Can Porzingis stay warm? Five questions coming into Celtics-Mavs Game 2 originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The Boston Celtics landed the first blow in the 2024 NBA Finals with a 107-89 win in Game 1 at TD Garden, and now it’s up to the Dallas Mavericks to respond.
The Mavs have been in this situation before. They lost the first game in both the first round and conference semifinals. They came back with a Game 2 win in each series.
Replicating that success for a third time will be a difficult challenge for the Mavericks. The Celtics have won a franchise-record eight straight playoff games and star center Kristaps Porzingis is back in the lineup after missing most of the Eastern Conference playoffs.
What should we look for in Game 2 on Sunday night in Boston? Here are five important questions.
Will the Mavs role players step up?
The Mavericks can’t win this series if their role players don’t show up. Dallas players not named Luka Doncic or Kyrie Irving combined to score just 47 points on 17-of-39 shooting in Game 1, and those numbers are inflated a bit by Jaden Hardy scoring 11 points in garbage time in the fourth quarter.
PJ Washington was the only other Mavs starter besides Irving and Doncic to score in double figures.
Derrick Jones Jr. scored five points. Josh Green, Dereck Lively II and Maxi Kleber each scored just two points. Foul trouble limited Lively to just 18 minutes of action.
It’s fair to wonder after Game 1 if the Mavs have the firepower to keep up with the Celtics. The C’s are averaging 111.1 points per game in the playoffs. They had six players score more than 10 points on Thursday, and Sam Hauser was close with eight.
Even if Doncic and Irving each score 30 points, the Mavericks still need several other players who can contribute at a high level offensively. Role players tend to perform better at home, but the Mavs need to win at least one game in Boston to become NBA champions.
Washington is the key. The Mavs lost Game 1 in both the first and second rounds of the playoffs, but they won Game 2 in each of those series as Washington scored 18 points against the Clippers and 29 points against the Thunder. Can he deliver another outstanding Game 2 performance on the road on Sunday? Dallas needs it badly.
Will Kyrie Irving be more efficient offensively?
Doncic scored 30 points on 12-of-26 shooting with 10 rebounds, but just one assist in Game 1. It was a good, but not great, performance. Irving, on the other hand, played poorly. In fact, it was one of his worst performances in the playoffs.
Irving scored just 12 points on 6-of-19 shooting. He missed all five of his three-point attempts and committed three turnovers. He finished with just two assists.
The Celtics have defended Irving well, including at the perimeter.
“I think the Celtics really rely on their big defensive ball pressure and one-on-one defenders,” Irving told reporters at his post-game press conference. “They direct us to certain areas. Even as I say that, they rely on one-on-one conversations. Every time I get an ISO, there are almost two or three people waiting for me to get in there. I have to accommodate them ball with a live dribble and be aware of my chances.
“It’s unusual for us to only have nine assists. The ball needs to move a little bit more. And again, that starts with me just being able to pick up the pace, give us some easy chances and just adapt to what they are .” throw at us.”
The Mavericks are 3-3 in the playoffs if Irving scores 16 or fewer points. It is 9-3 if he scores more than 16 points. Doncic can’t beat the Celtics on his own. If Irving doesn’t help in a significant way offensively, this series will be over quickly.
Can Kristaps Porzingis replicate Game 1 performance?
Porzingis played one of the best first quarters by a Celtic in NBA Finals history in Game 1. He came off the bench to score 11 points and block three shots in the opening frame. The Celtics had a one-point lead when he checked into the game and it grew to 17 by the end of the quarter.
Porzingis shot 2-for-4 from 3-point range and also took advantage of matchups against smaller players by shooting right over them with his 7-foot-2 frame.
Porzingis finished with 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting. He also played great defense, blocking three shots and converting several others.
This sequence during the first quarter illustrated the two-way impact Porzingis made in the series opener.
It will be interesting to see what types of Game 2 adjustments the Mavericks make regarding Porzingis. He’s a very different type of center than what they faced in the Western Conference Finals when Rudy Gobert was on the floor. Porzingis can score anywhere on the field and is rock solid in the paint defensively.
“KP was great, he knocked down shots. He switched shots. He blocked shots,” Mavs head coach Jason Kidd told reporters after the game. “He gave them a spark coming off the bench. We have to make it a little more difficult offensively. We have to let him do something different. He looked great and knocked them down.” “
If Porzingis plays anywhere near the level he did in Game 1 for the rest of the series, the Mavs are in big trouble.
Will Jayson Tatum be more assertive in his attempts to score?
You know the Celtics are a special team when their best player doesn’t have to score more than 25 points to have a huge impact on the game.
Tatum is the team’s best rebounder. Honestly, he’s one of the best rebounders in all of basketball. He pulled down 11 boards in Game 1 and leads the Celtics with 10.4 rebounds per game in the playoffs. Tatum also makes a big difference as a playmaker. He draws so much attention when he goes to the basket, but instead of forcing hard shots, he consistently looks for the open man. He dished out five assists on Thursday, and that number could have been much higher, but his teammates shot just 5 of 19 on his feeds.
But even if the Celtics don’t need a high-scoring game from Tatum to string together wins, it would certainly help if he could play more of a role offensively. He scored just 16 points on 6-of-16 shooting in Game 1. He attempted just two free throws. The superstar forward played the entire first quarter, but only managed one shot attempt.
Tatum is capable of dominating offensively — he averaged 30.3 points per game in the conference finals — and there are plenty of favorable matchups for the Celtics to take advantage of when he has the ball in his hands. A more assertive Tatum on that end of the floor Sunday night would be a nice boost for Boston.
Is Game 2 a must-win for Mavs?
Is this a stupid question after one game? Maybe a little, but consider these facts:
-
The Celtics only lost back-to-back games four times during the regular season, and their longest losing streak was two games.
-
The Celtics have not lost four times in five games all season.
-
The Celtics are 6-0 on the road in the 2024 playoffs and have won eight straight postseason road games dating back to last year.
-
The Celtics are 42-1 all-time in series, in which they took a 2-0 lead. The only loss was to LeBron James and the Cavs in the 2018 Eastern Conference Finals.
The Mavs have not been 0-2 behind in these playoffs. They have stolen home field advantage in the first two games of each of their first three series. So if they were to lose 0-2 to the best team in the league, a team that often plays better on the road than at home, that would be a different kind of pressure that Dallas hasn’t faced in the 2024 playoffs.
It wouldn’t be impossible for the Mavericks to win the series if they were down 0-2, but history wouldn’t be on their side. Only three teams since 1977 – 2021 Bucks, 2016 Cavaliers, 2006 Heat – have fallen behind 0-2 in the NBA Finals and won the series.
