On this episode of 'Inside The Mavs', Kevin Gray & Grant Afseth discuss the adjustments and game plan the Dallas Mavericks need going into GM 2 of the NBA Finals vs. Celtics!
The guys look back at GM 1 and what the Mavericks did right and wrong that has to improve going into GM 2 to even the series at 1-1. They discuss Luka and Kyrie's game one and what they will need to do to elevate their games to help the Mavericks get into this series and much more!
Support the show: This episode is brought to you by Aura. Aura: Stop data brokers from exposing your personal information. Go to my sponsor at https://aura.com/kevingray to get a 14-day free trial and see how much of yours is being sold.
Subscribe to @InsideTheMavs for more Mavericks content and subscribe to Grant's channel @GrantAfseth YouTube for more Mavericks coverage as well!
Be sure to subscribe to Kevin's YouTube channel @KevinGraySports and follow him on Twitter @KevinGraySports
Download and subscribe to the 'Inside The Mavs' Podcast, the official Mavericks podcast of 97.1 The Eagle wherever you get podcasts free, give it a five-star rating and write a review for the podcast.
Inside The Mavs Podcast: Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/inside-the-mavs/id1687581495 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3lH97deoTre1memqcpISRe?si=16ed964f523e4b17
The guys look back at GM 1 and what the Mavericks did right and wrong that has to improve going into GM 2 to even the series at 1-1. They discuss Luka and Kyrie's game one and what they will need to do to elevate their games to help the Mavericks get into this series and much more!
Support the show: This episode is brought to you by Aura. Aura: Stop data brokers from exposing your personal information. Go to my sponsor at https://aura.com/kevingray to get a 14-day free trial and see how much of yours is being sold.
Subscribe to @InsideTheMavs for more Mavericks content and subscribe to Grant's channel @GrantAfseth YouTube for more Mavericks coverage as well!
Be sure to subscribe to Kevin's YouTube channel @KevinGraySports and follow him on Twitter @KevinGraySports
Download and subscribe to the 'Inside The Mavs' Podcast, the official Mavericks podcast of 97.1 The Eagle wherever you get podcasts free, give it a five-star rating and write a review for the podcast.
Inside The Mavs Podcast: Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/inside-the-mavs/id1687581495 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3lH97deoTre1memqcpISRe?si=16ed964f523e4b17
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Freeze is the challenge more to takethat away or for you guys to have
(00:05):
to make more to kind of keepup knowing that they're gonna make some I
mean always. I think they're thebest three point shooting shooting team in the
NBA, so sometimes really hard thatthey use away, especially when they have
five guys out in the cano shoot. So obviously we gotta make more.
We don't make enough shots today tobe done, but we gotta be better
(00:26):
on both ends. On today's episodeof Inside the MAVs, how do the
Mavericks adjust going into Game number twoafter their Game one blowout loss in the
NBA Finals to the Boston Celtics.This is Inside the MAVs presented by Aura.
(01:11):
Welcome to Inside the MAVs presented byAura. I'm your host Kevin Gray,
maveris pre and post game host onthe Dallas Mavericks Radio Network. Appreciation
you joining us here for the latestepisode of Inside the MAVs. Make sure
you download subscribe to the podcast whereveryou get your podcasts for free. Go
to five star rating and write areview for it while you're there. And
if you watch this on my YouTubechannel like Kevin Gray Sports makes sure you
(01:32):
like a comment on the video aswell. Gotta get you ready for Game
two of the NBA Finals with alook back at Game one and the adjustments
that the Mavericks gotta make going intoGame two to try to earn a split
in Boston. Joining me on theepisode, Grant Asset of MAVs Sports Illustrated
covering the Dallas Mavericks in Boston gettingready for Game two of the NBA Finals.
(01:56):
Grant, what's going on? Notmuch? Definitely looking forward. We're
discussing that Game one. You know, always interesting to see how a team
can, you know, respond froma Game one and you know, it's
like what a lot of people sayabout the playoffs. Sometimes the reaction is,
you know, the team that losespeople think that's they're never gonna win
(02:17):
again. Some people think the teamthat wins is always going to win.
Like I remember hearing some some mediapeople, like you know, at the
Finals saying I'm not saying the seriesis over, Like I got to start
their sentences. So I'm just like, geez, Like, these narratives are
always interesting. Well, Game onewas definitely over a lot earlier than what
(02:39):
Mavericks fans. I'm sure we're expectinggoing into this NBA Finals, of course,
of Celtics winning Game one by eighteenone oh seven to eighty nine.
Christas Worzengis coming off the bench withtwenty points for the Celtics. But I
mean, grant honestly, before weget into anything specific from Game one,
as we look forward to Game two, I mean, this is kind of
(03:00):
what the Mavericks do. They're nowone in six in the Jason Kidd era
in game one's in the postseason.But at the same time, a couple
of things that Mavericks fans can't takesolace in, as the fact that the
MAVs have not lost back to backgame since March the fifth, and they've
won every game two of this postseasonso far. So maybe the Mavericks have
(03:23):
the Celtics right where they want themafter losing Game one in that way,
but I'm sure not in the fashionthat they wanted to see that happen,
win or lose based off of whatwe saw in Game one in that way,
yeah, definitely, I think goingdown by twenty nine obviously never a
positive, but managing to get thatdown to eight at one point, you
(03:43):
know, Jason Kidd pretty frequently mentionedthat travel that you know, Derek Lavely
had after that offensive rebound as basicallyalluding to as a momentum killer, which
you know proved to be the casewith them, you know, trailing by
twenty again before the third quarter evenended. That was just how you know,
impressive the Celtics were in this game. But you know, I think,
you know, going into a gameone, usually you're gonna see a
(04:05):
lot of the base approaches from bothteams and then you feel out like how
you know that looks and things ofthat nature. At Boston has to feel,
you know, very good about whattheir base identity looks like. And
now for Dallas they have to tryto find ways to get them out of
that identity. And you know withthem often you know switching and not doubling
(04:28):
or blitzing against you know, LukaDoncic or Kyrie irving that it's hard to
get the defense out of rotation andcreate quality looks for you know, especially
the Bigs. With the cross matchingthat Boston likes to do. There was
zero Rollman points, which is prettyalarming for a pick and roll oriented team.
And then you know, the cornerthree volume was extremely low. That
(04:49):
tells you they're willing to live withabove the break shots for guys like PJ.
Washington, Dereck Jones Junior. Andbefore the series started, you know,
we talked about how that's probably gonnabe the key and they're gonna have
to take advantage of those opportunities.I thought they didn't play fast enough,
but also, as we talked aboutfor the series, it's harder to be
faster when you're taking the ball outof the net as opposed to forcing turnovers,
(05:15):
closing possessions with misshots, and especiallywhen you're giving up second and third
chance opportunities. Especially early in thatgame, there was a lot of long
misses that they did not corral atall. So definitely a lot of things
to clean up going into that gametoo. But as you said, that
history of bouncing back from game onesand losses in general, they're gonna have
(05:39):
to lean into that to you avoidfalling down to zero in the series.
Yeah, because this is a Bostonteam that played to their strengths in Game
one in a lot of ways.I mean, you saw it, especially
in the first quarter. You know, the Mavericks I thought were a little
shell shocked by the way that theCeltics came out. I mean, Christoss
(06:00):
gave them a massive lift off thebench. I mean the Celtics went on
what was a twenty five to sevenrun to close the final seven minutes of
that first quarter to lead by seventeen. At the end of one, they
went seven to fifteen from downtown.And here's the thing, you know,
for folks that were watching the gameor may not have known, it's you
know, the Celtics set an NBAFinals record with seven guys making at least
(06:25):
two three pointers in Game one,that had never been done before. And
it just kind of gives you anidea of the amount of guys that can
make, take and make threes forthis team that seven different dudes had at
least two three pointers made in thegame, whether it was Sam Hauser,
whether it was Christas Porzingis. DerekWhite hit some back breaking threes in that
(06:47):
first quarter as well. It wasjust a barrage of threes. But you're
right, the Mavericks didn't play fastenough. But as you mentioned, you
know, you can't play with pacewhen you're constantly getting the ball out of
the out of the basket. Andwe saw in that first quarter. You
know, the Celtics really take itto them, and you know, I
was really surprised at you know,the fact that I mean, Luka Doncic
(07:09):
you know, played well for themost part in this game. Really kind
of felt like the only one thatwasn't too you know, overwhelmed by the
moment, if you will, inGame one for everyone else, especially in
that first quarter. And we weretalking about it before we got on the
show. You know, the veryfirst play of the game, Daniel Gafford
goes for a pump fake in theright corner on an Al Horford three pointer,
and next you know, Horfords driveinto the basket for a dunk,
(07:30):
and you're thinking, Okay, y'allgot to calm down a little bit.
