NBA Playoffs Takeaways: NBA Finals
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The season is done and an 18th banner will be raised in TD Garden this fall.
We probably shouldn’t be surprised.
Let’s dive into what we learned.
Boston Celtics
I understand why people doubted Boston.
Hell, even I doubted Boston.
They’re unlike what we’ve seen in the modern NBA.
They have stars, but not really superstars like Jokic or Curry.
They didn’t have a difficult path to the Finals at all, or to the best record, and when they faced good teams in the regular season they struggled a lot more.
It made sense.
But now, looking back on it, it feels ridiculous.
Are Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown MVP candidates? No.
But they don’t need to be.
Those two, Al Horford, a healthy Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Holliday, Derrick White, even Peyton Pritchard.
The Celtics were the perfect balance of depth scoring and solid defense, with a coach in Joe Mazzulla who learned from Bob Huggins at West Virginia about aggressive defensive play.
They had the perfect recipe to steam roll through the title, and they did so.
Dallas Mavericks
I picked the Mavericks to win the series for three reasons.
Luka and Kyrie were offensively amazing all postseason.
Luka wasn’t first team all defense level good, but was better than a traffic cone defensively.
Luka was using his anger and trash talk to turn in excellent playoff performances.
And then, in this series, Kyrie completely disappeared offensively, Luka turned back into a cone defensively, and in a crucial, basically must win game 3, let his anger and frustration overcome him for needless fouls which led to him fouling out.
The Mavericks were never as good a team top to bottom as the Celtics were, but they still had a chance if they got some of what I said above.
They got none of it.
Add in Luka being injured (maybe this is the wake up call for his conditioning next season) and the result was exactly what it should’ve been.
A gentleman’s sweep for the Celtics.
But the Mavs can still use this as a positive lesson going forward.
At least, they better.
If not, they may not get a better opportunity.
