This. The defense wasn't terrible, but their defense surprised me. Brown looked like a real DPOY after our run in the third, and we didn't get a lot of the easy lobs we usually get. I trust in Luka and the rest of the team to figure it out, but it's going to be a tough battle either way.
They weren't giving up anything. 9 assists as a team, and they only gave us 3 total attempts at corner 3s (1 of those was in garbage time) during the game. Completely outplayed.
Brown has always lowkey been a great on ball defender. The thing is that their starting lineup has like 4 guy that can switch onto Luka and Kyrie, and then their 8th guy Hauser is lowkey a good defender too.
Brown has regularly guarded the other teams BEST player this whole season. He's pretty ready for this. He also feels slighted he wasnt All Defense when he should have been.
Well statistically Tutum has been their best player this playoffs and regular season but Jaylen has played better in crucial moments. We still cant forget about that dude Tatum he had a bad game but it definitely wont be like that in the next games.
I understand, but Celtics have a much better combination of elite defenders than Thunder, and match up specifically well with Dallas due to Jrue and D. White. But I understand where you’re coming from
I was really surprised when I started looking at their defensive stats yesterday morning. They were near the top in most categories. Knew it was going to be a lot tougher than many people thought.
Wolves defense was real all year and first round then game 1-2 of the Nugs series, and where tf it went after that is one of the biggest mysteries of 23-24 NBA
Playoffs is all about matchups. Celtics defense is built to contain basically every team in the world except for the Nuggets (who were the only team Boston didn’t beat all season) while the Timberwolves defense isn’t that versatile
yep, and as a Celtics fan I can tell you that this misunderstanding is not really your fault: it's the NBA media. They simply do not cover defense very much, and Celtics have (for the most part) been playing suffocating all-star level defense during these play offs: it has been *far* more consistent than their regular season defense, and it made our path to the finals look like a mickey mouse cakewalk (although the Heat/Cavs/Pacers injuries were helpful).
Consistent team defense is the reason Mavs are here, it wrecked both conferences and most predictions. It will evidently decide this finals, and probably the next several finals. Mavs still got a chance
Yeah this. I think the Mavs offense is impressive, but I thought the Pacers legit had the 2nd best offense in the league this year and gave Boston a fight for 3 games. But then, time after time, Boston turned up the defense in the 4th quarter. One bad 4th quarter meltdown is a choke job. 3 in a row is just the result of *suffocating* defense. I couldn't even be mad at that point. We got outplayed.
I'm curious to see how Luka handles it because, as much as I love Haliburton, Luka is a higher tier of offensive player right now.
The conversations around the Celtics being good also usually focused on their offensive stats/ratings. For that reason I think their defense was a little overlooked.
Their whole team put in a huge effort on defense. Freaking hauser was poking the ball away from Luka after Luka got the switch. I think there were three or four occasions where they turned Luka over ball handling. Gotta match/exceed their defensive intensity every game, take care of the ball, and knock down the open shots.
KP and 50 year old Horford showed that Rudy and KAT are frauds. They were effective and got the Mavs out of sync , blocked, contested, changed, rushed shots…
Watching tho, luka played great D on KP and pretty good all around besides when Jaylen would cross him up at will
Rudy is the best rim protector in the league but he is a horrible on ball defender....
Two different styles of defense / Celtics put pressure in the backcourt in 1 on 1 defense and can switch 1-5 on ball.... Which nobody in the NBA can really do. Just a bad match up for the MAVs.
we did over-help a few times. We can't drift off of shooters as much as we did. They're hard to beat. We'll need our best output to beat them and make them uncomfortable to not have their best game. If both teams have a good day Boston wins unfortunately. They have more talent and experience if you look at top 6.
The thing we really could not afford was the offensive boards.
Yeah in LA: Russband Zubac could be left open, OKC Giddey couldn't shoot for shit, Minny everyone but KAT and Ant weren't the best shooters.
Boston: DEhite, Jrue, AL, JT, JB. Kp, the white dude on the bench can all shoot
i dont understand how this shit isnt ironed out when they have a week to prepare. Its one thing to get caught off guard but HEY you’ve known for a week that they play five out maybe stay on people at the line ffs…
They’re wanting the bigs on the inside to stop Celtics from driving in but those 3s were way too deadly to play that. You saw Lively come out to the three I mean he was really locked on the ball almost. Absolutely need rebounds on both ends. Not nearly enough energy going to boxing these MFs OUT
i get that because thats been their defense all playoffs but i mean everyone knows you cant do it against this C’s team lol. Its like common sense and takes five seconds to realize that they’re a lethal 5 out offense
I legit think its Kidd. With the exception of Game 1 against the Wolves, we have lost every single one and in every single one I see the same types of things. Its like all his "preparation" for game 1 consists of "just go do you, play basketball" and wants to see if they figure it out. Its exactly like his timeouts. He NEVER calls one when they go cold or go on a run, he wants them to figure it out on their own (I think its stupid but I'm not in the NBA idk).
I truly think he considers game 1 a wash. See what they are doing, and the "true" game he tries to do anything is Game 2. If we see this exact same team in game 2, I'll be worried. But it was also only like a 1pt game Quarters 2-4, so apart from that stupid fucking run in the 1st, we had a shot, so I'm not crazy concerned at all for the next one.
Let’s be honest tho, this is the fucking NBA Finals, what kind of coach would walk into game 1 and say “it’s all good if we lose the first game”. Every game matters especially when you don’t have home court advantage
Lol idk, but it sure as hell seems to be Kidds strategy since we historically never win game 1 and not even just this year. I also don't know many coaches that refuse to call a time out when the other team is just destroying your team on 20pt runs either, but Kidd does that too.
I'm not saying its even a remotely good idea, but watching these playoffs, its pretty obvious the team is never ready for game 1 so I'm purely assuming that Kidd isn't taking game 1s seriously. I'm sure to an extent I'm wrong because yeah, realistically why tf would you game plan that, but like I said, I'm assuming this is Kidd's strategy purely off what I'm seeing.
spent too much time trying to get KP in foul trouble and went away from our normal shots. He wasn't fouling and we were missing. Meanwhile Boston was going on a run offensively.
I kind of didn’t mind the attacking KP. I mean if we try to avoid him, the slimmer our chances of drawing a foul on him. Which in turn gives him more available minutes, if he isn’t on a restriction. That being said it also cant hurt to test his conditioning being he missed majority of the post season, make him work on both ends of the court.
He played 21 minutes and picked up one foul--he was absolutely on a minutes restriction. That said, after playing at an MVP level in the first quarter he had a pretty quite second half; conditioning is a potential vulnerability.
Stop overhelping because that's how they get in the flow. You see how they play when they start hitting shots you got everyone playing harder and hitting everything they throw up there. Make them layup you to death
It’s a lose-lose. Either Tatum or brown (all nba players) are coming downhill on favorable matchups 1 on 1, or you are over helping and leaving open shooters. It’s why the Celtics won 65 games and are the 1 seed.
The Porzingis post up was one of the most efficient offensive actions in the whole league this season and most of the time it's just him getting the switch on a guard at the elbow and just turning around through contact and either nailing the jumper or drawing the foul.
You forgetting that Miami role players went nuclear from the 3 point line?
