This question is easy to answer by just looking at what happened outside just the Finals. The Mavs were a top 10 offense in the regular season and were red hot through the playoffs, until they ran into the Celtics D. Similarly, the Pacers were the #2 offense in the regular season and the #1 offense in the playoffs … until they ran into the Celtics D. Both teams were extremely different types of offenses, but Boston shut down both.
@@myvids4329 The Pacers had an ORtg just over 120 through the regular season and 121.7 through the first two playoff rounds. It was just 114.8 in their series against Boston. So Boston shaved a whopping 7 points off their ORtg. On the way to a sweep.
@@melmartinez7002 Scoring always slows down in the playoffs. The Pacers gave the C's everything they could handle and only some late-game execution and a miracle shot by JB stopped that from being a six or seven game series. In fact, the Pacers played the C's a heck of a lot better than the Mavs did, and that was with Haliburton injured and then out. If the Pacers can work out a few defensive issues, they're going to be dangerous next season.
@@robotboy719 Except your assertion doesn't apply given that up until the Pacer's played the Celtics, their scoring was HIGHER in the playoffs than in the regular season. And then it dropped like a rock. The fact that a couple of the games were close doesn't change the fact that the Celtics defense dramatically nerfed the Pacer's offense.
Before the finals started, Mavs fans were soooo cocky and had no idea how good the Celtics are! “How will they stop our verticality and Luka?!” 😂😂😂😂😂 talking about Lively and Gafford like they’re all star when they’re really trash!!! Idk what y’all see in Lively but he’s not good! Dude doesn’t even know where to position himself. I saw Luka and Kyrie tell him where to go 100 times 😂.
@@HoopsIQ yup it turned into.. “who’s going to stop JB and JT” REAL QUICK. Even before the finals started mavs fans couldn’t answer the question. Who’s sticking Tatum and JB?!
From Mavs in 4 to mavs in 7 Mavs has the best backcourt to no luka has no help Mavs are more Battle tested Jays are chokers All the stupid narratives from these experts and haters are just hilarious.
Yet another example of people that didn't learn Bill "11 ring" Russell's lesson from the '60s: "DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS!". Ask Wilt "2 ring" Chamberlain.
I just remember how much Mazzulla was clowned for last season. The turnaround and growth in year 2 has been impressive to watch and the Celtics are set for title runs for a while
I feel like a lot of this is being looked at in a vacuum. We can talk about passing the ball to Gafford at the nail all we want, but Gafford is not the type of player to make good decisions out of that position and you’re playing into what Boston wants defensively anyway. This just boiled down to Boston made people who do very specific things well do anything but those things and Dallas just didn’t have a response that they could go to, especially with Kleber’s injury turning him into a complete non-shooter
Eh the Warriors kinda did this against him but mixed in some more zone sometimes to keep him guessing. Wiggs when he could pressured him full court etc.
If jones and Washington could make the 3 from anywhere besides the corner than Dallas would've scored more. Luka and Kyrie know their chances of making the 3 with those guys is slim so they don't pass them the ball. They need to get better or Dallas needs to get guys in that can shoot
Shouldn't answer this question in isolation like this. Mavs' bad offense/Celtics' good defense is also a result of good Celtics offense in targeting Luka to exhaustion. Luka gives the ball up early that lead to bad offense is a result of JB's multiple pick-6's from games before. Kyrie forcing shots because he's been denied all games by Jrue and the media have been inflating his ego on being a difficult shot maker so he thinks he can carry.
IMO the series could've at least gone longer if Dallas version Kyrie showed up in Boston. The fact he played well vs. the same defense in Dallas is indefensible, he hung Luka out to dry.
