After the Boston Celtics ran away from the Dallas Mavericks in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, most will (justifiably) cite Joe Mazzulla’s defensive game plan as the primary reason this series opener shook out the way it did. Dallas made zero corner 3s and converted zero lobs, which essentially means that it looked nothing like the steady juggernaut that downed three of the Western Conference’s top four seeds on its way to basketball’s preeminent stage.
Luka Doncic finished with 30 points (on 26 shots) and just one assist in Game 1. His team had only nine assists total, leading to its least efficient outing of the playoffs. But everything that happened on the other end felt more problematic in a way that could linger throughout the entire Finals. “I don’t really think the offense was our problem tonight,” PJ Washington said Thursday. In a lot of ways, he was right.
As connected and physical as the Mavericks have been over the past six weeks, can they restrain one of the most explosive offenses in NBA history?
In Game 1, the Celtics logged 15 isolation plays against single coverage, per Synergy Sports. They generated 1.4 points per possession on them. Dallas switched as often as Boston did, but the most notable difference between both defenses is that one deploys a troupe of incredible individual defenders, and the other has Doncic and Kyrie Irving, two relative weak spots who have no choice but to be involved in actions, now facing an offense that can torture them over and over again.
Unlike all of Dallas’s previous opponents throughout this playoff run—the Clippers with Russell Westbrook, the Thunder with Josh Giddey and Lu Dort, and the Timberwolves with Rudy Gobert and Kyle Anderson—the Celtics have no obvious spot for Doncic or Irving to hide when Boston has the ball. In Game 1, that was never more obvious than when they were hunted relentlessly by Jaylen Brown or Jayson Tatum:
Boston’s two All-Stars looked every bit the part (minus several sloppy Tatum turnovers) by repeatedly beating whoever was in front of them off the dribble and then reading the rotation and spraying a pass out to open shooters. When a guard wasn’t the target, Dereck Lively II, Daniel Gafford, or Maxi Kleber was called to dance on the perimeter, which, more often than not, forced Irving and Doncic (who can’t afford to be in foul trouble) to collapse off the 3-point line and cut off a drive:
Unless Mavericks Find A Way To Offer More Resistance They Can’t Win