The Boston Celtics won a roller-coaster of a game Wednesday night to take a 3–0 series lead over the Dallas Mavericks in the 2024 NBA Finals. Jaylen Brown scored 30 points on 22 shots to go along with eight rebounds and eight assists, while Jayson Tatum scored 31 on 26 shots with six rebounds and five assists.
The Celtics dominated the third quarter with great ball movement, which Tatum pointed out on the bench during a timeout. Luckily, ESPN and ABC had the cameras rolling to hear the Celtics star tell everyone they shouldn’t settle for step-back three-pointers, which is basically his favorite thing in the world.
“Don’t settle for the step back 3 unless it’s late in the shot clock, that goes for all of us, including myself.”
— Andrew Jerell Jones, Luke 1:37 (IG:twdbk3) (@sluggahjells) June 13, 2024
“We can get shots,” Tatum said, “but we can get better shots. Don’t settle for the step-back three unless it’s late shot clock. That goes for all of us. Myself. Every time we drive we get a wide open three.”
He was right. About the drive and kick, at least. He was certainly not right about taking his own advice as he repeatedly took three-pointers in isolation, which Doris Burke pointed out on the broadcast saying that if she were a teammate she would have given him the side-eye when he said that.
Tatum finished the game 4-of-13 from behind the arc. He is now 8-of-27 from three during the Finals.
The Dallas Mavericks are down two games to none against the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals, and Luka Doncic admitted after the Game 2 defeat on Sunday that each loss felt like a "missed opportunity."
Despite leading the game with 32 points and recording a triple-double, Doncic wasn't pleased with his own performance on Sunday night, and he took ownership for some of his sloppy play when speaking to reporters after the game.
"Every game we lose is a missed opportunity for us," said Doncic, via Joey Mistretta of ClutchPoints.
"I think my turnovers and missed free throws cost us the game. So I've got to do way better in those categories," he added, via SI's Grant Afseth.
Doncic shot an uncharacteristically poor 4 for 8 from the free throw line and turned the ball over eight times in Sunday's loss. The four missed free throws and eight turnovers were both postseason highs, and he's now 6 for 13 from the charity stripe during the NBA Finals and has as many turnovers (12) as he does assists.
Although Doncic is shouldering the blame, the 2–0 deficit is hardly his fault. The rest of the team has shot a putrid 5 for 32 from three-point territory through the first two games of the series, and Kyrie Irving has yet to connect from beyond the arc. Irving's 28 points through Games 1 and 2 were fewer than the 32 Doncic provided on Sunday night alone.
Game 3 on Wednesday night will prove crucial for Dallas as they look to claw back against the Celtics, and although Doncic noted that he'll have to take care of the ball better and get the job done at the free throw line, the onus is on his teammates to step up, too.
Halftime shows are like commercials. A necessary evil and a perfect opportunity to load up on more snack mix or perform a fluids check. Few people in the history of sitting on their couches have ever been deeply intrigued by a Coming Up At the Half tease. And the hardworking broadcasting crews that try to capture eyeballs and attention are fighting an uphill battle.
That's the bad news. The good is that all of this combines to create a low-stakes environment because, let's face it, average viewers don't really care if the halftime show is good or average or a trainwreck. As long as the second half begins on time then everyone wins and no one loses.
So it's kind of perplexing to see the aggregating of grievances concerning ESPN/ABC's mid-game fare during the NBA Finals. Awful Announcing got out the stopwatch and crunched some numbers following Game 1's halftime show.
All told, the studio crew got roughly a minute and 20 seconds of air time. And remember, that time was split between five people. Much of that time was spent on intros from and outros to commercial breaks.
Is this ideal? Certainly not. But is it a new phenomenon? Also no.
ESPN/ABC has been dinged for stuffing shot-clock-length opinions and observations between a crushing amount of bells and whistles for years. Those critiquing the operation are right when they say there's no flow and it can all be a bit disorienting. But they are also a bit silly for tuning into the Finals games and expecting anything different than what has been standard operating procedure for some time now.
It feels weird to defend something that could certainly be better yet at the same time complaining that viewers aren't getting enough opinions or analysis during what is essentially a content oasis feels a bit weird. Those are available on the network before the game and after the game, plus on-demand and on social media for anyone who may have missed the thousands of words and hundreds of segments devoted to Celtics-Mavs under the ESPN umbrella.
There simply cannot be a real world faction significant enough to warrant concern-trolling that Bob Myers and Josh Hart weren't given enough time to explore the space. Or that the real world is pining for another minute of Stephen A. Smith to fire off whatever he's going to fire off.
For as often this crew is compared to TNT's iconic foursome on Inside the NBA, which does move at a more beneficial pace, there's little apples-to-oranges consideration. First, broadcasting a champioship is going to afford the opportunity — and necessity really — to be more sponsor- and commercial-heavy. Then there's the problem of people conflating TNT's long postgame coverage with its halftime hits. Sure Barkley or O'Neal might say something hilarious and go viral during the mid-game break but more often than not the focus will be on Team X not turning the ball over or how Team Y looks sleepy out there.