It's okay, obviously it's a bigatmosphere, the Celtics fans are right there
loud, but you've got to staydisciplined. And I thought that from the
very outset kind of gave you indicationslike, Okay, the Mavericks might need
to figure out a way to slowsome things down. They just couldn't figure
out a way to get out oftheir own way in Game one, especially
(07:50):
in that first quarter there, Yeah, definitely. I thought that was a
great example. And then also throughoutthe game there were times where you know,
some players were hesits and to letit fly, you know, from
the perimeter, and against a teamlike Boston, when you have an opportunity
to shoot it, you have totheir whole goal, which is the goal
of any team, but they're justmore capable of doing it than any other
(08:13):
team is to not get out ofrotation, you know, if you have
that window of opportunity, that hasto happen getting that shot up, and
then you know, I just thought, you know, defensively as well too,
it seemed like they were a stepslow throughout the night. It felt
like Boston was far more aware ofwhat Dallas was trying to get into.
(08:33):
While Boston's read and react, youknow, offense, just getting the ball
to pop around, taking advantage ofsize and mismatches. Playing off of that,
it just seemed like they were moreprepared to handle, you know,
Dallas's approach. Aside from the thirdquarter, early period, they got really
stagnant and struggled to score and getinto the paint during that period. But
just the way they started things off, you know, I think they trusted
(08:56):
their identity very well, like youknow, Jason Tatum, Chris sasporzingis,
you know, they were in themiddle of the floor, uh, you
know, hunting smaller players at times. And then Jalen Brown was you know,
complete spark plug, setting the toneon both ends. He ripped the
ball from Luca numerous times for dunks. He was you know, he had
some dynamic defensive plays. I thinkhe had three steals and blocks. There
(09:20):
was like a low man rotation hehad re just like completely erased Derek Jones
dunk. And I thought some ofthose attempts by the MAVs, uh,
you know, I thought they wereyou know a little uh, you know,
the spotlight might be a little uh, you know, take take to
get used to. At this point, I thought Derek Jones getting blocked four
(09:41):
times, that was pretty you know, that was a high number. You
know, that's kind of a signof your pressing a little bit, you
know. Jaden Hardy, Josh Greenhad some you know fast breaks where they
you know, they just had reallytough well Josh Green not not as much.
I mean trying to dunk it.You gotta do what you got to
do in that situation. He justgot longed. But you know, Jayden
(10:05):
Hardy I thought at times tried todo a little bit too much, and
I just thought overall that compounded whereyou know, you can't have too many
new to the moment, you know, players in the circumstance. While Boston
is familiar with that territory, they'llstill naturally be nerves. As Jason Tatum
mentioned, he was even nervous forthe game. But that's a little different
set of nerves when you've already beenat the moment and it's more about,
(10:28):
all right, we've been here beforeand we have to take advantage of this
chance. I thought like Boston justtook advantage of that and used it as
fuel. Like Jaylen Brown, asI mentioned, with the spark plug for
them, he just set the toneand I think that really like propelled him,
Like he was amped up for everyplay that he made, his teammates
made, And you know, Ithought that was just a different mentality than
(10:50):
what the Mavericks, you know,kind of showed. Yeah, and you
could tell at different points of thegame the mavers were trying to get themselves
back, and he will dive moreinto that, especially in what was an
eleven and a half minute stretch betweenat the end of the first half and
into the third core, where themavers were able to turn things around to
make this a game in game one. But before we get there, let's
(11:11):
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(12:41):
Please see the link in the descriptionback here on Inside the Mask.
Thank you for hanging out with usthrough that spot. If they get to
today's sponsor our video and our podcastand AURA as we recap game number one
and get you ready for Game numbertwo of the NBA Finals between the Mavericks
and the Boston Celtics. The MavericksLoason BYT eighteen in game number one,
(13:05):
and we were talking about, obviouslysome of the things that the Mavericks struggled
with in Game one, and therewas a sequence late in that first quarter,
and you know, Christos Porzingis.We knew that he was going to
be able to be available for gameone, but I don't think we had
an idea that he was going tohave the kind of dramatic impact that he
had, especially in that first quarterwith the eleven points. At one point,
(13:26):
Porzingis hits a three, He getsa block on a Josh Green dunk
attemptment transition, Sam Hauser hits athree in the right corner, and then
Porzingis has another block on the nextpossession. Defensively, and he really put
his stamp on this game and reallytook advantage of some mismatches, whether it
be you know, getting threes inthe top of the key, whether it
(13:48):
be at the elbow, whether itbe the mid post, like he was
taking advantage of all the matchups thatwere there and making a variety of shots,
even taking the ball off the dribbleand taking it to the basket for
you know, a dunk like hehe showed his full versatile game and was
really effective for the Celjians. Wereyou surprised at how effective he was immediately
coming off the bench for the Celticsin that way. Yeah, I thought,
(14:11):
you know, I thought it wasan interesting decision, the smart one
for Boston to bring him off thebench. You know, Derek Lively had
been a massive, you know positivefor Dallas throughout their postseason run, especially
with him playing often against bench units, and I think having a talent like
Porzingis helps neutralize that advantage along withthe schemes obviously that they're playing because they're
(14:31):
cross matching a lot, so thattakes away a lot of what Derek you
know, tends to benefit from offensively. So you know, I just thought
with offensively from Porzingis, you know, everything that you said definitely having all
of that click at once was youknow, fascinating. I thought, you
know, he really relished in thesupport that he got. There was a
(14:52):
video that they were playing on theboard like he wasn't on the court when
the rest of the Celtics were warmingup like in the you know pregame,
uh you know warm up, andhe you know, was walking up the
hall like out of the training room. They're showing him the whole time walking
out of the tunnel, and thatarena was so loud for him they were
like super anticipating him playing, andhe actually had mentioned after the game that
(15:15):
you know, he used that asmotivation, like he you know, that
was such a you know, specialreception, uh, with for them being
that excited for him to come back, that he you know, basically like
you know, that was a helpfulfactor in him, you know, setting
that tone early. And I thought, uh, you know everything that you
mentioned, like the size mismatches hejust shot over, even PJ. Washington,
Like there's just nothing you can do, and that's situation. I mean,
(15:39):
those are tough shots to to livewith. And yeah, yeah,
yeah, So you know, whetherthat continues to happen throughout the course of
the series remains to be seen,but definitely it's kind of reminds me when
he was at the Mavericks. There'stimes where everything's clicking for him and you
just look like you see a teamthat's ready to set the NBA on fire.
(16:00):
Like at the time, they hadthe best offensive rating in NBA history
with Luca and uh, you knowPorzingis and there's times where you know,
Porzingis just spraying threes, blocking shots, catching lobs, getting to the rim.
Luca's doing what Luca does, andthen you're like, this team looks
like they'll never lose again. Thenyou know, threes don't fall the next
(16:22):
game on a you know, likeat the time, Mavericks were a heavy
three point reliant team and uh,you know that kind of went back down
to earth at times, so thatyou know that Boston is more talented than
those Mavericks teams. So if threesdon't fall, it doesn't mean to say
that they're automatically going to lose byany stretch, but you know, that's
kind of the way the a playoffseries can go sometimes when teams just the
(16:45):
lasers, tons of threes, alot of things click for them, tough
shots fall. It kind of remindsme of how Dallas closed out the Timberwolves.
People were talking about, oh oneof like the best backcourt ever,
best talent or most talented often tothat courtever, like you just start having
those conversations when guyscore like thirty fiveplus, they look unbeatable, and then
(17:07):
all of a sudden, Kyrie Irvingis scoring twelve points, six to nineteen
from the floor, zero for fivefrom three in Game one of the NBA
Finals, and then now we're likeKyrie Irving needs to be better in game
two. So there's just a lotof you know, not don't get too
high, don't get too low ifyou're a team in the in the playoffs,
because it can flip in a lotof different directions very quickly. Yeah,
(17:30):
I was surprised at how many peoplejumping on my timeline and just on
Twitter in general saying where was thisChristains Porzingis in Dallas. I'm like,
yeah, I must have not beenpaying attention at times, because there were
plenty of times when that version ofChristains Porzingis showed up for Dallas, and
I remember many a game where Porzingiswas out here, like you said,
bombing away from the three point line. There were plenty of Yes, I
(17:52):
know that Porzingis dealt with his fairstyear, you know of interested times with
the Mavericks, but there were somepoints where you could see the offensive music
that Porzingis and Donchers were making togetherand you were thinking, man, that's
the kind of stretch five that youknow the league is kind of looking at.
