; his defense, rebounding, and playmaking were crucial for Boston, and his 18 points on inefficient shooting were a bonus. Numbers matter, but what matters more is that Tatum impacts the game at both ends of the court, and that his talent distorts Dallas' defense, creating open high percentage shots for his teammates (even on plays for which Tatum did not earn assists). Derrick White added 18 points and five rebounds. Game one hero Kristaps Porzingis had 12 points, four rebounds, and two blocked shots in 23 minutes before sitting out the final 4:40 of the game after tweaking his lower left leg. Porzingis missed 10 straight playoff games with a right calf strain, so his health status is a cause for concern for Boston even though he insisted right after the game that he will play in game three no matter what.
Doncic led the Mavericks in scoring (32 points), rebounding (11 rebounds) and assists (11), but he had a game-high eight turnovers and his 12-21 field goal shooting is a testament to his immense talent, because he had to work very hard for every shot that he made. The Celtics defended Doncic one on one for the most part, with Brown and Tatum shouldering the bulk of the load and each doing an excellent job even though Doncic posted gaudy boxscore numbers. P.J. Washington had a solid game (17 points, seven rebounds), but Kyrie Irving again fell well short of expectations, finishing with 16 points on 7-18 field goal shooting. He added six assists but he still has not made a three point field goal in this series, and his 2-2 free throw shooting marked his first free throw attempts in two games versus Boston's elite defense; the Irving redemption narrative being forced down our throats by many media members is on hold for at least one more game--but even if Irving plays well in game three his unrepentant antisemitism and his complicity with China's slave labor policies/widespread human rights abuses should not be forgiven or forgotten; those things are much more important than how well he shoots or how his team performs.
It is fair to say that we need a recount on the assertion by TNT's Stan Van Gundy that Doncic and Irving are the best offensive backcourt of all-time; so far in this series, they have been the best offensive backcourt for one quarter out of eight: in the first quarter of game two, Doncic (13 points on 5-7 field goal shooting) and Irving (eight points on 4-5 field goal shooting) staked the Mavericks to a 28-25 lead before combining to score 27 points on 10-27 field goal shooting the rest of the way.
The biggest threat to the Celtics' championship hopes is their propensity for squandering too many offensive possessions with low percentage three pointers early in the shot clock; such shots are not conducive for team success in general, and they are particularly senseless in this series when the Celtics enjoy such pronounced matchup advantages every time Brown, Holiday, or Tatum attack the hoop off of the dribble. The Mavericks are just not able to consistently stay in front of Brown, Holiday, or Tatum, which results in either high percentage close range field goal attempts or else high percentage drive and kick three pointers (which are much better shots than three pointers jacked up early in the shot clock without first challenging the Mavericks in the paint).
Dallas fans may say that the Celtics merely did what they were supposed to do at home and that the Mavericks can get back in this series by holding serve at home, but the reality is that teams that have taken a 2-0 NBA Finals lead won the series 31 out of 36 times--and the five exceptions to that historical rule featured all-time greats Bill Russell (1969 Celtics), Bill Walton (1977 Trail Blazers), Dwyane Wade (2006 Heat), LeBron James (2016 Cavaliers), and Giannis Antetokounmpo (2021 Milwaukee Bucks). If the Mavericks will four of the next five games, it will be because Doncic has one of the greatest Finals performances of all-time and because the Celtics drifted away from high percentage paint shots to low percentage three point shots.
"A work of art contains its verification in itself: artificial, strained concepts do not withstand the test of being turned into images; they fall to pieces, turn out to be sickly and pale, convince no one. Works which draw on truth and present it to us in live and concentrated form grip us, compellingly involve us, and no one ever, not even ages hence, will come forth to refute them."--Alexander Solzhenitsyn (Nobel Lecture)
"The most 'popular,' the most 'successful' writers among us (for a brief period, at least) are, 99 times out of a hundred, persons of mere effrontery--in a word, busy-bodies, toadies, quacks."--Edgar Allan Poe
"In chess what counts is what you know, not whom you know. It's the way life is supposed to be, democratic and just."--Grandmaster Larry Evans
"It's not nuclear physics. You always remember that. But if you write about sports long enough, you're constantly coming back to the point that something buoys people; something makes you feel better for having been there. Something of value is at work there...Something is hallowed here. I think that something is excellence."--Tom Callahan