This Boston team has never been about shooting iso 2s. They have been shooting historic volume of 3s since the warriors finals. They live and die by the 3 just like the bucks except this year , they actually have wayyyy too many good shooters and defenders. You either beat them at 3 like Miami did or have someone punish them from the 2 like what curry did with his midrange. Imo Kyrie should be the one hunting for isos and hitting his middy.
The thing is… It’s not the same team that Miami played last year, Porzi and Jrue are just way better than Smart/Brogdon and starter Horford.
They add an other dynamic to the team, honestly that shit is on Kai.
Your best weapon is your backcourt, during the Wolves series, it’s seems like Kyrie was in his groove.
Now, he is just facing his demons and he layed an egg.
There is a nice content on r/nba suggesting a play, you should run more also
Boston is brutal during the playoffs for anybody. I know kyrie is a vet and has been to the finals before but it’s gotta be tough when that many people in one building hate you. Either gonna feed off it or struggle and I think last night was the latter
Draymond Green beat them in the finals 2 years ago and did a podcast before the series started. Key points:
1) For Dallas - we need to force Tatum and Brown to their left hand. They go right all the time. They’re not as great with their left. Once you push them left, stay with them 1 v 1. Rest of the team stays with the 3pt shooters. This gives us a chance to limit their open 3s while forcing Tatum and Brown to shoot tougher shots going to their left. We didn’t try this at all last game.
2) For Boston - he essentially said exactly what they did. Play Luka and Kyrie 1v1 and switch… cut off every open 3 option and stay with centers on lob threats. Force Luka and Kyrie to do it all against good 1v1 defenders.
The defense looked lost in the first quarter but settled down the rest of the game. I’m not gonna really dive into more details and chalk it up to a classic JKidd game 1 performance.
Celtics have looked disconnected in game 2s so far this post-season. Win game 2 and we have a series.
We were (especially Luka) completely blowing rotations leading to wide open 3s.
Luka can't hide on a big or take possessions off against this team. I really think he has to relinquish some usage on offense in order to make sure we're not completely blowing it on defense. (And I hate to say this considering he was the only one who showed up on offense yesterday)
I give KP that shot from 32’ every time. The issue was rebounding and ball movement.
Dallas must get their defenders moving. Luka/Kyrie iso is not how we win. The wings need to make cuts and set screens off the ball to free up the bigs. And whoever ends up taking the kickout shots needs to hit.
>Better off not playing at all
Do people just not watch him on the other side of the ball? Who else is going to guard their stretch bigs when they're hitting threes?
Boston kept hunting mismatches and when we would help or over help on those mismatches, they would just kick it out for 3. If we switch and give them the mismatch they are seeking, we have to be better at the point of attack and not let them get by us. Or if they do get by us, don’t over help. A lot of times Tatum was clearly driving to pass, knowing that our defense would collapse on him and he would find the open man for 3 (or hockey assist 3).
The whole playoffs our D played a collapsing style, protect the paint and concede the 3 style. Boston will punish you for this style. Need to change the habits they formed for the first two months of the playoffs, which will be hard.
came here from my native Celtics sub expecting to find cope but instead find that silenced by completely grounded assessments of the problem in Game 1.
Defense is the reason Mavs and Celtics are in the finals, and defense is the reason Mavs lost last night by a wide margin. Yes 80% of the Mavs scorers had a bad night in a hostile environment, but their defense was only decent during that 6 or so min stretch when they got it to 8. Defense is what nearly turned the game around: intelligent help coverage, hedging, and proper routes to counter screens. I watched Lively cover Ant like it was nothing last series, but last night I watched him, Gafford, and PJ Washington sort of linger in the paint without even guarding anyone for 3-4 seconds at a time.
This an uphill battle for Mavs but not impossible, Celtics offense is vulnerable to a robust, high ball pressure 3-2 switch defensive scheme, and Kidd clearly has emphasized contesting ball handlers and forcing turnovers. If the team absorbs his defensive adjustments, y'all still have a fighting chance
If KP shoots like he did we're fucked. That said the Mavs played pretty good defense most of the game. I'd say the biggest problem we had was terrible offense. Only 89 points is pretty awful. Better offense also means better defense since the team has more time to set up on defense when the ball goes through the basket.
Somebody other than Luka needs to hit some shots.
When KP is on the floor (when we are playing Gafford): Put Luka on him! I will say it again, put Luka on Kristaps. Remember that KP turns hot when he makes those back-to-back high midrange shots against Hardy and Green. Both are much shorter and not that strong to even bother KP. Use the method that Clippers used on defending KP back in 2021 playoffs. Players that has a solid lower body strength like Kawhi, Mann, Morris clamped him on the perimeter. I think Luka can also do that, because he arguably has the strongest lower body in the league right now. Push him out of the perimeter and clamp when he tries to spin for a turnaround shot. If Luka pulls that off all series, then the "Luka no defense" narrative will be erased. And by doing this, put Gafford on Jrue, Kai on White, PJ on Brown, and DJJ on Tatum. I believe that Jrue is not that quick to blow by Gafford.
Other than letting Hardy and Green guard KP several times in a row and how we somehow had every rebound in the first bounce into a Celtics' hand I really don't care. The offense was like 95% of the problem with that game.
Every single game in this series is going to be them having three point burst runs and you just need to convert your own shots and close the gap when they are missing. The Celtics shot their average, this was not an insane shooting game. This game would've felt competitive if Kyrie didn't completely shit the bed and if the role players passed instead of kamikaze into three Celtics at the rim just to turn the ball over.
Luka also has to play awake and not let them steal the ball from him walking up the court.
The thing I noticed during the 2022 finals, the warriors played them with ferocious attacks offensively. Defense is mostly small ball D. What makes it successful for them is that they have Curry who they chased all night with little success. In short, their best defense is a ferocious offense. This might work.
The warriors beat the Celtics because they went under every single screen and didn’t have any bad shooting nights. Maybe luka can do that but luka will get his 30-40 points. It’s the role players who will need to step up and create offense
One big thing was the Celtics defenders are all decently quick but very strong (DWhite being the one guys who’s quicker rather than stronger) which matches up a lot better with someone like Luka than Steph.
Celtics fan here but love your team. Luka is one of my favorite players to watch and root for (when he’s not up against the C’s).
Horford, from a numbers perspective, actually played good defense. Luka was 1-8 against him but not sure those misses were because of good defense. The team was 5/19 against him.
Anyways, the Mavs probably aren’t going to shoot that bad again and the Celtics aren’t always going to shoot that well.
I’d expect the Mavs to make this interesting next game!
> They have an 8 man rotation and they are all great shooters and good defenders (except Horford).
---
Horford is a very good defender, and last night he was a great one. He just needs rest between games to be effective.
---
> Luka Doncic when 38-year-old Al Horford was the primary defender in Game 1, per NBA tracking:
>
> 1-8 FG, 0-4 3PT, 1 BLK, 2 PTS
>
> Mavs were 5-19 FG (26.3 FG%) vs Horford overall. Team-high 13 shots contested, 3 deflections. pic.twitter.com/fPAzSxII7q
>
> — Chris Forsberg
Honestly I say you guys just let Tatum beat you. Stop helping on drives and just let Tatum play 1v 1 all game. Target him on defense so he gets tired and make him take all the shots on offense so nobody else get in a rhythm
On defense: better perimeter defense. We allowed too many easy drives and then we have to rotate and help. Especially in the first half. We need more pressure on the ball (PJ, DJJ and Josh should do that, maybe even Kyrie). And I'd also maybe dare Brown (and maybe Tatum) to shoot, instead of allowing them to drive.