And there's a reason why he's kindof referred to as a unicorn because
of his ability to shoot from threeand be able to put the ball in
the four, but then on theother end block shots the way that he
(18:12):
did, and he was tremendous,you know, in Game one. But
there was a stretch two stretches forthe Mavericks in Game one that I think
if you're a Mavericks fan, youcould take a little bit of confidence in
because it kind of gave us awindow into maybe this is how the Mavericks
can be able to start to getthemselves into this series. And you know,
in the final four minutes of thesecond quarter of the first half,
(18:36):
they went on a thirteen to fiverun. Donchers hit a three pointer with
nine seconds left to cut the leaddown to what was twenty one going into
the second half, So you feltlike, Okay, they saw some positive
things start to happen in the finalfour minutes of the first half. Then
they open up the first seven anda half minutes of the third quarter on
a twenty two to nine run tocut the lead from what was to twenty
(18:59):
one to eight, and you feltlike and again Luka Doncic hitting a three
pointer to be able to get themdown to that eight point deficit, and
at that point you had worked yourway back into the game. Boston,
I believe, started one of sixor one of seven from three in that
third quarter, and the Mavericks startedto lock down defensively, and they were
finally starting to get some things goingwith Luca and Kyrie to an extent to
(19:22):
really get themselves back into the game. But as you mentioned a little bit
earlier, you know, this gamewas full of runs. And as soon
as you felt like the Mavericks wereable to get that momentum, get it
down the single digits which they hadbeen fighting to get to, Boston rips
off a fourteen to oher run cappedoff by a Jalen Brown three pointer,
and next thing you know, they'reback up by twenty two before you can
(19:42):
blink. And it's just like,this is the kind of thing that you
got to be able to sustain.And I thought the Mavericks had a chance
to really get themselves in it.You talked about, you know, the
seqcers where you had to traveler kindof killed the momentum. What did you
see in those two stretches in thatthirteen to five run to close the first
half and then that twenty two ninestart in the third quarter that the Mavericks
(20:03):
can take with them a little bitgoing into Game two based off of what
they did successfully in those two partsof the game there. Yeah, I
think a lot of it did relyon you know, Boston missing threes.
I think during the third quarter theystarted to you know, be more willing
to live with the big switching andtrying to hold his own, which you
(20:23):
know that was that was something thatdid come at a cost because Derek Lively
fouled like crazy during that. SoI think in concept, if you can
keep them a little bit more offof the three point line in terms of
clean looks while also protecting the paintby being willing to switch and hold your
own, like by not foiling asmuch next game, that's you know,
(20:45):
something that can kind of be thoughtof. I think a lot of times
kind of going back to that youknow, feel out game or you know,
you could go into a Game onewith your base strategies. I think
Dallas doesn't necessarily as any team wouldwant to show too many of their cards
from the start of a series,so I think they started to mix it
up more after halftime, as they'vedone in previous series. So I think
(21:07):
just you know, getting a littlemore creative, maybe go with a little
bit of a matchup zone, butyou have to be able to get that
energy from everyone on the floor defensively, and I thought, you know,
for as much as Luca was effectiveoffensively with thirty points and adding ten rebounds,
I thought he was really taxed bythe you know, Jalen Brown,
(21:27):
Drew Holliday, Derek White, allthose defenders really pressing him and being physical
and taking stabs the ball all night. That like, there were some rotations
that he didn't necessarily make as wellas other members of the team that I
think you're going to have to findthat balance of perhaps Kyrie Irving is going
to have to initiate more. Ithink we've had this discussion at times in
(21:49):
the playoffs another series too, whereyou know, I think kind of the
defense is going to have to benefitfrom the offense taking pressure off Luca,
let him, you know, kindof respond like he did in that Clippers
series where we were talking about defensiveletdowns in Game one of that series and
then all of a sudden, hegot hunted like crazy later on and he
(22:11):
sat down guarded and held his ownAnd I think that's gonna have to be
where Kyrie Irving is gonna have tohelp out Luca where you know, maybe
he initiates more, maybe the offensejust gets more creative in their approach.
But I think, you know,the Mavericks should probably learn a little bit
from the Celtics approach. I thinkthey need to get Luca more touches in
the middle of the floor was spacingbecause they had a lot of size and
(22:33):
mismatches that they just thrived on withPorzingis and Tatum and you know, Jalen
Brown, you know a lot ofplayers in general. They were good about
finding favorable spots where I think Luca, you know, playing a little bit
more off ball, moving him aroundthe half court. Regardless of you know,
how they do it. I thinkthey're gonna have to fry. But
I think also this is the teamwhere that's not necessarily the easiest thing to
(22:59):
do, versus saying like it's easyfor me to say that and not show
my work if you will. Iremember during the World Cup, you know,
they they experimented with Luca on theSlovenia national team a little bit where
he was playing off of like youknow, zoom action handoffs out of the
corner, pinned downs, all thatstuff. But they kind of went away
from it at times because when youface a team that's really physical and it's
(23:22):
gonna be very aggressive, you can'tget into those actions as well because they
just simply blow them up. Andyou know, there's there's gonna be less
contact foul calls in FOBA versus theyou know, NBA, So maybe you
know, and in game one,the referee kind of let them go a
little bit, like there wasn't alot of foul calls. They kind of
let them play and have their wayfrom physical standpoint, which I was kind
(23:45):
of surprised by that the game wasn'tcaught a little bit tight. I think
Luca was too, because there wasplenty of time. I mean, it's
not like he didn't do that anyway, but there's plenty of times where he
was looking for foul calls that didn'tcome, but the referees were letting him
play in Game one for sure.Yeah, definitely, So I think you
know you're gonna have to you know, I have to play through that going
forward, but also you know,maybe just feel it out, like where
maybe you run them off a pindown or get them that handoff out of
(24:07):
that zoom action and maybe draw afile out of it, depending on the
the style of the real superstars inthe NBA, the officiating crew, that's
that might be for some of theplayoffs. That seems to be one of
the matchups that you gotta watch.Yes, yes, oh for sure.
(24:30):
I think in general, they're gonnahave to probably turn to some of their
other approaches that they've used in thepast as well too, Like they're gonna
have to use more double drag screens, try to bring one of the smaller
guards into the action and get moreaggressive hunting that uh, you know,
Drew Holliday can hold his own.Derek White can as well, but I
like that more than you know JalenBrown just guarding his ass off against Luca
(24:56):
with his size and his length,athleticism, all that'stuf So I think that's
definitely, you know, something they'regonna have to do. I think that's
happened in previous playoff series as welltoo, where they've had to turn to
that more, especially against Minnesota wherethey look a little stagnant at times,
I think in that loss really becausethat was a great series from them overall.
But you know other matchups as welltoo, where I think Oklahoma City
(25:19):
was one in particular where they hadto get more creative because Kyrie Irving was
neutralized by doubles and all of thelike in some of those games, scoring
multiple times in single figures. Soyeah, definitely this is gonna be a
real test for you know, thecoaching staff the creativity of them as well,
because you're not only having to dealwith just creating the shots. You
(25:41):
have a math problem that you haveto solve for too, that Boston poses
for any team that's playing them sincethey get up so many threes. And
I know people don't like to hearthat because they start to say, oh,
he's gonna talk about Excel spreadsheets withme. That's not real basketball.
But you know, I think thereis a very real, you know,
(26:03):
situation on the court when it happens. Because, as you said, that
stretch where they lasered like three straightthrees and fits of plays with Porzingis on
blocks and things of that nature,you know, that just became daunting and
overwhelming to the point where you're like, wow, they are already down twenty
one points or whatever it was orhurry whatever. Yeah, it was very
(26:25):
fast and as Kyrie Irving likes to, you know, frequently mention you know,
the start of a game is superimportant because that really ties into how
you manage the rest of the game. And that's kind of why them even
getting it down to eight I think, you know that naturally, you know,
it was a positive to look into. But also I mean the fact
(26:45):
that they had to come back fromtwenty nine, that they had no margin
for aer left at all. Theyhad to be perfect the rest of the
game, and that's a lot ofgame left to be played to have to
be perfect to the point where theyhad to put reserves in. Yeah,
even after cutting it down to eight, So you definitely a lot to you
know, kind of think about goinginto that next game. But yeah,
definitely gonna have to take pressure offof Luca, I think offensively, to
(27:07):
get more out of him defensively becausenaturally that's a lot of burden taking Like
what what did you how many shotsdid he take twenty six? Uh?
You wanted up taking in game one? Yeah, twenty six shots went twelve
to twenty six. Yeah, becausethat takes a lot of effort when you're
mostly breaking down you know, areally good defender out in space. And
then also trying to with double teamsthat on one basket like it was,
(27:30):
and he had to finish tough atthe rim after splitting the double team like
it was just some real tough shotsthat he had to make a times Negga,
yeah, exactly. So like naturally, there's gonna be limitations to the
defensive impact someone provides in that context, so they're gonna have to find ways
to make it easier for him,and that will definitely be a factor because
it trickles through a large, youknow, segment of the game, you
(27:52):
know, throughout the rest of thenight. Overall, four numbers that stood
out to me in game one that'vegot to change in game two. Number
one is the one is the numberone actually, which was the amount of
assists that Lukadoncich had that is unheardof for him and Boston's calculus for me
is watching the game and going backand watching it, you know a little
bit over again. Is the calculuswas for them to say, look,
(28:17):
go ahead, Luca, go aheadand do what you do. If you
score thirty thirty five, that's fine. None of the rest of these other
guys are gonna beat this. We'regonna stay home on PJ. We're gonna
stay home. On Derrick Jones Jr. We're gonna switch when we need to,
but we're not letting all these otherguys beat you because they only took
what attempted, two corner threes ingame one as well, so they limited
(28:37):
the corner threes. Luca Donche onlyhad one assist, but the other three
numbers that stood out to me,two of them are the same number actually,
the number nine nine, which wasthe total amount of assist that the
Mavers had in game one, andthe Celtics had nine blocks in game one.
