Mavericks (0-1) at Celtics (1-0) NBA Finals Game #2 6/9/24

[scaryjerry]

Jason Kidd now has a case to call jrue our best player to really get in our heads   

[mr. dee]

The Pacers were more difficult to defend than Dallas IMO.  Luka is the best offensive player obviously, but beyond that Dallas doesn't have the threats that the Pacers did. 

TJ MConnell was a constant threat with his penetration and midrange game.  Nembhard played with extreme confidence, and quite frankly was much better than Kyrie Irving has been thus far.  Turner disappeared at times, but put together some big scoring spurts.  So on and so forth.  Plus the Pacers played much faster and freer.  Better ball movement and man movement.

I don't know how much adjustments Dallas can make to pick the pace and play better.  They're struggling to score because they're grinding against the Celtics half-court defense all the time.  And they don't have the personnel to stop dribble penetration.

This is where they miss Brunson. Big mistake letting him go

[trickybilly]

[Atzar]

The Pacers were more difficult to defend than Dallas IMO.  Luka is the best offensive player obviously, but beyond that Dallas doesn't have the threats that the Pacers did. 

TJ MConnell was a constant threat with his penetration and midrange game.  Nembhard played with extreme confidence, and quite frankly was much better than Kyrie Irving has been thus far.  Turner disappeared at times, but put together some big scoring spurts.  So on and so forth.  Plus the Pacers played much faster and freer.  Better ball movement and man movement.

I don't know how much adjustments Dallas can make to pick the pace and play better.  They're struggling to score because they're grinding against the Celtics half-court defense all the time.  And they don't have the personnel to stop dribble penetration.

This is where they miss Brunson. Big mistake letting him go

There was a nonzero chance that Dallas could have signed Brunson and then used the assets they spent on Kyrie to get Durant instead.  That would have been a serious problem.  I'm grateful for their blunder.

[BudweiserCeltic]

The Pacers were more difficult to defend than Dallas IMO.  Luka is the best offensive player obviously, but beyond that Dallas doesn't have the threats that the Pacers did. 

TJ MConnell was a constant threat with his penetration and midrange game.  Nembhard played with extreme confidence, and quite frankly was much better than Kyrie Irving has been thus far.  Turner disappeared at times, but put together some big scoring spurts.  So on and so forth.  Plus the Pacers played much faster and freer.  Better ball movement and man movement.

I don't know how much adjustments Dallas can make to pick the pace and play better.  They're struggling to score because they're grinding against the Celtics half-court defense all the time.  And they don't have the personnel to stop dribble penetration.

This is where they miss Brunson. Big mistake letting him go

They didn't let him go, he left.

[kraidstar]

[tenn_smoothie]

Really like what Jaylen Brown said on the NBA TV postgame interview.
Humble and well-spoken and hit on some important points about the team's performance.
Just play a little smarter and quit turning the ball over, Gawd, if it isn't one of the J's turning it over, it's the other one.

[tenn_smoothie]

We were very fortunate that Brown's push in the back on the PJ Washington block at the rim by he and White was not called.
Two free throws there makes it a 3 point game with 50 seconds left and a perfect setup for one of our signature late 4th quarter meltdowns.
Brown made a beautiful move for a layup on the ensuing possession, so maybe we win anyway. Hopefully.
But we allowed a 14-point lead with 3:30 left to almost evaporate. Should never have been that close at the end.

[mef730]

I had to pick this week to travel. It?s 5:30 in the morning, I?ve been up for 3 hours and clearly not going back to sleep. Unfortunately, the British don?t have Sportscenter.

But it?s been a ton of fun reading this thread from the beginning after the game was over. There were points at which I was convinced by the dialogue we were down 20, even though I knew that we were only down a point or two, or even up. Not sure if KO has a slight nick or a broken leg.

But I?m glad we have CS and not just a box score. Sounds like Tatum had a decent game in every aspect except shooting, which is big for him. Last year, if he had a bad shooting night, he would have given up everywhere else.

