NBA Finals Thread - Celtics vs Mavericks | Page 17 | The Boneyard

NBA Finals Thread - Celtics vs Mavericks

HuskyHawk said:
My concern is really that the shooting continued to be bad while Dallas got incredibly hot. Don‘t ever give the team that is down confidence that they can win. Now Dallas knows it’s possible. Boston better be great on Sunday.
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champs99and04 said:
Records can be deceiving over small samples because of variance in quality of opponent and results in close games, among other things. Since the start of the Cleveland series they're only +59, or +4.2 per game, compared to +11.6 during the regular season. Take out the Porzingis minutes and that drops to around +34 and +2.4, respectively. Dallas, by comparison, is +2.3 since then despite playing a much tougher schedule.

Some of that is skewed by last night's game, which is probably a bit of an outlier for a number of reasons. But I also think the extra days off have helped Boston with Porzingis being out and Horford being relied upon to play more minutes. These teams aren't that different once you give Dallas a guy to help off of and a 39-year-old that actually starts to look 39 to attack on the other end.
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At a 4.2 differential. No. 1 the three losses for Boston gave all been lopsided losses. That is a statistical links what is their point differential in wins and plot. Differential in wins and what is it in losses.

Also, margin of victory in an era if 3-point shooting is kind of crazy stat to look like.

Mavs still win by 25 last night if Tim harden he never steps in the floor.

He scored 15 point an and hit 5 3s in 6 minutes. That is what got the lead to historic standards.

Boston has won every close game it has played this postseason. So, the thought of some people saying they can win close games makes no sense.
 
Can't believe the noise being made over winning 1 game to avoid a sweep, game 4 of the Finals was very similar to the 2022 Mavs game 4 of the WCF vs the Warriors. If the Mavs were heading home down 3-1 I would get it, but on the road??

 
JohnFSilver said:
In this error of pace and 3-point shooting we get a ton lopsided scores. T

what?

They are 15-3 in the playoffs. What am I missing here?

They are so much better than mavericks talent wise it isn’t even with comparing.

Has Stephen A smith and all these hot take shows really destroyed the ability to interpret the game of basketball?
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This take is not accurate. The core Celtics team is more experienced on this stage and carry with them the pain of losing in the conference and NBA Finals. It's hard to skip steps in the process to learning how to become a Champion. 2 of the 1st 3 games could have easily went the Mavs way if they played their avg. brand of ball and executed at a higher level of efficiency. This starts with Luka, the discipline, shot selection, free throw and 3 point percentage, effort on defense. The little things that are needed to win in the Finals the Mavs were not doing consistently and they hadn't quite figured out Boston yet.

Now they have and it might be too late for them. However it will fuel them for the next couple of seasons. Most of their core group of players are under 26 years of age. Kyrie is the old head of that core at 32 years of age.

The pundits weren't wrong to pick Dallas as the upset pick based on their talent and body of work from the trade deadline. What they were wrong about was that it would take Luka and company 4 games to figure it out against a hungry, determined and experienced Celtics squad.
 
aceboon said:
Can't believe the noise being made over winning 1 game to avoid a sweep, game 4 of the Finals was very similar to the 2022 Mavs game 4 of the WCF vs the Warriors. If the Mavs were heading home down 3-1 I would get it, but on the road??

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It's been a lousy series and ESPN carries the games so they're trying to hype it.
 
Game 3 especially was very winnable for the Mavs. Gotta feel they missed a chance to make it evened up.

It looks a lot cleaner for Boston that it went 3-0 then the blowout happened. Game 3 is that much more critical (esp Luka’s dumb foul) now after this game.

Pretty clearly Boston has the edge still, but I’m guessing fans want it over ASAP.
 
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IMG_20240615_160617.jpg
 
DMIL said:
This take is not accurate. The core Celtics team is more experienced on this stage and carry with them the pain of losing in the conference and NBA Finals. It's hard to skip steps in the process to learning how to become a Champion. 2 of the 1st 3 games could have easily went the Mavs way if they played their avg. brand of ball and executed at a higher level of efficiency. This starts with Luka, the discipline, shot selection, free throw and 3 point percentage, effort on defense. The little things that are needed to win in the Finals the Mavs were not doing consistently and they hadn't quite figured out Boston yet.

Now they have and it might be too late for them. However it will fuel them for the next couple of seasons. Most of their core group of players are under 26 years of age. Kyrie is the old head of that core at 32 years of age.

The pundits weren't wrong to pick Dallas as the upset pick based on their talent and body of work from the trade deadline. What they were wrong about was that it would take Luka and company 4 games to figure it out against a hungry, determined and experienced Celtics squad.
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What?

This series was never gonna be a long series.

Pundits missed this. They thought Dallas was going to win because they are enamored with the two star, hero ball approach.

There is no rational metric, historical standard out there that would take a 64-win team over a 5-seed.

But, because of the way we talk about basketball - the focus came down to Luka vs Tatum.