Like the defensive effort that Boston had, and you mentioned a little bit
earlier Jaylen Brown. You know,probably the sequence of the game outside of
(29:00):
that porzingis when we talked about heattempt blocks, you know, an attempted
lob attempt from from for Derrick JonesJr. Then on the same possession blocks
a dunk attempt at the rim byDerrick Jones Junior. You're talking about the
four blocks you know that he hadon him. You know in game one,
that individual effort by Jalen Brown wassensational. Throughout the course of the
(29:22):
game, he had a pickpocket,a Luca that led to a dunk.
On the other end, he wasflying around the court. And also for
me, Brown was the one thatstopped that when they cut it down the
eight and they were eventually able toget it back up to twenty two.
It wasn't Jason Tatum, it wasn'tPorzingis. It was Jaylen Brown that said,
look, uh uh, this isnot gonna happen. We're gonna push
this lead back up, you know, to twenty two. And that's what
(29:45):
it became. I thought Jalen Brownwas sensational in game number one, and
the other number, I'll say realquick is twenty seven. The Celtics were
a plus twenty seven from the threepoint line in Game one against the map.
You're not gonna win any games whenyou're shooting if you're the Mavericks seven
of twenty seven from three at twentysix percent, while the Celtics go sixteen
(30:07):
to forty two, scoring forty eightpoints from the three point line. That's
not gonna work, especially for ateam that gets up as many threes as
they do. In fact, Bostonput up forty two threes in Game one.
They did exactly that whole math gamethat we were talking about going into
the series that if they did itand did it well, the Mavericks could
be in trouble. And that's exactlywhat Boston did. But those numbers,
(30:29):
for me told me a lot aboutGame one and the lack of ball movement
that we saw from the Mavericks simplybecause Boston made the calculus that hey,
Luke and go get his, butthen none of the rest of these guys
are gonna get there is based offof what they are able to do and
how they affect the game, whetherit be knocking down threes or in the
lib in the vertical game. Yeah, the Celtics just weren't happen in the
game one. Yeah, definitely,because that basically takes away the finisher like
(30:55):
the Bigs, that takes them outand they have been some of the most
efficient you know, just score ingeneral, you know, with their you
know, catching finish opportunities on pickand roll and just drop off passes,
so that that takes away a bigpart of their offense. And then the
corner threes as you mentioned as welltoo. That's the other you know hot
spot zone that you know, Lucalikes to you know, spray it out.
To So overall, that's two fundamentalelements of the offense that are neutralized.
(31:19):
And I thought they did a greatjob of containing Kyrie Irving as well
too. They really got him offthe three point line and they funneled him
into help into tough you know,short range you know shot creation sequences where
he was really having to be acrobaticin the air. Sometimes he had clean
ones, so it's not like theywere Fort Knox like the whole night,
(31:41):
but he also had some tough finishattempts where he had play against contact missed
the finish, And I just thoughtthey did a great job. When people
talk about, you know, makingit life tough on a star player,
I thought that was a great exampleof it. And you know, as
you said with Luca, you knowthey definitely were willing to live with that
appro coach where he's you know,going to score his thirty plus and they're
(32:02):
okay with that. And actually JoeMozula talked about that, I think during
the very long break that the Celticshad before the finals where he actually used
those numbers as examples. He said, as I forgot the exact assist count
that he used, I think itwas pretty hyperbolic. I could be completely
wrong on the total, but Ithink he said, like, as long
as Luca's not getting thirty and liketwenty assists, if we hold him to
(32:23):
like four or five and he's stillgetting his thirty, then that's where we
want to be. It could havebeen lower than twenty. It could have
been like I'm completely forgetting well,but basically I think it was hyperbolic.
Obviously, where you know, that'sthe type of game plan that they want
to have. Obviously he's not goingto tell you how they're going to do
(32:44):
it. So Luka Doncic before theseries mentioning, you know, really spotlighting
the cross matching that Boston you know, has done against them in the past.
They really they should have expected thisbecause I think they did the approaches
that Boston you so, I thinkthat's they're just kind to settle into the
series, get get those adjustments,figure out the you know, right spots
(33:07):
to attack all that good stuff,and do all a lot of adjustments on
the possibilities that we talked about aswell too. Uh So that's you know,
definitely a very impressive game one executionof the game plan for Boston.
But yeah, definitely a lot touh, you know, think about for
Game two for Dallas, because there'sjust a lot of factors that are compounding
(33:30):
whenever you're giving up advantages in onepart of the game that feed into others
on both sides of the floor.Especially. Yeah, the last thing I'll
say on that is because you know, when you look at Boston what they
were able to do, not onlythe defense you know that they played,
I mean the the effort that youcould tell that the experience for Boston was
(33:51):
able to play itself out a littlebit in this Game one for them based
on the way that they were ableto play, and I thought they did
a really good job of weathering andplaying in the moment and being able to
really take advantage of that because itfelt like the Mavericks at times were just
not there when it came to theirexecution and the way that they play.
But you know, for the Mavericks, they've got to find a way to
(34:12):
settle down into the series a littlebit, find a way to be able
to deal with the baras that theCeltics are dealing, you know, can
present, and then be able tomove forward from there. Otherwise they're going
to find themselves in an O twohole in this years, but there's a
lot of series left. As wementioned a little bit earlier, they haven't
lost back to back games since Marchthe fifth, as the team that's won
every game two of this postseason sofar. As you mentioned, they've got
(34:32):
to lean into that quite a bitgoing into game two to find themselves getting
a split before coming back to Dallas. But it was an impressive Game one
from Boston. They did exactly whatthey're capable of doing, and they did
it quite well. And the Mavericks, I think now have a chance to
counter punch and figure out a wayto be able to get themselves back into
this series going forward there. Soit should be hopefully a really good game
(34:55):
too. Now that the Mavericks kindof have an idea of what to expect
from that Boston crowd, they feltit, they were able to kind of
take it all in and hopefully nowbe able to absorb it to be able
to deal with it, because it'sgoing to be if you look, they
thought it was loud in Game onebefore that game started. They're going to
be in for a root awakening forGame two because it's gonna be even louder
(35:16):
and I feel like a shark smellsmud in the water that yeah, that's
going to be yeah. Yeah,And if you're Boston, I mean Tatum
didn't even play. He played,okay, he was all right. He
went six or sixteen from the field, had sixteen points, was a plus
nineteen. Sure, they sure lefthim out there to get those numbers up,
though they did. They did afteryeah, because the mavers way of
(35:37):
the white flag with five minutes leftin the game, Doncheons was already out
of the game, and the Bostonstarters were still, you know, in
there with you know, a coupleof minutes you know, left in the
game before they eventually took them outas well. So yeah, there was
there was some of that. ButI mean, I guess you can kind
of do that when you've played theway that you played already in the the
first you know, three plus quartersof the game to get you to that
(35:59):
point. So looking forward to gametwo, though, this is kind of
what the Mavericks do. They loseGame one, but they find a way
to climb themselves back into a series. They'll need to do that in game
two. Grand telephones they can findyou and what you got going on,
man. Yeah, for sure,I have a couple of articles already from
that Game one. We'll have plentymore as well, especially because the Mavericks
are practicing tomorrow Celtics as well,and the NBA Finals. They have like
(36:22):
everyone wearing a Mavericks logo talking everyday when they do organize stuff, so
everyone pretty much should be talking tomorrow. Sure, there'll be plenty from that,
and you can find all that contenton you know, SI dot com
slash NBA slash Mavericks. You know, I'll have you know, coverage stout
(36:43):
the playoffs on my YouTube channel.Uh, you know, just my name
Grant afseeth A F S E.T H where I have press conferences and
then I'm gonna be doing some videobreakdowns before Game two as well, and
uh yeah, more episodes on Insidethe Mevs and uh, you know,
plenty of content on Kevin's Twitter accountand then also you know you can watch
(37:06):
these episodes on his YouTube channel aswell too. Yeah, there'll be plenty
of coverage here on Inside the MAVsto continue to have you cover throughout the
NBA Finals. Grant is traveling withthe NBA Finals. He is there,
He's there, in Boston, willbe so for Game two obviously, before
coming back to Dallas for Games threeand four. So definitely subscribe to his
channel on YouTube at grand asps thathe's got tremendous stuff and all kinds of
(37:30):
coverage for the Mavericks as we continuethe NBA Finals. You can find me
on Twitter at Kevin Gray Sports.Make sure you download and subscribe to the
Inside the Mass podcast wherever you getyour podcasts for free. Give it a
five star rating and write a reviewfor it while you're there. Of course,
I'm your Mavericks brand postgame host onlyDallas Mavericks Radio Network. Our pre
game will begin on Sunday evening atsix thirty pm, with Game two tipping
(37:52):
off at seven pm with Chuck Houperstinand Brian Demeris on the call for the
Dallas Mavericks Radio Network. We'll haveplenty more of cover straught the weekend as
the Mavericks get back on the practicefloor on Saturday, and the Mavericks and
Celtics will actually both be on thepractice floor on Saturday ahead of Game number
two on Sunday. That'll do itfor this episode of Inside the MAVs again.
