Thursday, June 6, 2024

2023-2024 NBA Finals: Dallas Mavericks vs Boston Celtics

 2024 NBA Finals: The Finals start tonight as Dallas and Boston go at it.  Noone is surprised Boston is here.  The Boston-Indy series was closer than the sweep looks but still the Pacers were way overmatched.  But again, this was to be expected.  The Celtics are the best team in the East.  A healthy Milwaukee or New York would have been a fun Eastern Conference Finals but it wasn't to be.  Dallas surprised me by tearing through the darling Timberwolves.  And it was all about Luka and Kyrie.  They were great offensively and had zero respect for the Minnesota defense which looked great against Phoenix and Denver.  Dallas was also the hottest team coming into the playoffs.

I like Boston in The Finals.  I get Luka and Kyrie are playing out of their mind.  The Celtics just have too much talent.  That said they can lose this.  Is Porzingis healthy?  Can Al Horford keep up the hot shooting from three?  This will be key to stopping the Maverick bigs from clogging the lane.  The Celtics also have guys who can play defense on almost anyone in the Dallas lineup in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.  That said, Dallas is surging.  Boston will have to play defense and they shoot a lot of threes.  If they go cold the Mavs could easily win this series.  I'm going with Boston in six games and expect close games but I'm not putting money on it.  Let's hope for seven games and plenty of fun games.

8 comments:

  1. I hope the Mavs win, but I think it'll be the Celtics.

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    1. No complaints if Dallas wins but they have their work cut out for them after going down 1-0.

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  2. The Celtics are playing some great basketball this postseason. I think they will win the title in convincing fashion.

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  3. I trust your insights, but will be pulling for Dallas. Grew up a Lakers fan in the 80's and couldn't stand the Celtics.

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    1. I didn't like Boston either. Always beat up on my Hawks and Dominique. After the fact I became a big Larry Bird fan but in the moment I had no love for them.

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  4. I'm also surprised that Dallas made it to the
    Finals, but Celtics look too good with everyone healthy. As usual, I'm hoping for an entertaining series.

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    1. Game 1 wasn't as good as hoped but Dallas tried to make it a game later in the game. Porzingis really looked good on offense and defense but much of his damage was done early on.

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