I thought the word on Jrue was that he was bad in the playoffs. If this is bad Jrue, I can?t wait to see the good one.

Poor Sam Hauser. After a fantastic year, he hit a cold streak at the wrong time. I hope that?s not what he?s remembered for.

[Billz401]

Just watched the replay of the double block by DWhite and JB. They both were deep in either corner spotting up and both dead sprinted back on defense to contest the shot. Just all out hustle and effort and I loved every second of it

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

so few comments here. we're 2 wins away from a title, people!

Well, 2-0 is a good lead, but hardly insurmountable. Boston probably doesn't shoot this badly again this series, but you never know. And Dallas has homecourt the next two games, though the Cs have been a great road team this postseason.

oh, I'm not saying it's over b any stretch. But we're in the driver's seat. And my general feeling about the respective talent of both teams has held up so far. I feel pretty good.

You're right, they're in the driver's seat, for sure.

[radiohead]

I hope JT goes nuclear the next two games just so he could shut up both Kendrick Perkins and Channing Frye. They must be two of the worst NBA analysts i?ve ever encountered.

[ozgod]

I had to pick this week to travel. It?s 5:30 in the morning, I?ve been up for 3 hours and clearly not going back to sleep. Unfortunately, the British don?t have Sportscenter.

Same here, not to the UK though, but the same distance from Boston to LA. Missed the game live as a result, just finished watching the replay on my FIOS DVR.

But it?s been a ton of fun reading this thread from the beginning after the game was over. There were points at which I was convinced by the dialogue we were down 20, even though I knew that we were only down a point or two, or even up. Not sure if KO has a slight nick or a broken leg.

But I?m glad we have CS and not just a box score. Sounds like Tatum had a decent game in every aspect except shooting, which is big for him. Last year, if he had a bad shooting night, he would have given up everywhere else.

I thought the word on Jrue was that he was bad in the playoffs. If this is bad Jrue, I can?t wait to see the good one.

Poor Sam Hauser. After a fantastic year, he hit a cold streak at the wrong time. I hope that?s not what he?s remembered for.

This is what I find most fun about CelticsStrong threads, when you get to re-read them after the game is over, because of all the (over)reactions...you really feel the emotions and panic and excitement everyone is going through after the lead gets cut from 15 to 10 and the sky starts falling...then the team recovers...you really do feel like you're on a rollercoaster 

[ozgod]

The thing I enjoyed most about the game overall - we shot 25% from 3 but kept them to below 100 points and won. Two years ago, even last year, we wouldn't have done that. We would have let poor shooting affect our defense. It's not easy to win games when you shoot that bad but they kept to it. Nobody's heads dropped and it's a credit to the culture Joe has instilled over the past couple of seasons.

[Neurotic Guy]

Regarding the late Mavs surge from down 14 to almost getting to 3 with under a minute.  Yes, at 14 up at 3:30 it felt pretty secure though the Cs have both let up and come back from these type of deficits with that amount of time left.  This seems to happen frequently around the league - deficits are erased quickly in this era of distance shooting and rules increasing the likelihood of fouls on long balls. And end of game heroics are what some players/teams thrive on.  The other reality is that we?re playing the Western Conference champions. They are a team that defeated their competitors in a tough conference - beating two teams that looked like they were contenders.  And beating Minny pretty soundly.   It shouldn?t be shocking, or seen a weakness, that when desperation-ball kicked in, that the Mavs had the firepower to close the gap.  Any very good team fighting for a championship is capable of cutting 10 points off a lead in about 3 minute?s time. What the Cs showed (again) is that they had the ability to fight it back and hit the necessary shots to seal the win. 

Celtics have displayed a Finals mentality over the first two games.  While they were tied or trailing most of the first half and part of the third, it felt like it was only a matter of time till they put some distance between them and the Mavs. They need to sustain the intensity in Dallas.