(38:14):
Appreciate you joining us here for thisepisode on Inside the MAVs. For
grants, I'm Kevin. This hasbeen Inside the MAVs presented by Aura
Freeze is the challenge more to takethat away or for you guys to have
(00:05):
to make more to kind of keepup knowing that they're gonna make some I
mean always. I think they're thebest three point shooting shooting team in the
NBA, so sometimes really hard thatthey use away, especially when they have
five guys out in the cano shoot. So obviously we gotta make more.
We don't make enough shots today tobe done, but we gotta be better
(00:26):
on both ends. On today's episodeof Inside the MAVs, how do the
Mavericks adjust going into Game number twoafter their Game one blowout loss in the
NBA Finals to the Boston Celtics.This is Inside the MAVs presented by Aura.
(01:11):
Welcome to Inside the MAVs presented byAura. I'm your host Kevin Gray,
maveris pre and post game host onthe Dallas Mavericks Radio Network. Appreciation
you joining us here for the latestepisode of Inside the MAVs. Make sure
you download subscribe to the podcast whereveryou get your podcasts for free. Go
to five star rating and write areview for it while you're there. And
if you watch this on my YouTubechannel like Kevin Gray Sports makes sure you
(01:32):
like a comment on the video aswell. Gotta get you ready for Game
two of the NBA Finals with alook back at Game one and the adjustments
that the Mavericks gotta make going intoGame two to try to earn a split
in Boston. Joining me on theepisode, Grant Asset of MAVs Sports Illustrated
covering the Dallas Mavericks in Boston gettingready for Game two of the NBA Finals.
(01:56):
Grant, what's going on? Notmuch? Definitely looking forward. We're
discussing that Game one. You know, always interesting to see how a team
can, you know, respond froma Game one and you know, it's
like what a lot of people sayabout the playoffs. Sometimes the reaction is,
you know, the team that losespeople think that's they're never gonna win
(02:17):
again. Some people think the teamthat wins is always going to win.
Like I remember hearing some some mediapeople, like you know, at the
Finals saying I'm not saying the seriesis over, Like I got to start
their sentences. So I'm just like, geez, Like, these narratives are
always interesting. Well, Game onewas definitely over a lot earlier than what
(02:39):
Mavericks fans. I'm sure we're expectinggoing into this NBA Finals, of course,
of Celtics winning Game one by eighteenone oh seven to eighty nine.
Christas Worzengis coming off the bench withtwenty points for the Celtics. But I
mean, grant honestly, before weget into anything specific from Game one,
as we look forward to Game two, I mean, this is kind of
(03:00):
what the Mavericks do. They're nowone in six in the Jason Kidd era
in game one's in the postseason.But at the same time, a couple
of things that Mavericks fans can't takesolace in, as the fact that the
MAVs have not lost back to backgame since March the fifth, and they've
won every game two of this postseasonso far. So maybe the Mavericks have
(03:23):
the Celtics right where they want themafter losing Game one in that way,
but I'm sure not in the fashionthat they wanted to see that happen,
win or lose based off of whatwe saw in Game one in that way,
yeah, definitely, I think goingdown by twenty nine obviously never a
positive, but managing to get thatdown to eight at one point, you
(03:43):
know, Jason Kidd pretty frequently mentionedthat travel that you know, Derek Lavely
had after that offensive rebound as basicallyalluding to as a momentum killer, which
you know proved to be the casewith them, you know, trailing by
twenty again before the third quarter evenended. That was just how you know,
impressive the Celtics were in this game. But you know, I think,
you know, going into a gameone, usually you're gonna see a
(04:05):
lot of the base approaches from bothteams and then you feel out like how
you know that looks and things ofthat nature. At Boston has to feel,
you know, very good about whattheir base identity looks like. And
now for Dallas they have to tryto find ways to get them out of
that identity. And you know withthem often you know switching and not doubling
(04:28):
or blitzing against you know, LukaDoncic or Kyrie irving that it's hard to
get the defense out of rotation andcreate quality looks for you know, especially
the Bigs. With the cross matchingthat Boston likes to do. There was
zero Rollman points, which is prettyalarming for a pick and roll oriented team.
And then you know, the cornerthree volume was extremely low. That
(04:49):
tells you they're willing to live withabove the break shots for guys like PJ.
Washington, Dereck Jones Junior. Andbefore the series started, you know,
we talked about how that's probably gonnabe the key and they're gonna have
to take advantage of those opportunities.I thought they didn't play fast enough,
but also, as we talked aboutfor the series, it's harder to be
faster when you're taking the ball outof the net as opposed to forcing turnovers,
(05:15):
closing possessions with misshots, and especiallywhen you're giving up second and third
chance opportunities. Especially early in thatgame, there was a lot of long
misses that they did not corral atall. So definitely a lot of things
to clean up going into that gametoo. But as you said, that
history of bouncing back from game onesand losses in general, they're gonna have
(05:39):
to lean into that to you avoidfalling down to zero in the series.
Yeah, because this is a Bostonteam that played to their strengths in Game
one in a lot of ways.I mean, you saw it, especially
in the first quarter. You know, the Mavericks I thought were a little
shell shocked by the way that theCeltics came out. I mean, Christoss
(06:00):
gave them a massive lift off thebench. I mean the Celtics went on
what was a twenty five to sevenrun to close the final seven minutes of
that first quarter to lead by seventeen. At the end of one, they
went seven to fifteen from downtown.And here's the thing, you know,
for folks that were watching the gameor may not have known, it's you
know, the Celtics set an NBAFinals record with seven guys making at least
(06:25):
two three pointers in Game one,that had never been done before. And
it just kind of gives you anidea of the amount of guys that can
make, take and make threes forthis team that seven different dudes had at
least two three pointers made in thegame, whether it was Sam Hauser,
whether it was Christas Porzingis. DerekWhite hit some back breaking threes in that
(06:47):
first quarter as well. It wasjust a barrage of threes. But you're
right, the Mavericks didn't play fastenough. But as you mentioned, you
know, you can't play with pacewhen you're constantly getting the ball out of
the out of the basket. Andwe saw in that first quarter. You
know, the Celtics really take itto them, and you know, I
was really surprised at you know,the fact that I mean, Luka Doncic
(07:09):
you know, played well for themost part in this game. Really kind
of felt like the only one thatwasn't too you know, overwhelmed by the
moment, if you will, inGame one for everyone else, especially in
that first quarter. And we weretalking about it before we got on the
show. You know, the veryfirst play of the game, Daniel Gafford
goes for a pump fake in theright corner on an Al Horford three pointer,
and next you know, Horfords driveinto the basket for a dunk,
(07:30):
and you're thinking, Okay, y'allgot to calm down a little bit.
It's okay, obviously it's a bigatmosphere, the Celtics fans are right there
loud, but you've got to staydisciplined. And I thought that from the
very outset kind of gave you indicationslike, Okay, the Mavericks might need
to figure out a way to slowsome things down. They just couldn't figure
out a way to get out oftheir own way in Game one, especially
(07:50):
in that first quarter there, Yeah, definitely. I thought that was a
great example. And then also throughoutthe game there were times where you know,
some players were hesits and to letit fly, you know, from
the perimeter, and against a teamlike Boston, when you have an opportunity
to shoot it, you have totheir whole goal, which is the goal
of any team, but they're justmore capable of doing it than any other
(08:13):
team is to not get out ofrotation, you know, if you have
that window of opportunity, that hasto happen getting that shot up, and
then you know, I just thought, you know, defensively as well too,
it seemed like they were a stepslow throughout the night. It felt
like Boston was far more aware ofwhat Dallas was trying to get into.
