Feels like a lot of the conversation I’ve heard online has revolved around how hard it will be for the Celtics to defend the Mavs, but the reverse is hardly mentioned
My only concern for Dallas is Celtics' shot making. If they're hot from 3 all series, Dallas is in trouble. But if they keep it close, Dallas is going to win the championship. They've flown under the radar since the trade deadline, but their defense is excellent, Kyrie is clutch, and Luka is an assassin.
@Coachsaint54 it doesn't, Minnesota shot 37% on 3s on 49 shots and Dallas 24% on 26 attempts. And T-Wolves still lost. How ? By giving nothing inside the parameter while Dallas was living in the paint.
The media keeps thinking the Spurs are trading for a high offense, low defense guy like Trae/Garland because "Well they have Wemby on defense". Did you not learn anything from the Wolves? You don't want bad defenders on your team with a generational defender, you want to make the defense incredibly good by surrounding him with solid to great defenders. Spurs aren't sticking Wemby with clean up duty for a bad defensive PG
Zach are you gonna have Scal on at some point? How is a finals preview just going to have a Mavericks beat writer as the guest?… was hoping for an unbiased pod but all I heard was how great the mavericks were for the entire thing for you to pick Boston at the end.
The key to the series is to hunt down this key guy and get him force him to defend more. This will wear him down. Boston has to be determine and deliberate in doing so. This guy had a easy ride on the defensive end so far in these playoffs. The objective is to wear him down. Boston can't allow him to hide like he did in previous series
D. Lively is gonna be a defensive impact player for a decade. On offense, he might not score a lot, but his impact will be felt in the pick & roll and on the boards. That kid is also proving that the moment isn't too big.
It’s odd that whenever Kyrie and Luka having a below average shooting night, PJ all of a sudden turning into a star. And whenever Luka and Kyrie are cooking, PJ aren’t shooting efficiently. I hope this time around, PJ will be more consistent at 50% from the paint and at least 40% from 3-point.
In the OKC series they blitzed Kyrie while Luka was in a huge shooting slump. That gave PJ (and DJJ) a lot of open looks. Twolves guarded the Mavs differently and why PJ didn't have as many open looks.
Hartenstein can only get like 76 million for 4 years with the Knicks because they dont have full bird rights. So the Knicks are limited if a team is willing to give him 20-25m a year in another state (especially if you pay no taxes in that state). The best idea is Hartenstein signs a 2-3 year deal for about 16m a year, with a player option for the last year, then in two years he opts out with full bird rights and signs for 25m a year or something to compensate him for taking less earlier
Thinking about every Dallas loss this postseason. clippers: clips shot 60% from three and made WILD contested shots the whole game. Didn’t do that again for the rest of the series. Anomaly. The other loss, Clips started crazy hot from 3 like game 1 making an absurd amount of 3s but blew a 33 point lead and Dallas almost completed the largest comeback in playoffs history if PG didn’t hit a contested fadeaway 3 from behind the backboard. Thunder: first loss, Thunder legit beat the breaks off Dallas in the second half and made more threes in that half than they did for the rest of the series in a single half. Anomaly. Second loss: Dallas lost a nail biter but had their worst free throw shooting game of the season. Luka missed a game tying free throw with seconds on the clock. Anomaly. Wolves: Dallas lost another nail biter, but were without arguably their third best player who played a huge role in equalizing the effect of Minnesotas size advantage. He also didn’t miss a single shot the whole series. Got him back the next game and blew them out. Why write all of this? It’s taken anomalies to beat Dallas this playoff run. No team has just played a regular game or overcame an off night to beat them. They’ve had to fire on all cylinders to get a single W. These teams were all 50+ win teams and with the exception of the Clippers, HEALTHY. On the flip side, Luka had his worst two playoff series EVER the first two rounds. Dallas won games where the opponent made 12 more 3’s than them and they shot 23%. They won games where they were out rebounded, shot less free throws and a lower percentage. They didn’t need huge games to win, they just won. The best part… they weren’t even favored. I’ve got Dallas beating Boston in 5 and shocking the world. Luka will have the rightful title of best player in the world. He may even crack Stephen A. Smiths top 5.
@@eddsuperstar 5 is a bold prediction, sure… but I’d lean towards Dallas being severely underrated in this series over Boston being dominate. If Boston wins, I think it will be a 7 game series.
What a test no defense or physicality. Bruh you all about to truly see what a Diamond 💎 will look like with Pressure, You niggas on the Celtics bust and break under any type of pressure.
@@chloedog0506 Wow Chloe you watched 3 celtics games this year. You really know your stuff. Thanks for the passive aggressive pathetic comment. Always can expect that from you.
Sometimes, it just comes down to a special player doing the types of things that a superstar does to win championships. Boston has the better team but that may not be enough to stop Luka’s destiny if he is in fact, the guy. It will be difficult to put four bullets in this guy at this point.
You can't stop Luca or Kyrie but The Celtics are uniquely qualified to make Life difficult on both of them without having to double. Holiday in white on Kyrie. Brown and Tatum on Luca Will be able to disrupt them enough without needing to double team or break integrity on defense. Celtics win this series in six games at most. Dallas hasn't seen a team like Boston and when they have the last two years they are 0-4
The disrespect from ESPN is amazing. SMH. They all agree that Bos is the favorite to win in the begining BUT they pick Dallas to win. Playing both sides of the coin just in case.
Agreed. The only time I’ve ever heard the N word with the hard R at an NBA game was at the Lakers game against the Kings game at the Old Staples Center in 2016. To be perfectly other fans calling Boston fans racist is just used as a convenient excuse to hate the team and the fans unjustifiably.
For decades, Boston has been plagued with the dismal superlative of being the most racist city in America. Sure, there's been progress-Boston is now a majority-minority city-but the perception persists. Last year, the Anti-Defamation League found that Massachusetts ranked second in the nation for white nationalist propaganda activity, just behind Texas.
Zach Lowe is going to be very disappointed watching Luka and Kyrie on defense. "Kyrie's really strong...Against Luka YOU BETTER MOVE quick" lol This podcast not going to age well
He’s talking about running to cover Luka’s passes over the top. As far as guarding him, it doesn’t matter how quick you are. You’re going to live on his hip.
Just watch when Boston targets both of them. They are playing better defense doesn’t mean that are not liabilities in the defense end. Dallas bigs in the back to protect the rim when players can easily go around Luka or post Kyrie. They are a liability on Defense, they just have bigs in the back to protect them.
I cringe at these guys mentioning Kyrie. I remember in Brooklyn how they tried to assassinate his character over not apologizing for a retweet. Now they love him. 🤦🏽♂️🤦🏽♂️
Luka is the best player in the world, the Mavs have the best backcourt of all time, and both Kyrie and Brown are now better than Tatum. How aren’t the Mavericks the favorites going into this?
To be fair to Tatum he is leading the Celtics in points, rebounds, and assists this postseason which certainly sounds like a best player on the team thing to do. Also idk what you basing kyrie being better than Tatum as the stats don't exactly favor kyrie.
In my opinion Tatum and Brown needs to win the Championship for them to be the new face of the NBA if not Europeans like Luka and Jokic will remain as the face of the NBA, it will just make the americans appear weak on their homecourt... who agrees?