Well, that was rude. The Boston Celtics welcomed Kyrie Irving back to TD Garden with a 107-89 rout in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night. The Celtics led by as many as 29 points in the first half, and, after Luka Doncic led a Mavericks run that cut the deficit to nine in the third quarter, they responded with a 16-2 run of their own, thanks largely to a series of timely plays by Jaylen Brown on both ends of the floor.
Brown finished with a team-high 22 points on 7-for-12 shooting, plus three blocks and three steals. Kristaps Porzingis, returning from a calf injury that had sidelined him since the first round of the playoffs, scored 20 points on 8-for-13 shooting off the bench and blocked three shots in 21 minutes.
On the other side, Doncic had 30 points on 12-for-26 shooting, and 10 rebounds, but only one assist. Irving struggled to get anything going and finished with 12 points on 6-for-19 shooting. Irving missed all five of his 3-point attempts.
Takeaways:
The math problem
Boston attempted 15 more 3s than Dallas did (42 to 27) and made nine more (16 to 7). Even if the Celtics had been a bit colder, that is a terrible, terrible formula for the Mavericks.
"Their spacing's great, and they have a lot of shooters, so I think we gotta do a better job taking those 3s away," Doncic told reporters.
Doncic is right, but that isn't easy. The Celtics shoot more 3s than anybody, and Dallas' defense, which has been excellent for the past few months, is better at protecting the paint than taking away 3s. The Mavs could decide to go small more often in Game 2, with the switchable Maxi Kleber at center -- they did this at times in the opener -- but that would feel like a macro victory for Boston. Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II, the latter of whom played only 18 minutes because of foul trouble in the opener, has given Dallas its defensive identity and can theoretically provide an advantage on the offensive glass.
The bigger problem is on the other end. The Mavs shot fewer 3s than they did in this game only once all season, including the playoffs. During the regular season, nobody shot more corner 3s than Dallas, but on Thursday, it only attempted three of them. One of them was an off-the-dribble brick off the side of the backboard by Irving; the only make was a garbage-time transition attempt by Josh Green.
The absolutely massive assist discrepancy
Here's something that isn't normal: The Mavericks finished the game with nine assists. Two of them were in garbage time.
Dallas had more turnovers (11) than assists. Boston had as many blocks as Dallas did assists. Even when the Mavs appeared to have some momentum in the third quarter, they weren't in a collective rhythm offensively. They didn't have a single assist in the third quarter, and the Celtics nudged them toward tough 2s in isolation.
"We've got to move the ball," Dallas coach Jason Kidd told reporters. "The ball just stuck too much."
On the other side, Jayson Tatum, Derrick White and Jrue Holiday finished with five assists apiece. Boston had 23 assists (i.e. about its average) in the game, and it scored 120.5 points per 100 possessions (i.e. about its average) before garbage time started (when Dallas took Doncic and Irving out with 5:17 left). The Celtics were not perfect offensively, but, for the vast majority of Game 1, their drive-and-kick game was on point. Dallas could not consistently contain them off the dribble.
The dominant Brown stretch
Here's Brown rejecting Derrick Jones Jr. at the rim. And then rejecting Irving at the rim:
And then hitting a cold-blooded 3 off the bounce:
The crazy thing about these plays is that they all happened in a two-minute stretch late in the third quarter. In that same stretch, Brown created a wide-open 3 for Al Horford in the corner.
Brown was extremely aggressive attacking the basket, and he expended a ton of energy on the other end. He was the primary defender on Doncic, and twice he picked the superstar's pocket, then raced the other way for uncontested dunks. His best highlight was a massive poster dunk on Gafford in the second quarter, but his most important work was done in the third. When the Celtics were looking a bit shaky, Brown grabbed control of the game.
"What you saw tonight is kind of the challenge he took for himself coming into the year," Boston coach Joe Mazzulla told reporters. "Not wanting to be defined by one thing. Wanting to make plays. Wanted to be a well-rounded player and get better and better. So his spacing, his ball movement, his defense on-ball and off-ball.
Usually when you give up a run and your offense gets a little stagnant, your defense goes with it. Tonight, our defense kept us in it, and that's really important, to have that defensive mindset. Some of those plays that Jaylen made were a part of that."
The happy return
After one of his deep 3s put Boston up by 28 points in the second quarter, the broadcast cut to Porzingis with an enormous smile on his face. The Celtics couldn't have scripted his return any better than this: He started off by making midrange jumpers over the top of Jaden Hardy and Green and driving past Lively for a two-handed dunk, and, while he made his presence felt on both ends and demonstrated why he's such a matchup problem for the Mavs, he didn't have to overexert himself.
"When I checked in and start things going my way and stuff, I didn't even think about it," Porzingis told reporters. "I was so in the moment and enjoying the moment and the crowd and everything, you know? I don't know, it's kind of like a blur to me right now. I have to re-watch the game, what happened and stuff, but I was completely just in the game. That's the best feeling. Like, I had the most fun and, yeah, and I hope to have more of those moments going forward."
Whether Porzingis continues to come off the bench or not, it's clear that he changes things for Boston. And Dallas doesn't want to see him that happy again.
"Yeah, KP was great, he knocked down shots," Kidd said. "He changed shots. He blocked shots. He gave them a spark when he came off the bench. We've just got to make it a little bit tougher on the offensive end. We've got to make him do something different. He got great looks and knocked them down."