(08:33):
While Boston's read and react, youknow, offense, just getting the ball
to pop around, taking advantage ofsize and mismatches. Playing off of that,
it just seemed like they were moreprepared to handle, you know,
Dallas's approach. Aside from the thirdquarter, early period, they got really
stagnant and struggled to score and getinto the paint during that period. But
just the way they started things off, you know, I think they trusted
(08:56):
their identity very well, like youknow, Jason Tatum, Chris sasporzingis,
you know, they were in themiddle of the floor, uh, you
know, hunting smaller players at times. And then Jalen Brown was you know,
complete spark plug, setting the toneon both ends. He ripped the
ball from Luca numerous times for dunks. He was you know, he had
some dynamic defensive plays. I thinkhe had three steals and blocks. There
(09:20):
was like a low man rotation hehad re just like completely erased Derek Jones
dunk. And I thought some ofthose attempts by the MAVs, uh,
you know, I thought they wereyou know a little uh, you know,
the spotlight might be a little uh, you know, take take to
get used to. At this point, I thought Derek Jones getting blocked four
(09:41):
times, that was pretty you know, that was a high number. You
know, that's kind of a signof your pressing a little bit, you
know. Jaden Hardy, Josh Greenhad some you know fast breaks where they
you know, they just had reallytough well Josh Green not not as much.
I mean trying to dunk it.You gotta do what you got to
do in that situation. He justgot longed. But you know, Jayden
(10:05):
Hardy I thought at times tried todo a little bit too much, and
I just thought overall that compounded whereyou know, you can't have too many
new to the moment, you know, players in the circumstance. While Boston
is familiar with that territory, they'llstill naturally be nerves. As Jason Tatum
mentioned, he was even nervous forthe game. But that's a little different
set of nerves when you've already beenat the moment and it's more about,
(10:28):
all right, we've been here beforeand we have to take advantage of this
chance. I thought like Boston justtook advantage of that and used it as
fuel. Like Jaylen Brown, asI mentioned, with the spark plug for
them, he just set the toneand I think that really like propelled him,
Like he was amped up for everyplay that he made, his teammates
made, And you know, Ithought that was just a different mentality than
(10:50):
what the Mavericks, you know,kind of showed. Yeah, and you
could tell at different points of thegame the mavers were trying to get themselves
back, and he will dive moreinto that, especially in what was an
eleven and a half minute stretch betweenat the end of the first half and
into the third core, where themavers were able to turn things around to
make this a game in game one. But before we get there, let's
(11:11):
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Please see the link in the descriptionback here on Inside the Mask.
Thank you for hanging out with usthrough that spot. If they get to
today's sponsor our video and our podcastand AURA as we recap game number one
and get you ready for Game numbertwo of the NBA Finals between the Mavericks
and the Boston Celtics. The MavericksLoason BYT eighteen in game number one,
(13:05):
and we were talking about, obviouslysome of the things that the Mavericks struggled
with in Game one, and therewas a sequence late in that first quarter,
and you know, Christos Porzingis.We knew that he was going to
be able to be available for gameone, but I don't think we had
an idea that he was going tohave the kind of dramatic impact that he
had, especially in that first quarterwith the eleven points. At one point,
(13:26):
Porzingis hits a three, He getsa block on a Josh Green dunk
attemptment transition, Sam Hauser hits athree in the right corner, and then
Porzingis has another block on the nextpossession. Defensively, and he really put
his stamp on this game and reallytook advantage of some mismatches, whether it
be you know, getting threes inthe top of the key, whether it
(13:48):
be at the elbow, whether itbe the mid post, like he was
taking advantage of all the matchups thatwere there and making a variety of shots,
even taking the ball off the dribbleand taking it to the basket for
you know, a dunk like hehe showed his full versatile game and was
really effective for the Celjians. Wereyou surprised at how effective he was immediately
coming off the bench for the Celticsin that way. Yeah, I thought,
(14:11):
you know, I thought it wasan interesting decision, the smart one
for Boston to bring him off thebench. You know, Derek Lively had
been a massive, you know positivefor Dallas throughout their postseason run, especially
with him playing often against bench units, and I think having a talent like
Porzingis helps neutralize that advantage along withthe schemes obviously that they're playing because they're
(14:31):
cross matching a lot, so thattakes away a lot of what Derek you
know, tends to benefit from offensively. So you know, I just thought
with offensively from Porzingis, you know, everything that you said definitely having all
of that click at once was youknow, fascinating. I thought, you
know, he really relished in thesupport that he got. There was a
(14:52):
video that they were playing on theboard like he wasn't on the court when
the rest of the Celtics were warmingup like in the you know pregame,
uh you know warm up, andhe you know, was walking up the
hall like out of the training room. They're showing him the whole time walking
out of the tunnel, and thatarena was so loud for him they were
like super anticipating him playing, andhe actually had mentioned after the game that
(15:15):
you know, he used that asmotivation, like he you know, that
was such a you know, specialreception, uh, with for them being
that excited for him to come back, that he you know, basically like
you know, that was a helpfulfactor in him, you know, setting
that tone early. And I thought, uh, you know everything that you
mentioned, like the size mismatches hejust shot over, even PJ. Washington,
Like there's just nothing you can do, and that's situation. I mean,
(15:39):
those are tough shots to to livewith. And yeah, yeah,
yeah, So you know, whetherthat continues to happen throughout the course of
the series remains to be seen,but definitely it's kind of reminds me when
he was at the Mavericks. There'stimes where everything's clicking for him and you
just look like you see a teamthat's ready to set the NBA on fire.
(16:00):
Like at the time, they hadthe best offensive rating in NBA history
with Luca and uh, you knowPorzingis and there's times where you know,
Porzingis just spraying threes, blocking shots, catching lobs, getting to the rim.
Luca's doing what Luca does, andthen you're like, this team looks
like they'll never lose again. Thenyou know, threes don't fall the next
(16:22):
game on a you know, likeat the time, Mavericks were a heavy
three point reliant team and uh,you know that kind of went back down
to earth at times, so thatyou know that Boston is more talented than
those Mavericks teams. So if threesdon't fall, it doesn't mean to say
that they're automatically going to lose byany stretch, but you know, that's
kind of the way the a playoffseries can go sometimes when teams just the
(16:45):
lasers, tons of threes, alot of things click for them, tough
shots fall. It kind of remindsme of how Dallas closed out the Timberwolves.
People were talking about, oh oneof like the best backcourt ever,
best talent or most talented often tothat courtever, like you just start having
those conversations when guyscore like thirty fiveplus, they look unbeatable, and then
(17:07):
all of a sudden, Kyrie Irvingis scoring twelve points, six to nineteen
from the floor, zero for fivefrom three in Game one of the NBA
Finals, and then now we're likeKyrie Irving needs to be better in game
two. So there's just a lotof you know, not don't get too
high, don't get too low ifyou're a team in the in the playoffs,
because it can flip in a lotof different directions very quickly. Yeah,
(17:30):
I was surprised at how many peoplejumping on my timeline and just on
Twitter in general saying where was thisChristains Porzingis in Dallas. I'm like,
yeah, I must have not beenpaying attention at times, because there were
plenty of times when that version ofChristains Porzingis showed up for Dallas, and
I remember many a game where Porzingiswas out here, like you said,
bombing away from the three point line. There were plenty of Yes, I
(17:52):
know that Porzingis dealt with his fairstyear, you know of interested times with
the Mavericks, but there were somepoints where you could see the offensive music
that Porzingis and Donchers were making togetherand you were thinking, man, that's
the kind of stretch five that youknow the league is kind of looking at.
And there's a reason why he's kindof referred to as a unicorn because
of his ability to shoot from threeand be able to put the ball in
the four, but then on theother end block shots the way that he
(18:12):
did, and he was tremendous,you know, in Game one. But
there was a stretch two stretches forthe Mavericks in Game one that I think
if you're a Mavericks fan, youcould take a little bit of confidence in
because it kind of gave us awindow into maybe this is how the Mavericks
can be able to start to getthemselves into this series. And you know,
in the final four minutes of thesecond quarter of the first half,
(18:36):
they went on a thirteen to fiverun. Donchers hit a three pointer with
nine seconds left to cut the leaddown to what was twenty one going into
the second half, So you feltlike, Okay, they saw some positive
things start to happen in the finalfour minutes of the first half. Then
they open up the first seven anda half minutes of the third quarter on
a twenty two to nine run tocut the lead from what was to twenty
(18:59):
one to eight, and you feltlike and again Luka Doncic hitting a three
pointer to be able to get themdown to that eight point deficit, and
at that point you had worked yourway back into the game. Boston,
I believe, started one of sixor one of seven from three in that
third quarter, and the Mavericks startedto lock down defensively, and they were
finally starting to get some things goingwith Luca and Kyrie to an extent to
(19:22):
really get themselves back into the game. But as you mentioned a little bit
earlier, you know, this gamewas full of runs. And as soon
as you felt like the Mavericks wereable to get that momentum, get it
down the single digits which they hadbeen fighting to get to, Boston rips
off a fourteen to oher run cappedoff by a Jalen Brown three pointer,
and next thing you know, they'reback up by twenty two before you can
(19:42):
blink. And it's just like,this is the kind of thing that you
got to be able to sustain.And I thought the Mavericks had a chance
to really get themselves in it.You talked about, you know, the
seqcers where you had to traveler kindof killed the momentum. What did you
see in those two stretches in thatthirteen to five run to close the first
half and then that twenty two ninestart in the third quarter that the Mavericks
(20:03):
can take with them a little bitgoing into Game two based off of what
they did successfully in those two partsof the game there. Yeah, I
think a lot of it did relyon you know, Boston missing threes.
