The Celtics Stopped Luka and Took Game 1 of the NBA Finals
The Boston Celtics annihilated the Dallas Mavericks.
Okay, that was surprising.
The Boston Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks 107-89 in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
But Boston winning isn’t what surprises me. It’s the manner that they did it that made me go, “Whaaa!”
The Celtics, behind Jaylen Brown’s dominant performance of 22 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals and 3 blocks, were whooping the Mavs the entire game like Mark Cuban owed them money (except for a moment in the third quarter when the Mavs went on a run to cut lead down to 8).
And one factor that played in their favour was that Luka Doncic couldn’t get comfortable.
They pressured him defensively and only let him dish out one assist.
That’s bad because he was averaging 8.8 assists per game this playoffs and his playmaking was crucial in the Mavericks’ previous victories.
Luka was so dominant this playoffs and it looked like he couldn’t be stopped. But Boston clearly found a solution because they locked him up on the defensive end and he couldn’t play how he wanted to play.
However, that doesn’t mean that Luka played poorly. He still managed to get a double-double with 30 points and 10 rebounds. He just couldn’t set up his teammates and that’s why his team lost.
Boston also stifled Kyrie Irving, who scored 12 points on 32 percent shooting.
Jayson Tatum and Kristaps Porzingis also played big roles in this victory.
Tatum recorded 16 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists. Porzingis recorded 20 points, 6 rebounds and 3 blocks.
The two teams meet again on Sunday for Game 2.
Maybe Luka will do some studying over the next few days and clap back in the second game of the series -something he’s been doing in this playoffs.
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