Sunday night's Game 2 brought more of the same because, honestly, who would think it would change in the span of a few days. Unofficial numbers suggest the commercialization outpaced the analysis at around a 6-1 clip. But we're not going to go back and chart it ourselves because almost anything is a better use of time.
Something to keep in mind for Game 3 instead of hoping for a miracle that simply isn't going to come.
BOSTON—Kristaps Porzingis didn’t want to talk about it.
“It didn’t work out,” Porzingis said.
Luka Doncic wanted nothing to do with it.
“Moved on,” Doncic said.
Tim Hardaway Jr. didn’t want to touch it.
“I think that’s a question for them,” Hardaway said.
It is the question of why Doncic and Porzingis, teammates for 2½ seasons with the Dallas Mavericks, didn’t pan out. In 2019, Dallas, midway through Doncic’s rookie season, made what qualified as a blockbuster trade, flipping a pair of first-round picks to the New York Knicks for a package headlined by Porzingis. In Porzingis, a then-23-year-old forward coming off an All-Star season, the Mavericks believed they had landed an ideal co-star for Doncic who would form the foundation for a title contender. Then-Dallas coach Rick Carlisle likened Doncic and Porzingis to another pair of Mavs stars, Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki.
“Only these guys,” Carlisle said, “are taller.”
It wasn’t. By 2022, Porzingis was gone, offloaded for Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans. Porzingis’s numbers in his final 34 games in Dallas: 19.2 points on 45.1% shooting, including 28.3% from three.
“We had some good moments,” Porzingis said. “We had some decent moments. Overall I think it didn't work for both sides. It wasn’t perfect.”
Said Doncic, “I don’t really know. I don’t know why it didn’t work out. We were still both young. We tried to make it work. But it just didn’t work.”
Ask around the Mavericks about the Porzingis era, one that began with Carlisle as head coach and ended with Jason Kidd, and you hear many of the same things. The relationship with Doncic wasn’t a significant issue. “It’s always been good,” Porzingis insisted. Injuries were certainly a factor. Porzingis was traded while recovering from an ACL tear and tore his meniscus late in his first full season. Porzingis resisted Dallas’s analytics-based approach. He struggled in a catch-and-shoot role under Carlisle and couldn’t find a rhythm under Kidd.
“I thought it was going well in the sense of our defense, his ability to block shots, rebound,” Kidd said. “Then offensively we looked to post him up a little bit more than Rick had used him, which was strictly on the perimeter shooting threes. Both worked. He has the skill set to do both. I thought KP did great for us. But the business of basketball, there was a pivot. So from there things changed.”
With the Boston Celtics, Porzingis has been the kind of fit the Mavericks had hoped for. He averaged 20.1 points. He shot a career-best 51.5% from the floor. He connected on 37.5% of his threes. He blocked nearly two shots per game, backstopping the NBA’s third-rated defense.
Asked when he knew Porzingis would be a good fit, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said, “right away.”
“I think all he cares about is winning,” Mazzulla said. “He’s used the experiences he’s had around the league. He’s seen a lot. He’s seen it all. He’s seen success. He’s seen tough times. He knows what the league is all about. I think at this point in his career, winning is the most important thing.”
Indeed, at 28, Porzingis has seen a lot. He was the unicorn in New York, a budding superstar … until he wasn’t. Dallas was a disaster. He put up numbers with the Washington Wizards for a team going nowhere. Boston afforded him a unique opportunity: a role he was ready for on a team that needed him to win.
“KP essentially did exactly what we needed him to do the entire season,” Jayson Tatum said. “Whether it was punish switches or space the five man and be in the corner. Sometimes that might be going possessions without touching the ball or it may be when they’re switching, we give him the ball five times in a row. I give KP a lot of credit. Especially somebody as talented as he is and obviously as tall as he is, a lot of big guys may be stuck in their ways doing what makes him comfortable. He got outside his comfort zone a little bit and it made us a better team.”
Porzingis’s ability to be that player in the NBA Finals is an open question. He has not played since late April, since a calf strain sidelined him. He says he will play in Game 1 on Thursday. Boston did not list him on its injury report. But even Porzingis admits he’s not sure how sharp he is going to be.
“I did as much as I could to prepare for this moment,” Porzingis said. “But there’s nothing like game minutes and game experience that I’m going to get tomorrow. It will be tough to jump into the Finals like this. I did everything I could to prepare for it and we’ll see [Thursday] night.”
And Dallas? Porzingis is eager to beat the Mavs. But he insists none of it is personal.
“I know at that time there were some rumors there’s like something in the locker room,” Porzingis said. “It was never like that. It’s all just noise at the end. It wasn’t just perfect for us playing together. It didn’t work out, that’s it. We moved on. There’s no, like, ill will from their side, for sure from my side. I don’t think there should be. Just didn’t work out. But I have nothing but love for Dallas and for the teammates and for everybody there.”