I think during the third quarter theystarted to you know, be more willing
to live with the big switching andtrying to hold his own, which you
(20:23):
know that was that was something thatdid come at a cost because Derek Lively
fouled like crazy during that. SoI think in concept, if you can
keep them a little bit more offof the three point line in terms of
clean looks while also protecting the paintby being willing to switch and hold your
own, like by not foiling asmuch next game, that's you know,
(20:45):
something that can kind of be thoughtof. I think a lot of times
kind of going back to that youknow, feel out game or you know,
you could go into a Game onewith your base strategies. I think
Dallas doesn't necessarily as any team wouldwant to show too many of their cards
from the start of a series,so I think they started to mix it
up more after halftime, as they'vedone in previous series. So I think
(21:07):
just you know, getting a littlemore creative, maybe go with a little
bit of a matchup zone, butyou have to be able to get that
energy from everyone on the floor defensively, and I thought, you know,
for as much as Luca was effectiveoffensively with thirty points and adding ten rebounds,
I thought he was really taxed bythe you know, Jalen Brown,
(21:27):
Drew Holliday, Derek White, allthose defenders really pressing him and being physical
and taking stabs the ball all night. That like, there were some rotations
that he didn't necessarily make as wellas other members of the team that I
think you're going to have to findthat balance of perhaps Kyrie Irving is going
to have to initiate more. Ithink we've had this discussion at times in
(21:49):
the playoffs another series too, whereyou know, I think kind of the
defense is going to have to benefitfrom the offense taking pressure off Luca,
let him, you know, kindof respond like he did in that Clippers
series where we were talking about defensiveletdowns in Game one of that series and
then all of a sudden, hegot hunted like crazy later on and he
(22:11):
sat down guarded and held his ownAnd I think that's gonna have to be
where Kyrie Irving is gonna have tohelp out Luca where you know, maybe
he initiates more, maybe the offensejust gets more creative in their approach.
But I think, you know,the Mavericks should probably learn a little bit
from the Celtics approach. I thinkthey need to get Luca more touches in
the middle of the floor was spacingbecause they had a lot of size and
(22:33):
mismatches that they just thrived on withPorzingis and Tatum and you know, Jalen
Brown, you know a lot ofplayers in general. They were good about
finding favorable spots where I think Luca, you know, playing a little bit
more off ball, moving him aroundthe half court. Regardless of you know,
how they do it. I thinkthey're gonna have to fry. But
I think also this is the teamwhere that's not necessarily the easiest thing to
(22:59):
do, versus saying like it's easyfor me to say that and not show
my work if you will. Iremember during the World Cup, you know,
they they experimented with Luca on theSlovenia national team a little bit where
he was playing off of like youknow, zoom action handoffs out of the
corner, pinned downs, all thatstuff. But they kind of went away
from it at times because when youface a team that's really physical and it's
(23:22):
gonna be very aggressive, you can'tget into those actions as well because they
just simply blow them up. Andyou know, there's there's gonna be less
contact foul calls in FOBA versus theyou know, NBA, So maybe you
know, and in game one,the referee kind of let them go a
little bit, like there wasn't alot of foul calls. They kind of
let them play and have their wayfrom physical standpoint, which I was kind
(23:45):
of surprised by that the game wasn'tcaught a little bit tight. I think
Luca was too, because there wasplenty of time. I mean, it's
not like he didn't do that anyway, but there's plenty of times where he
was looking for foul calls that didn'tcome, but the referees were letting him
play in Game one for sure.Yeah, definitely, So I think you
know you're gonna have to you know, I have to play through that going
forward, but also you know,maybe just feel it out, like where
maybe you run them off a pindown or get them that handoff out of
(24:07):
that zoom action and maybe draw afile out of it, depending on the
the style of the real superstars inthe NBA, the officiating crew, that's
that might be for some of theplayoffs. That seems to be one of
the matchups that you gotta watch.Yes, yes, oh for sure.
(24:30):
I think in general, they're gonnahave to probably turn to some of their
other approaches that they've used in thepast as well too, Like they're gonna
have to use more double drag screens, try to bring one of the smaller
guards into the action and get moreaggressive hunting that uh, you know,
Drew Holliday can hold his own.Derek White can as well, but I
like that more than you know JalenBrown just guarding his ass off against Luca
(24:56):
with his size and his length,athleticism, all that'stuf So I think that's
definitely, you know, something they'regonna have to do. I think that's
happened in previous playoff series as welltoo, where they've had to turn to
that more, especially against Minnesota wherethey look a little stagnant at times,
I think in that loss really becausethat was a great series from them overall.
But you know other matchups as welltoo, where I think Oklahoma City
(25:19):
was one in particular where they hadto get more creative because Kyrie Irving was
neutralized by doubles and all of thelike in some of those games, scoring
multiple times in single figures. Soyeah, definitely this is gonna be a
real test for you know, thecoaching staff the creativity of them as well,
because you're not only having to dealwith just creating the shots. You
(25:41):
have a math problem that you haveto solve for too, that Boston poses
for any team that's playing them sincethey get up so many threes. And
I know people don't like to hearthat because they start to say, oh,
he's gonna talk about Excel spreadsheets withme. That's not real basketball.
But you know, I think thereis a very real, you know,
(26:03):
situation on the court when it happens. Because, as you said, that
stretch where they lasered like three straightthrees and fits of plays with Porzingis on
blocks and things of that nature,you know, that just became daunting and
overwhelming to the point where you're like, wow, they are already down twenty
one points or whatever it was orhurry whatever. Yeah, it was very
(26:25):
fast and as Kyrie Irving likes to, you know, frequently mention you know,
the start of a game is superimportant because that really ties into how
you manage the rest of the game. And that's kind of why them even
getting it down to eight I think, you know that naturally, you know,
it was a positive to look into. But also I mean the fact
(26:45):
that they had to come back fromtwenty nine, that they had no margin
for aer left at all. Theyhad to be perfect the rest of the
game, and that's a lot ofgame left to be played to have to
be perfect to the point where theyhad to put reserves in. Yeah,
even after cutting it down to eight, So you definitely a lot to you
know, kind of think about goinginto that next game. But yeah,
definitely gonna have to take pressure offof Luca, I think offensively, to
(27:07):
get more out of him defensively becausenaturally that's a lot of burden taking Like
what what did you how many shotsdid he take twenty six? Uh?
You wanted up taking in game one? Yeah, twenty six shots went twelve
to twenty six. Yeah, becausethat takes a lot of effort when you're
mostly breaking down you know, areally good defender out in space. And
then also trying to with double teamsthat on one basket like it was,
(27:30):
and he had to finish tough atthe rim after splitting the double team like
it was just some real tough shotsthat he had to make a times Negga,
yeah, exactly. So like naturally, there's gonna be limitations to the
defensive impact someone provides in that context, so they're gonna have to find ways
to make it easier for him,and that will definitely be a factor because
it trickles through a large, youknow, segment of the game, you
(27:52):
know, throughout the rest of thenight. Overall, four numbers that stood
out to me in game one that'vegot to change in game two. Number
one is the one is the numberone actually, which was the amount of
assists that Lukadoncich had that is unheardof for him and Boston's calculus for me
is watching the game and going backand watching it, you know a little
bit over again. Is the calculuswas for them to say, look,
(28:17):
go ahead, Luca, go aheadand do what you do. If you
score thirty thirty five, that's fine. None of the rest of these other
guys are gonna beat this. We'regonna stay home on PJ. We're gonna
stay home. On Derrick Jones Jr. We're gonna switch when we need to,
but we're not letting all these otherguys beat you because they only took
what attempted, two corner threes ingame one as well, so they limited
(28:37):
the corner threes. Luca Donche onlyhad one assist, but the other three
numbers that stood out to me,two of them are the same number actually,
the number nine nine, which wasthe total amount of assist that the
Mavers had in game one, andthe Celtics had nine blocks in game one.
Like the defensive effort that Boston had, and you mentioned a little bit
earlier Jaylen Brown. You know,probably the sequence of the game outside of
(29:00):
that porzingis when we talked about heattempt blocks, you know, an attempted
lob attempt from from for Derrick JonesJr. Then on the same possession blocks
a dunk attempt at the rim byDerrick Jones Junior. You're talking about the
four blocks you know that he hadon him. You know in game one,
that individual effort by Jalen Brown wassensational. Throughout the course of the
(29:22):
game, he had a pickpocket,a Luca that led to a dunk.