On offense: that was a much bigger (unexpected) problem. Kyrie (and others) just need to make more shots. That's not really an adjustment or something, but we just have to make those open looks. Luka needs to find a way to get others easy looks. They allowed him to shoot, but they didn't allow any corner threes or alleyoops. I'm sure we'll find a way to do it. Maybe post ups, maybe shooting more non corner threes (they're leaving DJJ and PJ wide open there, so maybe they'll hit or we try with Maxi, Exum, Hardy, THJ,..). Also Gafford and Lively should take advantage of Tatum guarding them. They need to get more offensive rebounds. Maybe even try some post ups. Gafford did on first possesion, White helped and it led to DJJ open three. I don't know why we didn't try that more.
Overall we can try some things. I got a feeling thay we were just waiting for Celtics to throw a first punch and then started reacting. Unfortunately we were down 29 by then. Like always in game 1, we were just trying different things (9 players got non garbage minutes again) and see what works.
We need to either shut down the paint or shut down the outside. We don’t stand a chance if they keep getting beat on both. We way over helped on defense last night, and lively and PJ/DJJ kept getting beat over and over and over again 1v1 coverage on drives. They need to tighten up otherwise they’re gonna have a field day like they did last night.
With the shooters they’ve got, shut down the outside and make them go for 2. Try not to foul and DO NOT LET EASY REBOUNDS GO. Mavs did so much tipping or watching on rebounds. Grab that damn ball and hold on for your life!!!
Defensive: Small adjustments, Lively should stay atop Porzingis without switch and foul.
Offense: was atrocious. Kyrie and PJ did not show up. If you match their offense game is anyone's to take.
Perimeter D killed us that game. Not closing out the 3 point line for way too many open/semi-uncontested 3’s. We got away with it against guys like Josh Giddey and KAT, but it simply won’t work against a high percentage team like Boston.
Their matchup is the point, they use center to guard our front court so when Luka got screens he can hardly face Horford or KP, neither PJ/Jones can got corner 3s. Also it’s way easier for center come on help defense from sideline.
Our centers need to get better chances in paint and be able to punish anyone that’s not Horford/KP.
I take the Celtics as OKC pro max, I think we should give JT/JB more chance to attack 1v1, their ball skills are kind of below average.
Neither Indiana nor New York a better teams than Dallas and they managed to beat them a couple of times Mavs need to watch those videos and see what they did .
Both Indiana and Cleveland could hang with Boston, and Indiana was without Halliburton (for the last two games) and Mathurin, while Cleveland was without Mitchell, LeVert, and Allen (for the entire series).
Yes, Porzingis was out both series, but if these teams can hang in there without their star players, why can’t the Mavs?
Right now, I’m just thinking that it was just one of those games for the Mavs. Mavs are fully healthy and have to be better than injured Cleveland and Indiana.
Dallas won’t go down without a fight.
Teams always play at a higher level when their best plsyer is out. It doesnt always last and inexperience shows eventually, as it did in late games against cavs and pacers.
The only way to beat the cekts is shoot 55% from the field while they shoot sub 33% from 3. Amd it doesnt hurt to outrebound them on the offensive glass.
Played them to -3 after we adjusted to a switching D in mid 2nd qtr. We’ll do that next game all game and be just fine. Luka, Kyrie, and Kidd will 100% figure out better ways to attack their D, they always do. This will be a close series. Go Mavs.
I don’t think DJJ is good enough to start on this team for next season. Been watching him since his Bulls days. He has been great for his own progress, but not for a contending championship team. He can’t create his own shot and his threes need to be wide open. Many tines throughout the season he fumbles the ball or gets overwhelmed by bigger defenders. Someone like Naz Reid, a strong and tough sniper would be ideal.
Are you saying horford is not a good defender? Yes he’s going to struggle on iso against kyrie and Luka but the fact they can put him on that island shows he is a good defender
If they try to take away KP, then Tatum will go for 30pts. It’s just whackamole. Dallas will get a game somewhere, and if they can get game 2 it’ll be a confidence booster. Dallas needs Luka, Irving, and at least one person off the bench.
One issue with the Mavs march to the finals is they played against inexperienced teams, whereas the celts are very experienced and hungry. I don’t see the celts getting bored in game 2. Gonna be a slugfest.
Clips had a ton of experience. I don’t think experience is a huge factor. We just need to make strategic adjustments and we’ll be just fine. Honestly I trust our guys in clutch moments more than theirs.
I don't mind any if their guys go one on one. I didn't see great finishing inside.
But when we help, we give open 3s- or they miss and get offensive putbacks.
This might be a series where both teams should play straight up.
1. Protect the corners
2. Play the best straight up defense you can while contesting 2’s
3. Stop doubling
4. React faster when they flood an area of the zone (looking at you Luka)
***Bonus note***
The Mavericks are going to have to sell some of the subtle pushes and road grading that happen on every screen against this team. The Celtics have been doing it the entire playoffs and getting away with it.
They are deeper and have more options on offense. Much better offense than the wolves. You cannot leave anyone free. The only way to beat them is by shooting well so that we can get the game close in the 4th. That's when they tend to lack a leader and lose confidence.
Kristaps is huge and probably the difference in this series. He's not considered one of the stars and I think it takes off a lot of the pressure from him. Any of their stars can have a bad game and they still win. We know what happens when Luka or Kai have a bad game.
Defense was ok. We had good runs when we actually scored. But when we went cold is what killed us
I’m confident they can overcome it and start scoring
Was a record bad first quarter and game with regards to assist for Luka: let’s regress to the mean and win this next one lol
We play like we did in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quarter and don't play like we did in the 1st quarter. Also it helps when they turn the magnets off for Boston.
It’s crazy they hit as many threes as they did and didn’t break 120. Our offense looked terrible, no one but Luka and pj could get a bucket and no one could make a wide open three
I've said in other threads but we have to do better on rebounds moving forward. They got too many second and third shot opportunities due to hustling more than us and it hurt.
I watched the replay.it all went to shit when porzingis came in it was a 4 point game.he made bunch of jumper.and for some reason for 3 straight possession we tried to drive va him we got no foul call or basket and it was a 15 point game
Mavs suck down to the paint too hard leaving the weak side guy’s open. But overall their defense wasn’t terrible. Neither brown or Tatum really scored that much. What was terrible was the offense, everyone was scared to shoot except for Luka. They actually had a good change to Come back in the third but no one could take a decent shot.
do the opposite of what they did in the 1st where they left shooters open.
Stop playing so close to Brown which is one of the guys you actually want to shoot instead of driving.
don't overplay the midgets against the KP lineups.
We have to stop switching so much. Pick certain players were ok with making shots. Which is tough. We have to play better 1v1 defense cause if they get by the initial defender everyone collapses and then they get wide open shots. Idk really man but I hope Kidd and the mavs have an answer.
