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

[Jason Terry]

The whole team looks off. Kyrie for sure. Luka is hurt and actually tried on defense maybe 10% of plays

Impossible to win with that. Our role players would play better if the stars were playing better

The long layoff and ridiculous time between games 1, 2, 3 is not good for our young team

[Luka77]

1 assist by Luka tells you everything about this game. Just no offense tonight other than from Luka.

Mavs have 5 assists total

[Mavs2021]

Regardless. We need bench scoring. We don´t have enough offensive talent, since THJ decided to take his talents to the trash bin. He is in fact so bad that his airball was not even registered on the boxscore as a shot. LOL. He missed so bad that they pretend like that was a lob pass to Gafford. Like THJ has ever thrown a lob pass in his life.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Tough series for Gafford.  Lively needs to play smarter though.  He probably got away with 3-4 fouls being physical 39 feet from the basket.  We are going to need close to 30 minutes per game from him.

We have no chance if Kyrie is not a star though

Edit—holy moly is my spelling bad when I am on my phone

He's a rookie and being too aggressive. KP is a vet and he's going to get those calls.

[donzingis38]

Two traveling violation changed that quarter around.    Mavs would have had it down to 6 or 4.

Agreed. Good strategy by Boston to stay with Lively when he had the ball.

[KillerLeft]

Welp, it was a better quarter, at least.

Reality is that the Dallas plan was not sufficient on either end of the floor. They are still conceding threes, as if Boston is going to stop hitting them. Spoiler alert, they will not stop hitting them because that is the absolute best shot they can get, how they are designed to play. The problem is that when they figure out that they can’t shade away from the perimeter shooters, all of the Mavericks players on the floor will be subject to getting ISO’d in space. There are questions about whether or not several of them are up to that. Still, I am Kidd, I am ready to find out.

The real disappointment, for me, is how utterly inadequate the Dallas offensive plan was. They have 65 points through three quarters, and too many of their points have just been iso from Luka and Kyrie

[SwisherPrice]

Hardy and Green already benched in the 2nd half so looks like Kidd has lost all confidence in them already. We're now down to basically a 6-man rotation against this team now...good luck with that

[BigDirk41]

That’s the understatement of the year. It’s almost like he still plays for the Celtics.

Kyrie earned all the backlash he's going to get for choking this game. This is too important for him to not be ready, especially with him playing in 4 finals already.

[Chicagojk]

Two traveling violation changed that quarter around.    Mavs would have had it down to 6 or 4.

Really careless too.lively is too amped up.  No reason why he had to travel after that rebound.  Kyrie had a careless turnover.  Add a big offensive rebounds and some bad fouls and there goes our chance

[dirkfansince1998]

Crazy what happens when you miss shots.

Don't look at the outcome. Look at the kind of shots both teams are creating. The Celtics aren't even having a great shooting game. 38.5% is right around their regular season average. They simply create better looks. Unless Luka has a GOAT level iso scoring series the Mavs approach isn't working.

[RasheedsBigWhiteSpot]

The Mavs were within 8, had the rebound and then Lively decided to finally play like a rookie, promptly travels and loses his shit. It was down hill from there.

I wonder if the Mavs had gotten it to 5 or 6 if a bunch of tiny Leprechaun boots holes woulda been puckering.

[Mavs2021]

Godamn we are -3 in the 33 minutes Luka played. -15 in the five minutes he has not.

[Smitty]

Don't look at the outcome. Look at the kind of shots both teams are creating. The Celtics aren't even having a great shooting game. 38.5% is right around their regular season average. They simply create better looks. Unless Luka has a GOAT level iso scoring series the Mavs approach isn't working.

I’ve seen Kyrie miss 5 wide open 3’s. He’s not a 0% 3PT shooter from wide open 3’s.

[dirkfansince1998]

Mavs have 5 assists total

Celtics aren't doubling. Luka is on pace for 40+ but the Celtics can stay in their prefered defense.

[KillerLeft]

That’s pretty interesting. The Celtics are finally throwing sneaky traps and double teams at Luka. That’s something that could potentially be built upon.

[Smitty]

All the DJJ talk the last week or two and he’s not playable in this one.

[ThisIStheYear]

Jones out of control tonight.

[Mavs2021]

Also this game is the perfect example how garbage the NBA play-off format is. Boston leads by 17. Porzingis has 20. We are not even playing well and would win this game without Porzingis. Garbage East gave them a bye to the final.

[Jason Terry]

Hardy and Green already benched in the 2nd half so looks like Kidd has lost all confidence in them already. We're now down to basically a 6-man rotation against this team now...good luck with that

They’re too small to guard anyone on the Celtics. And neither can dribble

[dirkfansince1998]

All the DJJ talk the last week or two and he’s not playable in this one.

Maybe the taxMLE will be enough