Courtesy of Markus Spiske
The Boston Celtics will go down in history as champions who secured their franchise an 18th title. The Dallas Mavericks, remembered for barely lacking enough firepower to hang a championship banner from the American Airlines Center. As time passes, we forget the individual and team efforts, sacrifices, and chances for history to be entirely rewritten. We shouldn’t let the final game split blind us from recognizing the 76th NBA Finals as a series for the history books.
The storylines that crowded the media cycle were rich for debate. Fox Sports’ talk show “Undisputed” listed Mavericks’ guards Kyrie Irving and Luka Dončić as the “NBA’s ‘greatest scoring duo’ of all-time,” a theory The Dallas Morning News devoted an entire article to. Celtics media spent months questioning if their team could make it over the hump and snap their 16-year championship drought with Head Coach Joe Mazzulla in his first full season coaching professional basketball. This matchup would have been shocking news to NBA fans before the season because the teams seemingly had opposing trajectories. The Celtics were seen as a strong roster from top to bottom, with a combined nine All-Stars amongst their starters, and ended the year with 14 more wins than the second-place team in their conference. In a different vein, the Mavericks were tied for eleventh in championship odds, as per Basketball Reference, and the last season ended in horror as they lost 15 of their last 21 games after trading for Irving. With the series beginning on June 6th, the 64-18 Boston Celtics hosted the 50-32 Dallas Mavericks, leaving global NBA fans in preparation for a David and Goliath matchup for the ages.
Entering game one, Celtic fans were thrilled to hear their all-star center Kristaps Porziņģis would be returning from a calf injury that kept him out for the prior five weeks. Both teams matched each other’s pace from tip-off to halfway through the first quarter. They traded buckets until the Boston defense took control and held the Maverick offense to a meager 41.7% field goal shooting on the quarter, spiraling into a 17-point Celtics lead. The second quarter saw the Celtic defense continue their lockdown while the offense prolonged the barrage, doubling the Mavericks point share. The Mavs ended the half on a 5-0 run to set the score to 63-42. However, the analytics viewed the game as virtually over, giving the Celtics a 97.6% win probability as the teams ran into their respective locker rooms. The halftime break led to some short-lived success for the Maverick offense, cutting the lead to eight before the Celtics rallied, ending the half with a 20-point lead that they commanded until the end of the game. Boston showed respectable numbers in most phases, while Dallas struggled mightily at the three-point line and put up a team assist total that tied for the fourth-lowest in NBA finals history.
Game One showed a Mavericks team that hadn’t been seen all postseason, a fragile, uncoordinated young team easily exposed by forcing the ball away from Dončić and Irving. This uncovering gave the Celtics a 65.5% win probability before the ball was even tipped off. The Mavs captured the lead first, held onto it for the first quarter, and extended into the second, flipping the win probability on its head. However, the Celtic defense held the Mavericks scoreless for over four minutes, catapulting into a three-point lead to end the half. The second half began a competitive battle until, again, Dallas was held to zero points for a significant stretch of the game clock. The fourth quarter saw the Dallas offense attempt to rally, cutting the lead to five with 65 seconds left and possession of the ball. Dallas forward P.J. Washington sprinted for a fast-break layup to cut the lead to three, but Boston forward Derrick White landed the chase-down block to halt the momentum and close out the game. Both teams struggled from the three-point line, but the determining factor in the Celtic victory was their ability to gain possessions off steals and the Mavericks’ poor shooting from the free-throw line.
Game Three was make or break for the Mavericks. Only five teams in NBA finals history have come back from down 0-2, and no team has ever returned from down 0-3. The absence of Porziņģis and the series coming to Dallas gave the Mavericks their best chance to get a game on Boston. The same themes remained from the previous two games, the Dallas offense firing on all cylinders for half a quarter and sputtering out, allowing Boston back into the contest. The second quarter was a back-and-forth, culminating in a one-point lead at the half for the Mavs. After the break, both teams began a scoring frenzy from the paint, with the difference maker in the game being the Boston defense providing time for their offense to get hot and flip the lead decisively in their favor. At the beginning of the fourth, the game looked all but over as Boston extended the lead to 21; however, in a change of pace for the series, it was the Maverick defense that led a 22-2 run that closed the gap to 1 point with three minutes left in regulation. Unfortunately for Maverick fans, a few untimely fouls allowed the Celtics to maintain their lead and close out the third game in the series.
Even without Porziņģis for another game, Boston was the heavy favorite pregame. Even without their center, Boston kept pace until the Mavs took advantage of the diminished two-way versatility Boston had in previous games and led a three-minute 10-0 run. The second quarter saw the continued pouring of points from the Maverick offense and the clamping down from their defense, leading to the score of 50-25 in favor of Dallas. That lead would grow to 26 at halftime and continued into the third quarter when Irving assisted rookie center Dereck Lively II in a wide-open dunk. That play forced coach Mazzulla to call a timeout, sit the starters, and effectively concede there would be no sweep. The fourth quarter did not see the Mavericks slow down. With backup rosters on both ends, guard Tim Hardaway Jr. drained five consecutive three-pointers, tying himself with Warriors guard Steph Curry for the second-most three-pointers in an NBA finals quarter. After another Maverick three, the lead was 48, the largest in an NBA finals game in history. While the Celtics were able to close the lead slightly, the Mavericks now have the record for the third-largest blowout in finals history.
After the game Four beatdown, the possibility for the first 0-3 comeback in NBA finals and playoff history was, while analytically inconceivable, on the table. The fear was that Porziņģis’ return would be enough for Boston to win as Dallas struggled significantly more while he was on the court. Maverick fans and Boston detractors would realize all of those fears because the lead the Celtics gained off the very first shot of the game would be one that would not relinquish through all 48 minutes of regulation. The Mavericks were able to, at a point in the first quarter, close the gap to one point, giving them their highest win probability of the game, a mere 31.8%. The Celtics refused to let off the gas, leaving the opposition playing catch up to the tune of a 21-point lead at the half. The halftime break was not enough for Dallas head coach Jason Kidd to breathe life into his roster. In the third quarter, Boston extended their lead to 26, the largest of the game and one the Mavericks could only cut by eight points by the final buzz of the clock. Even with Dallas outsourcing Boston in both quarters of the second half, the first-half dominance of the Celtics in both phases of the game led to their victory.
The City of Boston was able to cheer as they earned their 18th franchise championship, breaking the tie with the Los Angeles Lakers and becoming the winningest franchise in NBA history. A significant result of the tournament is the Celtics’ ability to retain their core pieces after the game. Finals MVP Jaylen Brown and Kristaps Porziņģis reached a contract extension the previous year, guard Jrue Holiday signed a long-term deal in April, and guard Derek White and forward Jayson Tatum signed multi-year contracts with Boston after the championship. While keeping much of their bench and rotational pieces, Boston has put themselves in a position to return to the finals, a reality Vegas currently anticipates, giving the Celtics the highest championship odds at +300. The Mavericks let pieces like Hardaway Jr. and forward Derrick Jones Jr. walk but made a splash move, signing former Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson for more offensive consistency. While the Dallas team is now 1-2 in finals appearances, Vegas sees them in an advantageous position to return with the 4th highest odds to win the Larry O’Brien Championship trophy. While we are still a year away from analyzing championship contenders, this offseason is one of celebration brought back to New England.