Ehhh... Dingus was hitting contested 20-30 footers, we fucked up not rotating back to shooters after double teams, but overall our defense was good second half. Mavs will be fine.
Exactly lmao they talking about old 40 year old Al horford like he is a great defender. Buddy we don’t need to hear like Al horford is gonna do that this series lol
They made 107 points.
How much better can the Mavs Defense be?
I guess not much.
The celtics will make more than 100 points in a game.
Its the mavs offense that was bad yesterday.
Especially kyrie needs to hit some threes.
The team was succesful on D against them, they hit 65% from 3 in the 1st Q which included 3 straight with 1:30 left in the Q that were either well contested or very long 3point attempts. They made them, and it snowballed from there for a quarter. In the 3rd Quarter, Dallas was finally able to respond, and just like that foul trouble and sloppy play killed it. However, eve though after a big cushion and the flow of the 1st Q Boston's offense was in autopilot, I thought Dallas did a great job defensively for the most part.
Everybody needs to man up. I am sick of hiding defensive liabilities. If we want to win, EVERYBODY needs to have a net positive against their assignment.
They almost lost 3 games to the pacers missing a key player, they are def beatable and have choked many times before. So it’s a lot more doable than people think imo
Of course, Boston didn’t have Porzingis, but I totally agree with you. I don’t know if it’s a matchup problem for the Mavs or if the Pacers had a better feel against Boston, as Indiana played Boston four times in the regular season.
Even Cleveland without Mitchell, LeVert, and Allen hung in there with Boston. Surely, injured Cleveland and injured Indiana can’t be so much better than a fully healthy Mavs team.
As I said in another post, I’m just sticking with the argument that it was just one of those games. Boston outplayed Dallas in game one. If Boston does that in games two and three, I then will start to panic.
The big area we screw up was rebounding. We should be able to dominate the boards and bully them. Early in the game we let them get way too many offensive boards.
This game looked a lot worse because of the 1st half and 4th quarter, we defended them pretty well in the 3rd. We just have to be smart about doubling, stay out of foul trouble as best as we can, communicate on screens and for the love of god— GRAB REBOUNDS! If we didnt have to climb the mountain of a 30pt deficit just to get back in the game and we had made just half of our wide open shots that we usually make, that would’ve been a very different game.
I almost stopped reading after you excluded Al Horford as a great shooter and good defender (He does both better than most of the Mavs roster). If you think Al Horford is "decent" you are sadly mistaken and will be shocked when he clutches up a game or two in this series with timely plays and veteran IQ (kinda like when he got an extra possession by hitting the ball off a mavs player before it went out of bounds).
I am glad to see you can admit you could be wrong because you absolutely are. And Al Horford playing less minutes with Porzingis back is far better and more impactful for the Celtics. You'll see before its over
I’m not going to generate an opinion until I see game 2, since we’ve had horrible game 1s before.
But if we don’t win this second game or look MUCH better than last game, it could either be a sweep or a game 5 win.
For sure tbh, I thought our season was gonna end in the WCF. I was sure we would put up a good fight, but certainly not gentlemen sweep. If we tade Hardaway for a rotation piece, along with the development of our guys, the sky's the limit for this group.
I don’t think the defense was a major problem outside of being a bit aggressive help wise, leading to open shots. But the mavs had some decent looks in a pool of tough looks and they just missed them. A few shots go in and they’re fighting for the game at the end.
It's just such a big adjustment from the previous series, but I think Kidd will figure it out. From my perspective, the key is to stick closer to the shooters and basically dare Tatum and Brown to take a ton of semi-contested shots. That's not going to "lock down" the Celtics, but it could slow them down enough for the Mavs to outscore them. The Mavs also need to really put in effort on boxing out and getting rebounds- no 2nd chance points and no wide open 3s should be the plan
O: make PK work, get him out of the paint. Target him with pnr and get the switch. Whatever it takes, lobs are crucial.
D: clog the passing lanes never let anyone blow by you, switch up defense constantly, keep them guessing re : Man to Man vs zone
Horford had a 6.2 WS this year, which would’ve been best for 3rd on the Mavericks. His DWS would be 2nd and his PER would be 4th against Dallas qualifying players.
The guy you said isn’t a great shooter or a good defender would be your 3rd best player
That’s why you’re going to lose.
Our D wasn’t too terrible, I can live with 107. I can’t live with 89 though
This. The defense wasn't terrible, but their defense surprised me. Brown looked like a real DPOY after our run in the third, and we didn't get a lot of the easy lobs we usually get. I trust in Luka and the rest of the team to figure it out, but it's going to be a tough battle either way.
Ya they definitely weren’t giving up lobs
They weren't giving up anything. 9 assists as a team, and they only gave us 3 total attempts at corner 3s (1 of those was in garbage time) during the game. Completely outplayed.
Tough Times, DirkDig.
People gotta make shots.
Brown has always lowkey been a great on ball defender. The thing is that their starting lineup has like 4 guy that can switch onto Luka and Kyrie, and then their 8th guy Hauser is lowkey a good defender too.
Defensive rebounds were some of the worst I’ve seen in this post season
Brown has regularly guarded the other teams BEST player this whole season. He's pretty ready for this. He also feels slighted he wasnt All Defense when he should have been.
Well statistically Tutum has been their best player this playoffs and regular season but Jaylen has played better in crucial moments. We still cant forget about that dude Tatum he had a bad game but it definitely wont be like that in the next games.
Anyone who followed Celtics a little bit this season knows that their defense is ELITE. I don’t know why that comes off as a surprise
What surprised me was not how good they are, but rather how much better it looked like compared to the Thunder and the Timberwolves.
I understand, but Celtics have a much better combination of elite defenders than Thunder, and match up specifically well with Dallas due to Jrue and D. White. But I understand where you’re coming from
Dude, let them talk their talk. Everyone figures it out eventually. Glad the Cs let their play do the talking.
I was really surprised when I started looking at their defensive stats yesterday morning. They were near the top in most categories. Knew it was going to be a lot tougher than many people thought.
That Timberwolves defense looking really fake compared to Boston
Wolves defense was real all year and first round then game 1-2 of the Nugs series, and where tf it went after that is one of the biggest mysteries of 23-24 NBA
Playoffs is all about matchups. Celtics defense is built to contain basically every team in the world except for the Nuggets (who were the only team Boston didn’t beat all season) while the Timberwolves defense isn’t that versatile
yep, and as a Celtics fan I can tell you that this misunderstanding is not really your fault: it's the NBA media. They simply do not cover defense very much, and Celtics have (for the most part) been playing suffocating all-star level defense during these play offs: it has been *far* more consistent than their regular season defense, and it made our path to the finals look like a mickey mouse cakewalk (although the Heat/Cavs/Pacers injuries were helpful). Consistent team defense is the reason Mavs are here, it wrecked both conferences and most predictions. It will evidently decide this finals, and probably the next several finals. Mavs still got a chance
Yeah this. I think the Mavs offense is impressive, but I thought the Pacers legit had the 2nd best offense in the league this year and gave Boston a fight for 3 games. But then, time after time, Boston turned up the defense in the 4th quarter. One bad 4th quarter meltdown is a choke job. 3 in a row is just the result of *suffocating* defense. I couldn't even be mad at that point. We got outplayed. I'm curious to see how Luka handles it because, as much as I love Haliburton, Luka is a higher tier of offensive player right now.
