weitzman boy
FOX Sports NBA Writer
BOSTON – After watching the Miami Heat eliminate the Boston Celtics in last year’s Eastern Conference finals, Boston’s president of basketball operations Brad Stevens looked for ways to upgrade the roster. He thought the group could use more size and have better internal defense. He also thought the Celtics’ drive-and-kick game would allow them to use different offenses, such as curveballs that could be used when opposing defenses get stuck. So when the opportunity came to trade Kristaps Porzingis, Stevens jumped at it.
Porzingis won’t come cheap. To get him, the Celtics had to part ways with core member and 2022 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart. But in Stevens’ mind, the opportunity to add someone of Porzingis’ skill set was too good to be true. give up.
“Being able to throw the ball in the post and get a shot over the switch, and to do that efficiently and effectively, not to mention the ability to play behind the line or shoot or drive the ball is a big deal,” Stevens said. Reporters following the June 23 trade to acquire Porzingis from the Washington Wizards. “He brings a lot to our team. I can imagine some of the lineups we can put out now size-wise, it’s pretty exciting, and without sacrificing any of the skill. So that’s a good thing.”
Porzingis spent the entire season trying to prove Stevens’ decision. His presence on both sides of the ball helped the Celtics jump from a very good regular season team to the best team of all time, winning 64 games and posting the fifth-highest scoring margin in league history.
But on Thursday night, when Porzingis demolished the Dallas Mavericks in the Celtics’ 107-89 win in Game 1 of the Finals, Stevens looked prophetic. Porzingis finished the game with 20 points on 8-for-13 shooting, six rebounds and three blocks in 21 minutes. But those statistics underestimate his impact. A better way to say it is that Porzingis was the first player to dominate a game in this series.
“He was great on both ends of the floor, his defensive execution, his game planning, his ability to play a spot on the offensive end, his physicality, his ability to make plays on both ends of the floor,” Celtics coach Joe Mazula said. “That’s the KP that helped us get to where we are today.”
A calf injury had kept Porzingis out of the Celtics’ previous two rounds, and he was eager to return for his NBA Finals debut. “It’s difficult to go into the most intense game of the final after not playing for a month,” Porzingis said. He spent the period between pregame introductions and tipoff wandering the Celtics’ sideline, trying to relax. “Adrenaline was pumping through my veins,” he said. Mazzulla brought him off the bench, something he hadn’t done all season, and the Celtics were up by a point just under midway through the first quarter when Porzingis entered the game for the first time.
He continued to demonstrate all of the skills Stevens referenced in June. He buried a mid-range jumper over a small defender. He dusted Mavericks center Derek Lively while attempting a dunk. He buried another mid-range jumper after the Mavericks once again replaced a smaller defender on him. He hit a deep triple in transition. He was jumping up and down and laughing. And even then, he hit three maverick shots to give him 11 points in the first quarter.
When the buzzer sounded for the quarter, the Celtics had converted their single-point lead to 17 points.
“He looked pretty healthy to me,” Mavericks center Daniel Gafford said.
“He knocked down shots. He changed shots. He blocked shots. He brought a spark when he came off the bench,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said.
Porzingis unlocked everything for the Celtics and embarrassed the Mavericks. Dallas’ defense suffocated opponents during their run through the Western Conference playoffs. In part by packing the paint and daring opponents to finish off two ace rim protectors, Gafford and Derick Lively II. Porzingis appeared from 27 feet away and ruined that plan. According to Cleaning the Glass, the Celtics converted all 15 of their attempts at the rim and were able to fire 42 3-pointers thanks to all of their runway to the rim. Drive and kick action. I hit 16 of them.
The Mavericks were so shaken that late in the first half, Kidd abandoned his plan to play the final out with the more agile Maxi Kleber under center instead of Gafford and Lively.
Meanwhile, the Celtics executed flawlessly. That was a simple thing too. Let the Mavs’ dynamic duo of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving do all the scoring themselves. No double teams were sent to either player. There was no blitzing in pick-and-rolls or scrambling at weak points. If the Mavericks are going to win, they’re going to have to do so with Doncic and Irving converting tough looks against big defenders.
Doncic finished with 30 points. But Celtics wing Jaylen Brown is one of the few players in the NBA with the right combination of size, speed and smarts to play Doncic’s defense, holding Doncic to 12-for-16 shooting. Irving scored just 12 points on 6-for-19 shooting.
But what’s more notable is that the Mavericks only had eight assists. Doncic had just one, a season low. The Mavericks, who entered the game at a record pace for playoff alley-oops per game, did not convert a single lob. The corner triple, a staple of their offense, was nowhere to be found. They only had three attempts. They finished with an offensive rating of 96.7, 20 points per 100 possessions worse than the league’s worst mark posted by the Memphis Grizzlies during the regular season.
“The ball got stuck too much,” Kidd said.
The Celtics, on the other hand, have made it a point to attack Doncic whenever possible. Especially Brown, who led the Celtics after Porzingis’ initial attack. He scored a team-high 22 points to go along with six rebounds, three blocks, three steals and two assists, but he got even more points on drives.
“What you saw tonight was the kind of challenge he took to face this year, not wanting to be defined by one thing,” Mazzulla said. “He wanted to make plays. He wanted to be a well-rounded player.”
The Mavericks made the Celtics sweat after halftime. The 22-9 run cut the once 29-point lead to 8 points. The crowd inside TD Garden grew quiet. The anxiety was palpable.
Mazzulla calls a timeout. He allowed the players to talk among themselves for two minutes before joining the huddle.
“We just said take a breath. Now the game is on. Take a breath,” Brown said. “Take a breath and keep playing the basketball. If you have a chance to make a shot, be confident, take the shot without a turnover, take care of the basketball and play your game. We’ve got to make some stops. They made some big shots. Just explore running.”
The Celtics responded with a 14-0 run. It wasn’t long before they left the court victorious, leaving their No. 18 banner just three wins away.
“It seems like a blur to me right now,” Porzingis said that night. “I was completely immersed in the game. It was the best feeling. I think it was the most fun I had. I hope to have more moments like that in the future.”
Yaron Weitzman is an NBA writer for FOX Sports and Heading to the Top: The Philadelphia 76ers and the Boldest Course in Professional Sports History. Follow him on Twitter @Jaron Weitzman.
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