BOSTON – Twenty years after the seven-second or less Phoenix Suns shook up the NBA with an offense the likes of which the league had never seen or attempted to defend before, the Boston Celtics have taken things to the next level.
Here is the perfect modern NBA offense, combining the volume and effectiveness of three-pointers with ruthlessly efficient mid-range shooting, with attacks, jumpers and occasional three-pointers from the league's best forward tandem, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, crushing the will of opponents.
The Celtics did the same thing to the Dallas Mavericks in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday that they have done to opposing defenses all season. They stretched the Mavs to the breaking point, then defeated them with a barrage of first-half 3-pointers and a sensational return to action from Kristaps Porziņģis. Even after Dallas cut a 29-point first-half deficit to 8 midway through the third quarter, Boston had plenty left in the tank to stretch its lead back to 20 and close out Game 1, 107-89.
THAT'S ONE ☝️#HereDifferent pic.twitter.com/0PLNoZMIjX
– Boston Celtics (@celtics) June 7, 2024
Like a great boxer, Boston simply hits you with punches from all angles and speeds. On Thursday, it was Porziņģis, in his first action since injuring his calf in Game 1 of the first round against the Miami Heat in April, who set the tone off the bench. Dallas threw everyone it could at the 7-foot-2 big man: Luka Dončić, Derrick Jones, Jaden Hardy, rookie Derek Lively II. Nobody stopped him, much less stopped him; Porziņģis made 7 of 9 shots and scored 18 of his 20 points in the first half, launching jumpers from his elbows and nails. The Cs were 16 of 42 from deep, including quick threes to end the third quarter and put the Mavericks back on track after leading 72-64.
GO DEEPER
Kristaps Porziņģis's career was at a crossroads. He then learned to trust numbers.
At the same time, Brown was also turning the game in Boston's favor by drawing Lively's fourth and fifth personal fouls within a minute, forcing Dallas to bench their big man, who defends better in space.
“When a team goes on a run, you have to manage it, you have to keep your composure and you have to keep playing basketball,” Brown said about that stretch at the end of the quarter. “It's almost like you have a little short-term memory, like the team isn't even running. You have to play smart basketball and make big plays to get us going, get our flow back, and I think in that third quarter I got to the free throw line. I think that helped us move forward. Then we took some corner kicks. Al (Horford) scored a 3. We were able to get a good offense going.”
Brown finished with 22 points and six rebounds. Tatum was just 6 of 16 from the floor, but he had 11 rebounds and five assists and stood out against Dallas as a playmaker, racking up hockey assists all night. Jrue Holiday earned a plus-20 in nearly 35 minutes on the court. The Celtics' relentless pressure on defenses for 48 minutes this season is the reason they are now three games away from the franchise's 18th NBA title. Choose your poison? Is all Poison when Boston is rolling. And he gets into the opponents' heads.
“We let the crowd get to us, we let the refs get to us, we let the shots get to us,” Dallas forward PJ Washington said.
This series is not over. Dallas almost always does its best work after a bad first game in a seven-game series. But the Mavericks' dilemma, again, is that what they've become great at defensively this season is what Boston doesn't rely on: scoring in the paint.
Dallas has been an outstanding defense since acquiring Daniel Gafford from the Washington Wizards and Washington from the Charlotte Hornets. Gafford and Lively closed the lane. The Celtics were good this season at scoring in the paint, finishing tied for eighth in the league with the Milwaukee Bucks in paint points per game (43.7). But Boston doesn't count on that to eliminate teams.
Boston has pushed what Phoenix did to the league 20 years ago, when the Suns had success playing small ball. The 2003-04 Suns had a brilliant point guard in two-time league MVP Steve Nash, who pushed the pace at every opportunity, never gave up his dribble and cut down defenses all season. They had wings in Shawn Marion, Quentin Richardson and Joe Johnson, who could shoot and finish downhill. And the Suns had a deck of a young power forward in Amare Stoudemire, who dove to the rim to receive lobs and pocket passes from Nash.
Since then, many championship-caliber, championship-winning teams have relied on 3-pointers: the Dwight Howard-era Orlando Magic, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson's Splash Brothers Golden State Warriors, James Harden's heliocentric Houston Rockets . But Boston has gone one step further.
The Suns led the NBA in 2003-04 in 3-point attempts and successes, with 2,026 3-point attempts and 796 successes. This season, Boston also led the NBA in 3-point attempts and makes, after finishing second in each category last season.
The Celtics had 3,482 3-point attempts this season and 1,351 successes. Boston finished just 12 3-pointers shy of the single-season team record set last season by the Warriors. And the Celtics aren't doing it by playing small; They have tremendous size up front with Tatum, Brown, Horford and Porziņģis.
“I think we do our best to find what works and then keep doing it,” Holiday said. “I think it's something we look at. And then at the same time, in NBA games, 20 points (leads) may mean nothing. I just think keeping our balance and being able to keep our heads helps us with that. “I think being consistent and doing things that we think worked tonight.”
The addition of Porziņģis from Washington last summer only adds to the Celtics' rich offense.
7 footers coming 👀 pic.twitter.com/ZTzvGEPEDV
– Boston Celtics (@celtics) June 7, 2024
He gives Boston a dimension it didn't have in previous years: a big man who can shoot, at any time, against almost anyone. His development as a scorer at the elbows and nails makes it extremely difficult even if defenses completely run out to shut down Boston's three-point shots. Now it doesn't matter if Tatum or Brown have a late night shootout. Boston simply controls Porziņģis in a pick-and-roll with Derrick White or Holiday, and he takes on (always smaller) defenders and lets him fly.
That takes some pressure off of Tatum. But make no mistake: Tatum remains the catalyst for everything that's happened here over the past few seasons. Even on off nights like Thursday, his presence tilts the ground.
“For us, it starts with JT and then it's kind of a trickle-down effect,” Horford said. “And we have all aligned ourselves because of that. And I think he's a big part of why everyone else gets all this stuff. He opens many things to us. And this, tonight, was just another night where we were consistent in that regard.”
The Mavericks talked afterward about how they have to defend the three better and how they will do better in Game 2. And they might. Kyrie Irving had a bad night; If he had made two or three open shots, Dallas might have been able to withstand the Celtics' offensive onslaught until the fourth quarter, when Dallas can close out tight games behind his two top offensive talents.
But we are already in June. No one has been able to stop Boston's offense all season. It's starting to feel like no one can and maybe won't be able to do it for quite some time.
(Photo by Kristaps Porziņģis: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