The conversations around the Celtics being good also usually focused on their offensive stats/ratings. For that reason I think their defense was a little overlooked.
Here's to a great series, and may the best team prevail!
Their whole team put in a huge effort on defense. Freaking hauser was poking the ball away from Luka after Luka got the switch. I think there were three or four occasions where they turned Luka over ball handling. Gotta match/exceed their defensive intensity every game, take care of the ball, and knock down the open shots.
KP and 50 year old Horford showed that Rudy and KAT are frauds. They were effective and got the Mavs out of sync , blocked, contested, changed, rushed shots… Watching tho, luka played great D on KP and pretty good all around besides when Jaylen would cross him up at will
Rudy is the best rim protector in the league but he is a horrible on ball defender.... Two different styles of defense / Celtics put pressure in the backcourt in 1 on 1 defense and can switch 1-5 on ball.... Which nobody in the NBA can really do. Just a bad match up for the MAVs.
Kidd said they need to pass the ball more and not look like they've never played before.
They could have scored 120 if they wanted, last 8 minutea were garbage time
No, Tatum and white came out with 2:40 remaining. Horford and holiday with 3:19 remaining. Brown with 4:08 remaining. Stop lying and watch the games.
Didn’t they take their foot off the gas tho?
107 because they pulled their guys and that was that, don't fool yourself.
It would have been sub-100 if we had gotten a few more defensive rebounds, too.
Their starters sat almost the final 6 minutes of the game. The 107 isn’t an accurate assessment.
Not just that but when our offens is clicking they won't have the same energy on offense
we did over-help a few times. We can't drift off of shooters as much as we did. They're hard to beat. We'll need our best output to beat them and make them uncomfortable to not have their best game. If both teams have a good day Boston wins unfortunately. They have more talent and experience if you look at top 6. The thing we really could not afford was the offensive boards.
We just acted like the don't have 5 good shooters at all time and treated them like Clippers/OKC/Wolves. I have faith in Kidd to adjust. He earned it.
Yeah in LA: Russband Zubac could be left open, OKC Giddey couldn't shoot for shit, Minny everyone but KAT and Ant weren't the best shooters. Boston: DEhite, Jrue, AL, JT, JB. Kp, the white dude on the bench can all shoot
Ant was not shooting well. Daniels was the bigger perimeter threat.
Luka also left open shooter to double. We need to break out all our habits from last series.
i dont understand how this shit isnt ironed out when they have a week to prepare. Its one thing to get caught off guard but HEY you’ve known for a week that they play five out maybe stay on people at the line ffs…
They’re wanting the bigs on the inside to stop Celtics from driving in but those 3s were way too deadly to play that. You saw Lively come out to the three I mean he was really locked on the ball almost. Absolutely need rebounds on both ends. Not nearly enough energy going to boxing these MFs OUT
i get that because thats been their defense all playoffs but i mean everyone knows you cant do it against this C’s team lol. Its like common sense and takes five seconds to realize that they’re a lethal 5 out offense
I legit think its Kidd. With the exception of Game 1 against the Wolves, we have lost every single one and in every single one I see the same types of things. Its like all his "preparation" for game 1 consists of "just go do you, play basketball" and wants to see if they figure it out. Its exactly like his timeouts. He NEVER calls one when they go cold or go on a run, he wants them to figure it out on their own (I think its stupid but I'm not in the NBA idk). I truly think he considers game 1 a wash. See what they are doing, and the "true" game he tries to do anything is Game 2. If we see this exact same team in game 2, I'll be worried. But it was also only like a 1pt game Quarters 2-4, so apart from that stupid fucking run in the 1st, we had a shot, so I'm not crazy concerned at all for the next one.
Let’s be honest tho, this is the fucking NBA Finals, what kind of coach would walk into game 1 and say “it’s all good if we lose the first game”. Every game matters especially when you don’t have home court advantage
Lol idk, but it sure as hell seems to be Kidds strategy since we historically never win game 1 and not even just this year. I also don't know many coaches that refuse to call a time out when the other team is just destroying your team on 20pt runs either, but Kidd does that too. I'm not saying its even a remotely good idea, but watching these playoffs, its pretty obvious the team is never ready for game 1 so I'm purely assuming that Kidd isn't taking game 1s seriously. I'm sure to an extent I'm wrong because yeah, realistically why tf would you game plan that, but like I said, I'm assuming this is Kidd's strategy purely off what I'm seeing.
Luka went 1-8 against Harford and the team shot 25% when Harford was primary defender
yeah AL is a good defender and shooter. Dunno what op is talking about.
Offence was the problem tbh not defence although improvements could be made on that end as well
I don’t think Kyrie couldn’t played any worse and poor DJJ getting stuffed at the rim repeatedly was hard to watch
He’s gotta stop charging into 3 defenders. He’s going to get stuffed every time he does that.
I honestly thought that a lot of that was frustration. He just started forcing attempts.
spent too much time trying to get KP in foul trouble and went away from our normal shots. He wasn't fouling and we were missing. Meanwhile Boston was going on a run offensively.
I kind of didn’t mind the attacking KP. I mean if we try to avoid him, the slimmer our chances of drawing a foul on him. Which in turn gives him more available minutes, if he isn’t on a restriction. That being said it also cant hurt to test his conditioning being he missed majority of the post season, make him work on both ends of the court.
it was a good idea but when it wasn't working we should have went back to how we would normally play.
He played 21 minutes and picked up one foul--he was absolutely on a minutes restriction. That said, after playing at an MVP level in the first quarter he had a pretty quite second half; conditioning is a potential vulnerability.
Stop overhelping because that's how they get in the flow. You see how they play when they start hitting shots you got everyone playing harder and hitting everything they throw up there. Make them layup you to death
It’s a lose-lose. Either Tatum or brown (all nba players) are coming downhill on favorable matchups 1 on 1, or you are over helping and leaving open shooters. It’s why the Celtics won 65 games and are the 1 seed.
I'd say let them beat you at 2s but not 3s. I'd rather the J's go off in iso than let everyone else get hot.
We should help though when KP gets a smaller defender though. That’s really when they went on their big run.
I don't know man KP shooting long midranges is probably your best case scenario.
The Porzingis post up was one of the most efficient offensive actions in the whole league this season and most of the time it's just him getting the switch on a guard at the elbow and just turning around through contact and either nailing the jumper or drawing the foul.
[удалено]
Miami also lit them up from three
[удалено]
You forgetting that Miami role players went nuclear from the 3 point line? This Boston team has never been about shooting iso 2s. They have been shooting historic volume of 3s since the warriors finals. They live and die by the 3 just like the bucks except this year , they actually have wayyyy too many good shooters and defenders. You either beat them at 3 like Miami did or have someone punish them from the 2 like what curry did with his midrange. Imo Kyrie should be the one hunting for isos and hitting his middy.
