GAME 1 Playoffs 2024: Dallas Mavericks (0-0) vs. Boston Celtics (0-0)

[Chicagojk]

My question to everyone is if Gafford/Lively can't score or rebound, how do they keep playing? We've lost all the free points from lobs and they aren't controlling the boards. Where is our advantage? Honest question. I would also like them to keep playing, but I'm struggling to see how against this 5 out offense where all 5 can shoot from deep. Obviously Lively has a chance to adapt. Gafford can't suddenly get quicker with his feet.

I think the answer is they need score and rebound.  We finished a pretty long stretch where our centers got like 20 points and 15 rebounds plus really impact level plays.  Boston obviously stresses you out with their spacing and they will give up some threes.  But our bigs can force their style too.  They didn’t tonight. It may wind up being an advantage for Boston but we will see.
 I don’t know if it is possible but I wonder if our defense can be super connected where Lively can still be in the paint and our rotations with the other 4 are on point.  Really tough though.  No other team has had an answer this year to a hot shooting Celtics team.