NBA final news: Four reasons why the Boston Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks
The Boston Celtics are once again kings of the NBA after beating the Dallas Mavericks to secure a convincing 4-1 win in the NBA final.
Jayson Tatum was the star of the show for the Celtics, who earned their 18th championship, ensuring they move ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Here, Sports News Blitz’s Nnaemeka Obinna breaks down how the Celtics dominated Dallas.
Defense
The Boston Celtics harassed the Dallas Mavericks, forcing them to turn the ball 13 times, meaning they were able to score 17 points in regards to the total turnovers.
Not only that, the Boston Celtics outclassed Dallas with 15 offensive rebounds over the Mavericks’ seven.
The Celtics managed to grab 36 defensive rebounds over the Mavericks' 28 defensive rebounds. In total, Boston outclassed Dallas with 16 more rebounds in Game 5.
Mind Games
People can argue that Kyrie Irving is one of the best point guards of all time, from his elite ball handling to his creative efforts in scoring to get to the rim.
But in this final, he was horrific, and seemed to be a shadow of his former self.
Irving played well in the home games - in Game 3 he had 35 points, shooting 4-6 from three, all while playing 45 minutes. In Game 4 he scored 21 points, while shooting 55% from the field.
But it seems that when he plays in TD Garden, he is nervous and scared.
Every time he went to shoot or dribble, or even enter the game, he had 75,000 people booing his name, disrespecting his character.
This is all mind games that the Celtics’ organization were hoping would throw Irving off his game off - and it did.
Better Team
The Boston Celtics, overall, we’re just a better team.
When you have Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown - both individuals who are efficient scorers while also being All-Stars - and add an all-defensive team ballot in Jrue Holiday and a 7ft 2ins Kristaps Porzingis, who is a match-up nightmare both on defense and on offense, you have a winning combination.
The odds were in their favor. The Celtics were 3-0 up and had a chance to win Game 4, but ended up losing, so they were able to play Game 5 in front of their fans, in their arena.
It doesn’t get better than that - and people forget that the Boston Celtics had been here before - two years ago in 2022, when they got an opportunity to match up against the Golden State, they lost miserably.
To be able to be back in the finals, there was no chance the Boston Celtics were going to lose this opportunity again. This team had no choice but to win the NBA Final this year.
Lack of Experience
Being able to watch all five games of this year's 2024 NBA Finals opened my mind and left me with this conclusion - experience does matter.
The Boston Celtics has always been a championship contender team; they have appeared in the NBA Playoffs 60 times and 38 times in the Eastern Conference.
They have appeared in 23 NBA finals appearances, with an incredible 18 NBA finals wins.
The Boston Celtics organization is founded upon winning; they have always been a great team, with good coaches and amazing front offices, that pride themselves in defense and grit.
The Dallas Mavericks have only appeared in four Western Conference finals, appearing in 22 playoffs, in the NBA finals three times, and obtaining one championship in 2011.
If you compare these analytics with the Boston Celtics, the organization has more upside.
Overall, the Dallas Mavericks had no elite veteran besides Kyrie Irving, who obtained a chip in 2016.
The Dallas Mavericks were a younger team, needing more playoffs and championship experiences.
The Boston Celtics knew what was at stake and played like their careers depended on this moment.
Salute to the Celtics for being named 2024 NBA Champions.