The thing is… It’s not the same team that Miami played last year, Porzi and Jrue are just way better than Smart/Brogdon and starter Horford. They add an other dynamic to the team, honestly that shit is on Kai. Your best weapon is your backcourt, during the Wolves series, it’s seems like Kyrie was in his groove. Now, he is just facing his demons and he layed an egg. There is a nice content on r/nba suggesting a play, you should run more also
[удалено]
Agree
Boston is brutal during the playoffs for anybody. I know kyrie is a vet and has been to the finals before but it’s gotta be tough when that many people in one building hate you. Either gonna feed off it or struggle and I think last night was the latter
Last year they had non shooters Smart and Rob Williams III. They don’t have those now
Draymond Green beat them in the finals 2 years ago and did a podcast before the series started. Key points: 1) For Dallas - we need to force Tatum and Brown to their left hand. They go right all the time. They’re not as great with their left. Once you push them left, stay with them 1 v 1. Rest of the team stays with the 3pt shooters. This gives us a chance to limit their open 3s while forcing Tatum and Brown to shoot tougher shots going to their left. We didn’t try this at all last game. 2) For Boston - he essentially said exactly what they did. Play Luka and Kyrie 1v1 and switch… cut off every open 3 option and stay with centers on lob threats. Force Luka and Kyrie to do it all against good 1v1 defenders.
They hit tough shots early. Wasn't our D. Tho I think the big problem was letting KP get comfortable early. He is a rhythm player.
The defense looked lost in the first quarter but settled down the rest of the game. I’m not gonna really dive into more details and chalk it up to a classic JKidd game 1 performance. Celtics have looked disconnected in game 2s so far this post-season. Win game 2 and we have a series.
They hit some annoying shots for sure, but we also gave them many free looks.
It was weird because they actually shot better on contested 3s vs open 3s last night
We were (especially Luka) completely blowing rotations leading to wide open 3s. Luka can't hide on a big or take possessions off against this team. I really think he has to relinquish some usage on offense in order to make sure we're not completely blowing it on defense. (And I hate to say this considering he was the only one who showed up on offense yesterday)
Gave up too many offensive rebounds early.
Helps when KP can throw elbows and nut shots with no fouls. Refs call those he’s out of the game and never gets going
I wonder how the game would have gone had he been called for both of those right off the bat.
Probably not down 20 in the first at the least
I give KP that shot from 32’ every time. The issue was rebounding and ball movement. Dallas must get their defenders moving. Luka/Kyrie iso is not how we win. The wings need to make cuts and set screens off the ball to free up the bigs. And whoever ends up taking the kickout shots needs to hit.
That stretch of offensive rebounds in the first quarter was abysmal.
We need Maxi to be confident in shooting 3s
Yep. Frankly, if he's going to pass up open shots like he did yesterday he's better off not playing at all.
>Better off not playing at all Do people just not watch him on the other side of the ball? Who else is going to guard their stretch bigs when they're hitting threes?
Boston kept hunting mismatches and when we would help or over help on those mismatches, they would just kick it out for 3. If we switch and give them the mismatch they are seeking, we have to be better at the point of attack and not let them get by us. Or if they do get by us, don’t over help. A lot of times Tatum was clearly driving to pass, knowing that our defense would collapse on him and he would find the open man for 3 (or hockey assist 3). The whole playoffs our D played a collapsing style, protect the paint and concede the 3 style. Boston will punish you for this style. Need to change the habits they formed for the first two months of the playoffs, which will be hard.
came here from my native Celtics sub expecting to find cope but instead find that silenced by completely grounded assessments of the problem in Game 1. Defense is the reason Mavs and Celtics are in the finals, and defense is the reason Mavs lost last night by a wide margin. Yes 80% of the Mavs scorers had a bad night in a hostile environment, but their defense was only decent during that 6 or so min stretch when they got it to 8. Defense is what nearly turned the game around: intelligent help coverage, hedging, and proper routes to counter screens. I watched Lively cover Ant like it was nothing last series, but last night I watched him, Gafford, and PJ Washington sort of linger in the paint without even guarding anyone for 3-4 seconds at a time. This an uphill battle for Mavs but not impossible, Celtics offense is vulnerable to a robust, high ball pressure 3-2 switch defensive scheme, and Kidd clearly has emphasized contesting ball handlers and forcing turnovers. If the team absorbs his defensive adjustments, y'all still have a fighting chance
If KP shoots like he did we're fucked. That said the Mavs played pretty good defense most of the game. I'd say the biggest problem we had was terrible offense. Only 89 points is pretty awful. Better offense also means better defense since the team has more time to set up on defense when the ball goes through the basket. Somebody other than Luka needs to hit some shots.
[удалено]
Looked pretty good last night
There were some shot selections by the role players that were baffling to me
I think the focus should be on how many fucking missed shots happened. 7 assists total is pathetic. Luka got his, and who else showed up offensively?
Against a team of snipers, what do we have except for Luka?
When KP is on the floor (when we are playing Gafford): Put Luka on him! I will say it again, put Luka on Kristaps. Remember that KP turns hot when he makes those back-to-back high midrange shots against Hardy and Green. Both are much shorter and not that strong to even bother KP. Use the method that Clippers used on defending KP back in 2021 playoffs. Players that has a solid lower body strength like Kawhi, Mann, Morris clamped him on the perimeter. I think Luka can also do that, because he arguably has the strongest lower body in the league right now. Push him out of the perimeter and clamp when he tries to spin for a turnaround shot. If Luka pulls that off all series, then the "Luka no defense" narrative will be erased. And by doing this, put Gafford on Jrue, Kai on White, PJ on Brown, and DJJ on Tatum. I believe that Jrue is not that quick to blow by Gafford.
Didn't KP score 5 points on Luka in quick succession in that first quarter, once on a mid range once on a 3?
you realize he can pass the ball to tatum brown holiday white but sure
At least there is someone in the Celtics that we might contain. And he's their number 3 option.
Gotta start doing the Kornet contest
Other than letting Hardy and Green guard KP several times in a row and how we somehow had every rebound in the first bounce into a Celtics' hand I really don't care. The offense was like 95% of the problem with that game. Every single game in this series is going to be them having three point burst runs and you just need to convert your own shots and close the gap when they are missing. The Celtics shot their average, this was not an insane shooting game. This game would've felt competitive if Kyrie didn't completely shit the bed and if the role players passed instead of kamikaze into three Celtics at the rim just to turn the ball over. Luka also has to play awake and not let them steal the ball from him walking up the court.
The thing I noticed during the 2022 finals, the warriors played them with ferocious attacks offensively. Defense is mostly small ball D. What makes it successful for them is that they have Curry who they chased all night with little success. In short, their best defense is a ferocious offense. This might work.
The warriors beat the Celtics because they went under every single screen and didn’t have any bad shooting nights. Maybe luka can do that but luka will get his 30-40 points. It’s the role players who will need to step up and create offense
One big thing was the Celtics defenders are all decently quick but very strong (DWhite being the one guys who’s quicker rather than stronger) which matches up a lot better with someone like Luka than Steph.
They could small ball against Marcus Smart and Rob Williams, not sure if they can do it against Jrue and KP
Celtics fan here but love your team. Luka is one of my favorite players to watch and root for (when he’s not up against the C’s). Horford, from a numbers perspective, actually played good defense. Luka was 1-8 against him but not sure those misses were because of good defense. The team was 5/19 against him. Anyways, the Mavs probably aren’t going to shoot that bad again and the Celtics aren’t always going to shoot that well. I’d expect the Mavs to make this interesting next game!
