“Here we go again,” Perkins said Thursday on ESPN. “Bron weaseling his way into somebody else’s moment … This is not about you! Your team is at home. This is about the Mavs and the Celtics, but yet you’re so mad and disappointed that you’re not Kyrie Irving’s running mate anymore. Here we go again.”
“Here we go again, [LeBron James] weaseling his way into somebody else’s moment… This is not about you! Your team is at home… You’re so mad & disappointed that you’re not Kyrie Irving’s running mate anymore.”
Irving and James played three seasons together on the Cavaliers from 2014 to ’17 and brought an NBA championship to Cleveland in 2016.
In 2017, Irving asked the Cavaliers for a trade, and he ended up in Boston for two years. When that didn’t work out, Irving signed with the Brooklyn Nets in 2019 and later requested another trade in 2023, where he landed with the Mavericks.
Seven years after departing James in Cleveland, things have finally come together for Irving. He and backcourt mate Luka Doncic have proven to be the NBA’s best scoring duo throughout the fifth-seeded Mavericks’ run to the NBA Finals.
Irving and the Mavericks tip off the NBA Finals in Game 1 on Thursday night at TD Garden.
The Cleveland Cavaliers overcame a 10-point halftime deficit to blow the doors off the Orlando Magic on Sunday in Game 7 of their first round NBA playoffs series, which will earn them a date with the top-seeded Boston Celtics in round two. Jubiliant fans at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse spent the final minutes chanting "we want Boston" because that's just what fans do and they are entirely right to prefer the season keep going rather than end. Heck, it's not even that interesting of an event, even though the Celtics are heavy favorites to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals.
— Bally Sports Cleveland (@BallySportsCLE) May 5, 2024
But Boston reserve forward Oshae Brisset found the development intriguing enough to post about, saying "hear the chants" with one of those eye-covering emojis available on X, formerly Twitter. Then he deleted it, which doesn't do much good after enough people see it.
Brisset played six minutes in the Celtics' opening round victory over the Miami Heat. He's not expected to be a major factor in the battle against Cleveland either. Or perhaps that's changed after a routine chant awakened a sleeping giant.
There are no real rules for this but it does seem like most people are already operating on the sensible plane when it comes to in-arena proclamations about wanting to play whatever team is next on the schedule. Which is that it's entirely fine. There's nothing wrong with it at all and no one is going to be the first person to, in that moment, start a "we're probably going to lose chant" because they might need a ride home from their buddy after the final buzzer. Pretty much every human who made it public that they "wanted Bama" lived to regret it. It's just something you say.
Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics have a 2-0 series lead over the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals, and that puts them in some great company all time.
There have been 36 teams that have led 2-0 in the NBA Finals, and they are 31-5 straight up in the series all time. Not only that, but Boston as a franchise has a 43-1 record when leading 2-0 in a playoff series, only losing in the 2018 Eastern Conference Finals.
The C's -- the finals favorite for most of the 2023-24 season -- are now -800 at DraftKings Sportsbook to win the title this season heading into Game 3 in Dallas on Wednesday night.
Based on these odds, the Celtics have an implied probability of 88.89 percent to win the title this season. Dallas -- at +550 -- has just a 15.38 percent chance based on implied probability.
Even though Boston is going on the road in Game 3, I wouldn't be worried as a Boston bettor.
The C's are a perfect 6-0 straight up on the road in the playoffs, and Dallas is just 25-24 against the spread at home in the 2023-24 season.
Betting strictly on a historic trend isn't the best way to wager on a series, but this is a great sign for bettors that are holding a Celtics future. In fact, there is one bettor that wagered $215,000 on the Celtics to win the series prior to the start of the NBA Finals.
Boston is set as a slight underdog heading into Game 3 despite being 14-2 straight up this postseason.
Odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-GAMBLER.
When Dallas Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said last week that Jaylen Brown was the Boston Celtics’ “best player,” it was widely believed that Kidd was playing mind games (an allegation Kidd denied) rather than expressing an earnest opinion about Boston’s hierarchy. But he may have been right.
Kidd’s initial assertion seemed outlandish because Jayson Tatum undoubtedly has a better résumé than Brown. (Tatum was named First-Team All-NBA in each of the past three seasons, while Brown has just one Second-Team selection to his name.) Brown is a star, but Tatum is a superstar. In the Finals, though, it’s Brown who has shone brightest.
Tatum struggled offensively in the first two games of the series, averaging 17 points per game on 31.6% shooting (although he contributed in other ways). And while Tatum was better in Game 3 (31 points on 11-of-26 shooting), he was quiet again in the fourth quarter as the Mavs mounted a ferocious comeback, making just one of his five field-goal attempts.
That’s when Brown stepped up.
The fourth quarter very nearly turned into a nightmare for the Celtics. Boston was able to stretch its lead to 21 points in the opening minutes but saw that lead evaporate as the Mavs reeled off a 22–2 run to cut the deficit to one. The only Boston basket scored during Dallas’s run—which lasted more than seven minutes—was by Brown. He played a huge role in helping stop the skid, scoring on a putback layup with 3:08 to play that made it 95–92 in favor of the Celtics and hitting a contested jumper with 1:01 to play that made it 102–98. He scored nine of Boston’s 21 points in the final quarter as the Celtics held on to win, 106–99.
“I mean, how can I explain Jaylen?” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “The guy just has a growth mindset. He just wants to get better. He yearns to get better. He’s not afraid to face his weaknesses on the court. So when you have that type of mindset, you’re just going to be able to take on every situation that the game brings you. He puts himself in every single situation that he sees in a game. He uses six, seven, eight coaches a day, and every situation on both ends of the floor, he puts himself in that.
“And that’s how you have to grow, is to become vulnerable and on the things that make you uncomfortable, and he does that.”
Brown’s biggest play of the night, though, may have been the foul he drew on Luka Doncic with 4:12 to play. Brown attacked Doncic in transition and gave Doncic no choice but to commit a foul, causing him to foul out. Doncic’s absence changed the entire shape of the game. Once Doncic was forced to leave the floor, Dallas’s comeback came to a screeching halt. Kyrie Irving did his best to carry the Mavs, but Doncic’s absence allowed Boston's defense to zero in on Irving.
Doncic’s poor performance was the other main takeaway from Game 3. He scored 27 points, but his uninspired defense left him vulnerable to foul calls, eventually leading to his disqualification from the game. His constant complaints to the referees probably didn’t help flip any borderline calls in his favor, either.
Doncic has never been a great defender but that’s been especially problematic against a Boston team whose scoring depth makes hiding Doncic on defense impossible. And he’s clearly struggling with injuries that hinder his mobility, making him even more of a defensive liability. Doncic certainly looks like he could use a rest, and now that the Mavs have fallen behind 3–0 in the series, it appears he’ll be getting one very soon.
McIlroy is looking for his first major victory in a decade. / Adam Cairns-USA TODAY Sports
… things I saw last night:
5. The couple that got married in the stands during a Giants game. 4. Giancarlo Stanton’s 449-foot shot for his 17th home run of the season. Stanton, Juan Soto (17) and Aaron Judge (25) have combined for 59 homers this season, which is more than five teams have on the year. 3. Christian Pulisic’s free-kick goal vs. Brazil. 2. Angel Reese’s big game against the league-leading Sun. She had a career-high 20 points and 10 rebounds as she notched her fourth straight double double. 1. Jaylen Brown’s ferocious dunk at the end of the third quarter.
