The Celtics 3-point shooting is the biggest mismatch in the NBA Finals
On Thursday night at the Garden the Boston Celtics will host the Dallas Mavericks in game 1 of the NBA Finals looking to win their first title since 2008. Boston is the favorite in the Finals for the first time since 1986 so I figured it was a good time to look at the Celtics biggest advantage heading into the series.
Boston’s offense against the Mavericks defense is the biggest mismatch in the series, Boston’s high powered offense has shown it’s might twice against Dallas in the regular season and will look to do so again in the NBA Finals. Brian Barrett from the Ringer joined the Joe Murray show last night and discussed some of the key factors that give Boston an advantage over Dallas.
In Boston’s regular season matchups against Dallas they made it an emphazise to attack Luka and Kyrie on the defensive end to make them work and not just be passengers out there defensively. Luka was able to be somewhat of a passenger against the Thunder, Clippers and TimberWolves because of their lack of shooting depth. That won’t be the same against a Boston team that is loaded with guys that can shoot the 3-pointer and hunt mismatches.
Fans have been critical of Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla’s offensive philosophy at times, being too reliant on the 3-pointer but could that philosophy actually be the reason Boston gets over the hump and wins the title? Joe Murray and myself think so and Brian Barrett gave us some numbers on why “Mazzulla ball” is one of Boston’s greatest strengths.
Looking at the Mavericks defensively in the playoffs you’d say they’ve been pretty good at limiting teams offensively and trying to take away the 3-pointer but the Celtics are a much different opponent offensively than any team Dallas has played so far. Oklahoma City refused to stop playing Josh Giddey until it was too late in that series for it to make an impact, the Wolves were 23rd in 3 point attempts the Clippers 21st and the Thunder were 16th during the regular season.
Boston a much different animal than these teams on that end were #1 in the NBA in 3 point attempts with 42.5 per game. Dallas was able to take advantage of teams not having 5 shooters out there en route to the Finals but they’ll have to adjust if their going to have a shot at slowing down the Celtics. It will still be on Boston to hit their shots but heading into the series this seems to be the mismatch Boston will be looking for to raise banner 18.