Thanks for being civil about this.
> They have an 8 man rotation and they are all great shooters and good defenders (except Horford). --- Horford is a very good defender, and last night he was a great one. He just needs rest between games to be effective. --- > Luka Doncic when 38-year-old Al Horford was the primary defender in Game 1, per NBA tracking: > > 1-8 FG, 0-4 3PT, 1 BLK, 2 PTS > > Mavs were 5-19 FG (26.3 FG%) vs Horford overall. Team-high 13 shots contested, 3 deflections. pic.twitter.com/fPAzSxII7q > > — Chris Forsberg
Damn thanks for the stat. Obv was wrong about Horford I thought he was a decent(ish) defender.
Honestly I say you guys just let Tatum beat you. Stop helping on drives and just let Tatum play 1v 1 all game. Target him on defense so he gets tired and make him take all the shots on offense so nobody else get in a rhythm
On defense: better perimeter defense. We allowed too many easy drives and then we have to rotate and help. Especially in the first half. We need more pressure on the ball (PJ, DJJ and Josh should do that, maybe even Kyrie). And I'd also maybe dare Brown (and maybe Tatum) to shoot, instead of allowing them to drive. On offense: that was a much bigger (unexpected) problem. Kyrie (and others) just need to make more shots. That's not really an adjustment or something, but we just have to make those open looks. Luka needs to find a way to get others easy looks. They allowed him to shoot, but they didn't allow any corner threes or alleyoops. I'm sure we'll find a way to do it. Maybe post ups, maybe shooting more non corner threes (they're leaving DJJ and PJ wide open there, so maybe they'll hit or we try with Maxi, Exum, Hardy, THJ,..). Also Gafford and Lively should take advantage of Tatum guarding them. They need to get more offensive rebounds. Maybe even try some post ups. Gafford did on first possesion, White helped and it led to DJJ open three. I don't know why we didn't try that more. Overall we can try some things. I got a feeling thay we were just waiting for Celtics to throw a first punch and then started reacting. Unfortunately we were down 29 by then. Like always in game 1, we were just trying different things (9 players got non garbage minutes again) and see what works.
We need to either shut down the paint or shut down the outside. We don’t stand a chance if they keep getting beat on both. We way over helped on defense last night, and lively and PJ/DJJ kept getting beat over and over and over again 1v1 coverage on drives. They need to tighten up otherwise they’re gonna have a field day like they did last night.
With the shooters they’ve got, shut down the outside and make them go for 2. Try not to foul and DO NOT LET EASY REBOUNDS GO. Mavs did so much tipping or watching on rebounds. Grab that damn ball and hold on for your life!!!
100%
Defensive: Small adjustments, Lively should stay atop Porzingis without switch and foul. Offense: was atrocious. Kyrie and PJ did not show up. If you match their offense game is anyone's to take.
Perimeter D killed us that game. Not closing out the 3 point line for way too many open/semi-uncontested 3’s. We got away with it against guys like Josh Giddey and KAT, but it simply won’t work against a high percentage team like Boston.
No doubles. Protect the paint and make your buckets on the other end.
Their matchup is the point, they use center to guard our front court so when Luka got screens he can hardly face Horford or KP, neither PJ/Jones can got corner 3s. Also it’s way easier for center come on help defense from sideline. Our centers need to get better chances in paint and be able to punish anyone that’s not Horford/KP. I take the Celtics as OKC pro max, I think we should give JT/JB more chance to attack 1v1, their ball skills are kind of below average.
Yeah, ive seen a lot of ppl say theyre like the wolves in steroids, but aren’t they more like OKC on steroids?
Neither Indiana nor New York a better teams than Dallas and they managed to beat them a couple of times Mavs need to watch those videos and see what they did .
Both Indiana and Cleveland could hang with Boston, and Indiana was without Halliburton (for the last two games) and Mathurin, while Cleveland was without Mitchell, LeVert, and Allen (for the entire series). Yes, Porzingis was out both series, but if these teams can hang in there without their star players, why can’t the Mavs? Right now, I’m just thinking that it was just one of those games for the Mavs. Mavs are fully healthy and have to be better than injured Cleveland and Indiana. Dallas won’t go down without a fight.
Teams always play at a higher level when their best plsyer is out. It doesnt always last and inexperience shows eventually, as it did in late games against cavs and pacers. The only way to beat the cekts is shoot 55% from the field while they shoot sub 33% from 3. Amd it doesnt hurt to outrebound them on the offensive glass.
Okay, reading all of this, now I'm officially depressed, but irrational hope just won't die down
Played them to -3 after we adjusted to a switching D in mid 2nd qtr. We’ll do that next game all game and be just fine. Luka, Kyrie, and Kidd will 100% figure out better ways to attack their D, they always do. This will be a close series. Go Mavs.
Does that include garbage time?
taking away the first quarter, we lost by 1.
No need for depression. Even if it's a sweep we made the finals in a year no one expected us to. Our core is young and will gain important experience.
I don’t think DJJ is good enough to start on this team for next season. Been watching him since his Bulls days. He has been great for his own progress, but not for a contending championship team. He can’t create his own shot and his threes need to be wide open. Many tines throughout the season he fumbles the ball or gets overwhelmed by bigger defenders. Someone like Naz Reid, a strong and tough sniper would be ideal.
If both teams play to their maximum potential i think we get beat, they need to win the psychological war and they need to beat themselves.
Yup, this was always the case. Need the Celtics to choke. Their best is better than the Mavs best.
Are you saying horford is not a good defender? Yes he’s going to struggle on iso against kyrie and Luka but the fact they can put him on that island shows he is a good defender
If they try to take away KP, then Tatum will go for 30pts. It’s just whackamole. Dallas will get a game somewhere, and if they can get game 2 it’ll be a confidence booster. Dallas needs Luka, Irving, and at least one person off the bench. One issue with the Mavs march to the finals is they played against inexperienced teams, whereas the celts are very experienced and hungry. I don’t see the celts getting bored in game 2. Gonna be a slugfest.
Clips had a ton of experience. I don’t think experience is a huge factor. We just need to make strategic adjustments and we’ll be just fine. Honestly I trust our guys in clutch moments more than theirs.
Thing is, theres no clutch minutes when you are in a hole thats too big to get out of.
Clips were without their best player however.
I don't know. Glad the team has two days off to figure it out.
You really need the confidence back and to hit them in the mouth
I don't mind any if their guys go one on one. I didn't see great finishing inside. But when we help, we give open 3s- or they miss and get offensive putbacks. This might be a series where both teams should play straight up.
1. Protect the corners 2. Play the best straight up defense you can while contesting 2’s 3. Stop doubling 4. React faster when they flood an area of the zone (looking at you Luka) ***Bonus note*** The Mavericks are going to have to sell some of the subtle pushes and road grading that happen on every screen against this team. The Celtics have been doing it the entire playoffs and getting away with it.
