Celtics’ game plan for Luka produces historic results in Game 1 win originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
BOSTON – Conventional wisdom would suggest that the key to beating the Dallas Mavericks is preventing superstar Luka Doncic from scoring.
In Game 1 of the NBA Finals, the Boston Celtics employed a different strategy: stop everyone else.
Doncic scored a game-high 30 points on 12 of 26 shooting Thursday night at TD Garden, adding 10 rebounds while hitting four 3-pointers in 12 attempts. However, the number the Celtics cared about was one.
Doncic’s lone assist Thursday was his lowest in a game (with a minimum of 15 minutes played) since May 7, 2021. It was only the fourth time in his career he had been limited to one assist under those minute parameters, and the first time ever he was held to one assist in the play-offs.
So how did the Celtics get the All-NBA guard – who ranked second in the NBA in assists per game (9.8) during the regular season and entered the night with a playoff-leading 8.8 assists per match – a playmaking non-player? factor in the game’s biggest phase on the way to a 107-89 win?
Instead of beating Doncic with double teams, Boston played almost exclusively 1-on-1 defense, relying on All-Defensive guards Derrick White and Jrue Holiday and All-Star wing Jaylen Brown to stay ahead of Doncic, and then switched to pick-and-play. -rolls instead of helping defenders and giving him passing lanes to open shooters.
The result was that no other Dallas player recorded 15 points; Kyrie Irving collected just 12 points on 6-of-19 shooting, while PJ Washington (14 points) and Jaden Hardy (13 points) were the only other Mavs in double figures.
“Just great individual defense,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla noted after the game. “Everyone has to take on the challenge of guarding those guys. They’re a great team and they put a lot of pressure on you with their ability to score. Everyone’s going to take their game personally (and) have personal pride in individual players.” defense.”
The Celtics have strong individual defensemen, from Holiday and White to Jayson Tatum and Brown, who recorded three steals and three blocks on Thursday night. That gives them the luxury of not doubling up on either Doncic or Irving, and in Game 1 it led to a historic lack of ball movement from Dallas: the Mavs managed just nine total assists, finishing just the third team since 1966 to have 10 or fewer assists in a finals match.
“Give the Celtics credit; they did a great job on defense, making things difficult for us,” Mavs head coach Jason Kidd said. “We had a good look that didn’t go down. We have to move the ball. The ball just hung around too much.”
Dallas will make adjustments in Sunday’s Game 2, and the Celtics can expect Doncic to be much more aggressive as a playmaker even if he doesn’t see double teams. They can also expect better three-point shooting from the Mavs, who hit just 25.9 percent of their deep balls (7 for 27) in Game 1, well below their postseason average of 37.2 percent.
But Mazzulla and the C’s deserve credit for executing a good defensive game plan against one of the best offensive players in basketball.