Its dumb.

Don’t over react. The 1984 Celtics, which had Larry bird on the team at his peak, loss a finals game by 33 points. 85 lakers lost a finals game by 34 points.

Mavs didn’t solve anything.
 
Mr. French said:
Game 3 especially was very winnable for the Mavs. Gotta feel they missed a chance to make it evened up.

It looks a lot cleaner for Boston that it went 3-0 then the blowout happened. Game 3 is that much more critical (esp Luka’s dumb foul) now after this game.

Pretty clearly Boston has the edge still, but I’m guessing fans want it over ASAP.
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They have been down 20 points in 3 of four games .
 
JohnFSilver said:
They have been down 20 points in 3 of four games .
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Right, but they were also up huge in game 3 and it was a 3 point game in the 4th Q in Dallas. And I noted Boston is better.

Which makes everything in my post true, but your point (whether true or not) fairly invalid.

I’m saying Dallas probably is mad they didn’t finish game 3 with a win and they’d feel right there. Not sure what’s to disagree with.
 
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aceboon said:
Can't believe the noise being made over winning 1 game to avoid a sweep, game 4 of the Finals was very similar to the 2022 Mavs game 4 of the WCF vs the Warriors. If the Mavs were heading home down 3-1 I would get it, but on the road??

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Totally agree. Also, not sure why the media wishes to anoint Luka as the next transcendent player so badly. Fact of that matter is he is still a massive hole in their defensive game plan. The Celtics have a game plan to exploit that via drives to the paint and crisp ball movement. They need to get back to the latter and they will be just fine.
 
Can’t believe a rookie has to speak up about Luka like this. Crazy if it’s true that everyone has to ask this of him and he still has trouble.

 
HuskyWarrior611 said:
Can’t believe a rookie has to speak up about Luka like this. Crazy if it’s true that everyone has to ask this of him and he still has trouble.

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Good for Lively! Where is Kyrie’s leadership on this issue?
 
HuskyWarrior611 said:
Can’t believe a rookie has to speak up about Luka like this. Crazy if it’s true that everyone has to ask this of him and he still has trouble.

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The leadership is fine, but this narrative that somehow the refs are being tough on Luka or on Dallas is ridiculous. If anything, he has gotten away with more than anybody else in the finals and has drawn really the only few phantom fouls handed out with his flopping.
 
pj said:
The Red Sox did.
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Coming back from down 0-3 is going to happen eventually. It almost happened last year with the Celtics vs. Heat. Still can't believe how bad of a game Celtics had in Game 7.

7 years ago no 16 ever beat a 1. Now it's happened twice!

Don't think the Mavs are going to do it.
 
HuskyHawk said:
The leadership is fine, but this narrative that somehow the refs are being tough on Luka or on Dallas is ridiculous. If anything, he has gotten away with more than anybody else in the finals and has drawn really the only few phantom fouls handed out with his flopping.
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I think the message in this case is moreso Luka has to stop complaining so much. It hurts his team a lot.
 
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Yall okay with your best player having this kind of mindset Cs fans?
 
UofCT said:
Coming back from down 0-3 is going to happen eventually. It almost happened last year with the Celtics vs. Heat. Still can't believe how bad of a game Celtics had in Game 7.

7 years ago no 16 ever beat a 1. Now it's happened twice!

Don't think the Mavs are going to do it.
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It’s happened a couple times in the NHL.
 
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Its not what Tatum says, but what he (and the others) do. Tatum has always been "chill". JB has always been much more vocal and willing to call teammates out to play harder. White, Holiday, and Porzingis are the missing pieces, both from a talent and mindset perspective. Losing Porzingis was a big blow.

I still like the C's to in the series, but if the C's lose tonight and it goes the distance, the amount of pressure in Game 7 will be supernova - and probably will affect players' performance. Yankees were shell-shocked in 2004 Game 7, and didnt have a chance.
 
HuskyWarrior611 said:
I think the message in this case is moreso Luka has to stop complaining so much. It hurts his team a lot.
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I don't think it hurt them. Him laying on the floor rolling around like a soccer player trying to draw a call when there was no contact hurts them. Him bitching all the time seems to have helped them given how game 4 was officiated.

Porzingis is expected to play. My guess. Not a lot. But if he can steady things for even 10 minutes that could do it.
 
IndyLives said:
Its not what Tatum says, but what he (and the others) do.
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In Tatum's case, he better have a good game tonight. I think his gullet might be getting a bit tight.
 
HuskyHawk said:
I don't think it hurt them. Him laying on the floor rolling around like a soccer player trying to draw a call when there was no contact hurts them. Him bitching all the time seems to have helped them given how game 4 was officiated.

Porzingis is expected to play. My guess. Not a lot. But if he can steady things for even 10 minutes that could do it.
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Oh we agree bruh. It’s not how it influences the refs, but the plays he takes off defensively because he’s complaining about the refs does not help the team.
 
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