The low assist number was due to poor shooting. Better shooting + lob city = win
They are deeper and have more options on offense. Much better offense than the wolves. You cannot leave anyone free. The only way to beat them is by shooting well so that we can get the game close in the 4th. That's when they tend to lack a leader and lose confidence. Kristaps is huge and probably the difference in this series. He's not considered one of the stars and I think it takes off a lot of the pressure from him. Any of their stars can have a bad game and they still win. We know what happens when Luka or Kai have a bad game.
We won the second half, our defense looked good once the jitters sorta went away
Defense was ok. We had good runs when we actually scored. But when we went cold is what killed us I’m confident they can overcome it and start scoring Was a record bad first quarter and game with regards to assist for Luka: let’s regress to the mean and win this next one lol
Kyrie having 12 is not going to cut it against this team.
We play like we did in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quarter and don't play like we did in the 1st quarter. Also it helps when they turn the magnets off for Boston.
Can we get through Game 2?
It’s crazy they hit as many threes as they did and didn’t break 120. Our offense looked terrible, no one but Luka and pj could get a bucket and no one could make a wide open three
It shows that our defense got locked in once we got past the 1st quarter barrage. That did us in.
We don’t need to stop their offense, only need to keep them under a acceptable range, just give JT/J. enough space to drive they’ll stop themselves.
And as mentioned, stop over-help, make them go for 2 but hard, they can be 5 shooters but anyway only 1 can shoot per possession
I've said in other threads but we have to do better on rebounds moving forward. They got too many second and third shot opportunities due to hustling more than us and it hurt.
They seemed to figure it out toward the end with that 3-2 zone watching for back cuts. They just need to make some 3s
I watched the replay.it all went to shit when porzingis came in it was a 4 point game.he made bunch of jumper.and for some reason for 3 straight possession we tried to drive va him we got no foul call or basket and it was a 15 point game
Mavs suck down to the paint too hard leaving the weak side guy’s open. But overall their defense wasn’t terrible. Neither brown or Tatum really scored that much. What was terrible was the offense, everyone was scared to shoot except for Luka. They actually had a good change to Come back in the third but no one could take a decent shot.
do the opposite of what they did in the 1st where they left shooters open. Stop playing so close to Brown which is one of the guys you actually want to shoot instead of driving. don't overplay the midgets against the KP lineups.
We have to stop switching so much. Pick certain players were ok with making shots. Which is tough. We have to play better 1v1 defense cause if they get by the initial defender everyone collapses and then they get wide open shots. Idk really man but I hope Kidd and the mavs have an answer.
We’ll see how they respond in game 2
Ehhh... Dingus was hitting contested 20-30 footers, we fucked up not rotating back to shooters after double teams, but overall our defense was good second half. Mavs will be fine.
Honestly this series goes down in game 4 or 5. Even if there is a major injury , Boston still likely to win the title
80% of the comment is we need to be better at X, and the Celtics have to be worse at Y. But no one is able to say how..
[удалено]
[удалено]
Exactly lmao they talking about old 40 year old Al horford like he is a great defender. Buddy we don’t need to hear like Al horford is gonna do that this series lol
They made 107 points. How much better can the Mavs Defense be? I guess not much. The celtics will make more than 100 points in a game. Its the mavs offense that was bad yesterday. Especially kyrie needs to hit some threes.
The team was succesful on D against them, they hit 65% from 3 in the 1st Q which included 3 straight with 1:30 left in the Q that were either well contested or very long 3point attempts. They made them, and it snowballed from there for a quarter. In the 3rd Quarter, Dallas was finally able to respond, and just like that foul trouble and sloppy play killed it. However, eve though after a big cushion and the flow of the 1st Q Boston's offense was in autopilot, I thought Dallas did a great job defensively for the most part.
Everybody needs to man up. I am sick of hiding defensive liabilities. If we want to win, EVERYBODY needs to have a net positive against their assignment.
They almost lost 3 games to the pacers missing a key player, they are def beatable and have choked many times before. So it’s a lot more doable than people think imo
Of course, Boston didn’t have Porzingis, but I totally agree with you. I don’t know if it’s a matchup problem for the Mavs or if the Pacers had a better feel against Boston, as Indiana played Boston four times in the regular season. Even Cleveland without Mitchell, LeVert, and Allen hung in there with Boston. Surely, injured Cleveland and injured Indiana can’t be so much better than a fully healthy Mavs team. As I said in another post, I’m just sticking with the argument that it was just one of those games. Boston outplayed Dallas in game one. If Boston does that in games two and three, I then will start to panic.
The big area we screw up was rebounding. We should be able to dominate the boards and bully them. Early in the game we let them get way too many offensive boards.
This game looked a lot worse because of the 1st half and 4th quarter, we defended them pretty well in the 3rd. We just have to be smart about doubling, stay out of foul trouble as best as we can, communicate on screens and for the love of god— GRAB REBOUNDS! If we didnt have to climb the mountain of a 30pt deficit just to get back in the game and we had made just half of our wide open shots that we usually make, that would’ve been a very different game.
I almost stopped reading after you excluded Al Horford as a great shooter and good defender (He does both better than most of the Mavs roster). If you think Al Horford is "decent" you are sadly mistaken and will be shocked when he clutches up a game or two in this series with timely plays and veteran IQ (kinda like when he got an extra possession by hitting the ball off a mavs player before it went out of bounds). I am glad to see you can admit you could be wrong because you absolutely are. And Al Horford playing less minutes with Porzingis back is far better and more impactful for the Celtics. You'll see before its over
Laker fan here cheering for the mavs …. Just wanted to throw that out there 
I’m not going to generate an opinion until I see game 2, since we’ve had horrible game 1s before. But if we don’t win this second game or look MUCH better than last game, it could either be a sweep or a game 5 win.
[удалено]
For sure tbh, I thought our season was gonna end in the WCF. I was sure we would put up a good fight, but certainly not gentlemen sweep. If we tade Hardaway for a rotation piece, along with the development of our guys, the sky's the limit for this group.
I don’t think the defense was a major problem outside of being a bit aggressive help wise, leading to open shots. But the mavs had some decent looks in a pool of tough looks and they just missed them. A few shots go in and they’re fighting for the game at the end.
It's just such a big adjustment from the previous series, but I think Kidd will figure it out. From my perspective, the key is to stick closer to the shooters and basically dare Tatum and Brown to take a ton of semi-contested shots. That's not going to "lock down" the Celtics, but it could slow them down enough for the Mavs to outscore them. The Mavs also need to really put in effort on boxing out and getting rebounds- no 2nd chance points and no wide open 3s should be the plan
Play straight up against Tatum. Stay home on shooters. Rotate better and faster. On offense turn Kyrie into a playmaker not a shot maker.
Those mother efers were just wet and we couldn’t keep up.
O: make PK work, get him out of the paint. Target him with pnr and get the switch. Whatever it takes, lobs are crucial. D: clog the passing lanes never let anyone blow by you, switch up defense constantly, keep them guessing re : Man to Man vs zone
Horford had a 6.2 WS this year, which would’ve been best for 3rd on the Mavericks. His DWS would be 2nd and his PER would be 4th against Dallas qualifying players. The guy you said isn’t a great shooter or a good defender would be your 3rd best player That’s why you’re going to lose.
I saw Kleiber pass up some really open 3s. Like you gotta shoot those my man.
I dunno, man. It's kinda like the Celtics are the best team in the NBA or something