On the other end, he wasflying around the court. And also for
me, Brown was the one thatstopped that when they cut it down the
eight and they were eventually able toget it back up to twenty two.
It wasn't Jason Tatum, it wasn'tPorzingis. It was Jaylen Brown that said,
look, uh uh, this isnot gonna happen. We're gonna push
this lead back up, you know, to twenty two. And that's what
(29:45):
it became. I thought Jalen Brownwas sensational in game number one, and
the other number, I'll say realquick is twenty seven. The Celtics were
a plus twenty seven from the threepoint line in Game one against the map.
You're not gonna win any games whenyou're shooting if you're the Mavericks seven
of twenty seven from three at twentysix percent, while the Celtics go sixteen
(30:07):
to forty two, scoring forty eightpoints from the three point line. That's
not gonna work, especially for ateam that gets up as many threes as
they do. In fact, Bostonput up forty two threes in Game one.
They did exactly that whole math gamethat we were talking about going into
the series that if they did itand did it well, the Mavericks could
be in trouble. And that's exactlywhat Boston did. But those numbers,
(30:29):
for me told me a lot aboutGame one and the lack of ball movement
that we saw from the Mavericks simplybecause Boston made the calculus that hey,
Luke and go get his, butthen none of the rest of these guys
are gonna get there is based offof what they are able to do and
how they affect the game, whetherit be knocking down threes or in the
lib in the vertical game. Yeah, the Celtics just weren't happen in the
game one. Yeah, definitely,because that basically takes away the finisher like
(30:55):
the Bigs, that takes them outand they have been some of the most
efficient you know, just score ingeneral, you know, with their you
know, catching finish opportunities on pickand roll and just drop off passes,
so that that takes away a bigpart of their offense. And then the
corner threes as you mentioned as welltoo. That's the other you know hot
spot zone that you know, Lucalikes to you know, spray it out.
To So overall, that's two fundamentalelements of the offense that are neutralized.
(31:19):
And I thought they did a greatjob of containing Kyrie Irving as well
too. They really got him offthe three point line and they funneled him
into help into tough you know,short range you know shot creation sequences where
he was really having to be acrobaticin the air. Sometimes he had clean
ones, so it's not like theywere Fort Knox like the whole night,
(31:41):
but he also had some tough finishattempts where he had play against contact missed
the finish, And I just thoughtthey did a great job. When people
talk about, you know, makingit life tough on a star player,
I thought that was a great exampleof it. And you know, as
you said with Luca, you knowthey definitely were willing to live with that
appro coach where he's you know,going to score his thirty plus and they're
(32:02):
okay with that. And actually JoeMozula talked about that, I think during
the very long break that the Celticshad before the finals where he actually used
those numbers as examples. He said, as I forgot the exact assist count
that he used, I think itwas pretty hyperbolic. I could be completely
wrong on the total, but Ithink he said, like, as long
as Luca's not getting thirty and liketwenty assists, if we hold him to
(32:23):
like four or five and he's stillgetting his thirty, then that's where we
want to be. It could havebeen lower than twenty. It could have
been like I'm completely forgetting well,but basically I think it was hyperbolic.
Obviously, where you know, that'sthe type of game plan that they want
to have. Obviously he's not goingto tell you how they're going to do
(32:44):
it. So Luka Doncic before theseries mentioning, you know, really spotlighting
the cross matching that Boston you know, has done against them in the past.
They really they should have expected thisbecause I think they did the approaches
that Boston you so, I thinkthat's they're just kind to settle into the
series, get get those adjustments,figure out the you know, right spots
(33:07):
to attack all that good stuff,and do all a lot of adjustments on
the possibilities that we talked about aswell too. Uh So that's you know,
definitely a very impressive game one executionof the game plan for Boston.
But yeah, definitely a lot touh, you know, think about for
Game two for Dallas, because there'sjust a lot of factors that are compounding
(33:30):
whenever you're giving up advantages in onepart of the game that feed into others
on both sides of the floor.Especially. Yeah, the last thing I'll
say on that is because you know, when you look at Boston what they
were able to do, not onlythe defense you know that they played,
I mean the the effort that youcould tell that the experience for Boston was
(33:51):
able to play itself out a littlebit in this Game one for them based
on the way that they were ableto play, and I thought they did
a really good job of weathering andplaying in the moment and being able to
really take advantage of that because itfelt like the Mavericks at times were just
not there when it came to theirexecution and the way that they play.
But you know, for the Mavericks, they've got to find a way to
(34:12):
settle down into the series a littlebit, find a way to be able
to deal with the baras that theCeltics are dealing, you know, can
present, and then be able tomove forward from there. Otherwise they're going
to find themselves in an O twohole in this years, but there's a
lot of series left. As wementioned a little bit earlier, they haven't
lost back to back games since Marchthe fifth, as the team that's won
every game two of this postseason sofar. As you mentioned, they've got
(34:32):
to lean into that quite a bitgoing into game two to find themselves getting
a split before coming back to Dallas. But it was an impressive Game one
from Boston. They did exactly whatthey're capable of doing, and they did
it quite well. And the Mavericks, I think now have a chance to
counter punch and figure out a wayto be able to get themselves back into
this series going forward there. Soit should be hopefully a really good game
(34:55):
too. Now that the Mavericks kindof have an idea of what to expect
from that Boston crowd, they feltit, they were able to kind of
take it all in and hopefully nowbe able to absorb it to be able
to deal with it, because it'sgoing to be if you look, they
thought it was loud in Game onebefore that game started. They're going to
be in for a root awakening forGame two because it's gonna be even louder
(35:16):
and I feel like a shark smellsmud in the water that yeah, that's
going to be yeah. Yeah,And if you're Boston, I mean Tatum
didn't even play. He played,okay, he was all right. He
went six or sixteen from the field, had sixteen points, was a plus
nineteen. Sure, they sure lefthim out there to get those numbers up,
though they did. They did afteryeah, because the mavers way of
(35:37):
the white flag with five minutes leftin the game, Doncheons was already out
of the game, and the Bostonstarters were still, you know, in
there with you know, a coupleof minutes you know, left in the
game before they eventually took them outas well. So yeah, there was
there was some of that. ButI mean, I guess you can kind
of do that when you've played theway that you played already in the the
first you know, three plus quartersof the game to get you to that
(35:59):
point. So looking forward to gametwo, though, this is kind of
what the Mavericks do. They loseGame one, but they find a way
to climb themselves back into a series. They'll need to do that in game
two. Grand telephones they can findyou and what you got going on,
man. Yeah, for sure,I have a couple of articles already from
that Game one. We'll have plentymore as well, especially because the Mavericks
are practicing tomorrow Celtics as well,and the NBA Finals. They have like
(36:22):
everyone wearing a Mavericks logo talking everyday when they do organize stuff, so
everyone pretty much should be talking tomorrow. Sure, there'll be plenty from that,
and you can find all that contenton you know, SI dot com
slash NBA slash Mavericks. You know, I'll have you know, coverage stout
(36:43):
the playoffs on my YouTube channel.Uh, you know, just my name
Grant afseeth A F S E.T H where I have press conferences and
then I'm gonna be doing some videobreakdowns before Game two as well, and
uh yeah, more episodes on Insidethe Mevs and uh, you know,
plenty of content on Kevin's Twitter accountand then also you know you can watch
(37:06):
these episodes on his YouTube channel aswell too. Yeah, there'll be plenty
of coverage here on Inside the MAVsto continue to have you cover throughout the
NBA Finals. Grant is traveling withthe NBA Finals. He is there,
He's there, in Boston, willbe so for Game two obviously, before
coming back to Dallas for Games threeand four. So definitely subscribe to his
channel on YouTube at grand asps thathe's got tremendous stuff and all kinds of
(37:30):
coverage for the Mavericks as we continuethe NBA Finals. You can find me
on Twitter at Kevin Gray Sports.Make sure you download and subscribe to the
Inside the Mass podcast wherever you getyour podcasts for free. Give it a
five star rating and write a reviewfor it while you're there. Of course,
I'm your Mavericks brand postgame host onlyDallas Mavericks Radio Network. Our pre
game will begin on Sunday evening atsix thirty pm, with Game two tipping
(37:52):
off at seven pm with Chuck Houperstinand Brian Demeris on the call for the
Dallas Mavericks Radio Network. We'll haveplenty more of cover straught the weekend as
the Mavericks get back on the practicefloor on Saturday, and the Mavericks and
Celtics will actually both be on thepractice floor on Saturday ahead of Game number
two on Sunday. That'll do itfor this episode of Inside the MAVs again.
(38:14):
Appreciate you joining us here for thisepisode on Inside the MAVs. For
grants, I'm Kevin. This hasbeen Inside the MAVs presented by Aura
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