BOSTON — Five minutes into Game 2 on Sunday night, the Dallas Mavericks inbounded the basketball and Jaylen Brown sprinted to smash it into Luka Doncic. Brown, the Boston Celtics’ top defender this season, had to sprint to the other side of the court to do so.
Surprisingly, Doncic was far from the game. As the team began to gain possession, he left the ball-handling duties to Derrick Jones Jr. and headed to the far left corner. For the first time in the NBA Finals, Doncic caught a brief break. That’s probably why the Mavericks wanted Jones to start the offense on this play. In a series that was physically taxing for Doncic on both ends of the court, even a moment of rest could pay big dividends later. He barely moved while he had the ball.
The problem? With the ball in someone else’s hands, the Celtics defenders came storming in. Derrick White applied full-court pressure and knocked the ball away from Jones 80 feet from the Dallas goal. Kyrie Irving tried to set a screen for Jones, which prompted another Boston All-Defensive guard, July Holiday, to switch onto the athletic forward. Holiday continued to hound Jones, forcing him to rush to get past the half-court line within the eight seconds allowed. The Celtics caused Dallas more problems from there. Irving took a dribble handoff from Derek Lively II and tried to turn the corner against Jayson Tatum, but Kristaps Porzingis was waiting to help. Convinced by the big man’s presence, Irving kicked the ball to Maxi Kleber in the near corner. Porzingis was close enough to Kleber that he got in the way, too.
The resulting air ball highlighted one of Dallas’ dilemmas in this series: Doncic needs rest at times, but his team can’t survive without him in his hands. With more options on both ends of the court, the Celtics will continue to make the NBA Finals a test of Doncic and Irving’s conditioning.
“That’s the key,” Brown said when asked about the need for Dallas’ stars to perform on both ends of the floor. “Just tire them out, be as physical as we can, work as a team, just keep touching them. That’s it.”
What the heck? A block. pic.twitter.com/JoeJ8A5qvp
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) June 10, 2024
Brown laid the groundwork for the Celtics’ approach to the Finals after their January win over the Mavs, emphasizing the difficulty of playing at a high level on both ends of the court. According to Brown, players have to be in a certain shape to apply pressure on both ends of the court. While he didn’t say it directly, Brown seemed to imply that he and his Celtics players believe they are ready to handle that pressure on both ends. He suggested that he used his matchup with Doncic that day to build up his stamina heading into the playoffs. Brown believed that practicing guarding Doncic full court would help him in the future.
Doncic was the Celtics’ Finals opponent, and the Celtics did their best to motivate him throughout the first two games of the series. They used him full-court. They put a few defenders on Doncic, but it was Brown who spent the most time on the MVP candidate. The Celtics relentlessly attacked Doncic with dribble-drives. If this approach took its toll on Doncic, it’s no surprise. After scoring 23 points in the first half of Game 2, he had just nine points, eight assists and five turnovers after halftime.
Doncic has been playing hard with several injuries, including a chest contusion that put him on injured reserve before Game 2. He’s held the ball for 7.9 minutes in the first two games, nearly two more than Tatum, who is second in that category in the series. Dallas has had to get nearly all of its points in the half-court, a typically difficult spot, against the league’s second-ranked defense.
“They’re very physical,” Doncic said after Game 2. “We allowed them to be physical, so their defense was really good.”
While the Celtics distributed the ball to multiple ballhandlers, the Mavericks relied on Doncic and Irving to make nearly every play, they didn’t have a third playmaker on hand at all, and their lack of a consistent shooting threat was evident early in the series.
“We’ve got to score,” Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd said, “and now we’ve got to find some guys to join Luka and Kai who can score.”
No one, including Irving, has been able to consistently take the pressure off Doncic. The Celtics won the first two games by 12 points during Doncic’s 15 minutes on the bench, even though the Mavericks were playing a meaningless game without Doncic at the end of Game 1. Doncic’s usage rate (36.9%) while on the court far surpassed any other player who played at least 15 minutes in the series. Dallas needs him to set up a lot for himself and his teammates.
Boston didn’t let him off the hook on defense, either. Through the first two games of the Finals, the Celtics averaged 54.5 drives per game, up from 39.1 per game in the regular season, according to NBA tracking data. Tatum alone had 29 drives in Game 2, while Brown had 23. The Celtics were ruthless in beating key defenders on offense, often Doncic, and working the Mavericks into their rotation.
“The way they set up defensively and how they’re clustered around the rim allows us to get into position to attack, find easy reads on kick-outs and keep the ball bouncing, allowing us to make good to great shots every time we go in,” Tatum said.
The Mavericks appear to be trying the same strategy against the Celtics. In Game 2, the Mavericks spent time hounding Tatum when the Celtics were on the defensive. While Tatum is normally a strong defender, this strategy also had the benefit of putting a lot of physical strain on him. Driving the ball as often as he did early in this series is tough, and every extra responsibility can take away the energy he needs to drive. Brown, whose usual primary opponent is Doncic, may have an even tougher role in this series than Tatum. Brown had enough energy to get P.J. Washington from behind on a key Mavericks fast break in the final minute.
A long playoff run is exhausting, but the Celtics got plenty of rest by finishing each of their first three series early. There were nine days between the end of the Eastern Conference Finals and the start of the NBA Finals. With the exception of Porzingis, who is still recovering from a calf injury, they should be fresh for this time of year. Boston looked worn down in the 2022 NBA Finals, so they should understand the importance of that.
At this stage in the postseason, games and series are often a battle of patience. The Celtics don’t need to stop Doncic from doing well. They need to stop him from doing well enough to lead an underdog team to four wins in their next five games. Doncic certainly needs to rest from time to time, but Boston will do its best to keep him from doing so.
After Kleber’s air ball, Lively got the offensive rebound, but the Celtics intercepted his pass. Brown headed it the other way, but only Doncic was back on the defense. Unable to block Brown’s dunk, Doncic called for the ball. After just a few seconds as a decoy, it was his turn to start the offense again.
(Top photo: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
