Takeaways from Minnesota vs. Dallas Game 3: Clutch play is why Mavericks can beat Celtics

Three close games between Minnesota and Dallas, and three times that the Mavericks — specifically Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving — were better in the clutch.

That’s why Dallas is up 3-0 in the Western Conference Finals and one game away from reaching the NBA Finals. It’s also why the Mavericks could win those Finals.

Here are three takeaways from Game 3.

Clutch play: Why Dallas can beat Boston

Plenty has been made about how, in these Western Conference Finals, Dallas has been clutch while the Timberwolves have not risen up to those moments like they did against the Nuggets last round. Luka Doncic is a proven clutch player who has hit the biggest shot in this series, and Kyrie Irving has a championship ring in part because he hit one of the most clutch shots in NBA Finals history. They have looked comfortable in the big moments.

That clutch play could be the difference against Boston in the NBA Finals. (While neither Boston nor Dallas have officially qualified for the Finals yet, we all see where this is headed, right?)

Dallas is 6-2 this postseason in clutch games (within five points in the final five minutes) with a +7.2 net rating. That jumps to a +25 net rating if you narrow it down to the final three minutes of playoff games within three points. Boston has a better clutch net rating of +37.5 in the playoffs and has had its big moments — think Jaylen Brown’s corner 3 in Game 1 against the Pacers — but that has come in just 14 minutes of clutch play, an incredibly small sample size. Boston has not been tested the same way.

This is not some fluke by Dallas — the Mavericks had a +20.5 net rating in the regular season and were 23-9 in clutch games.

Boston had the fourth-best clutch net rating in the league (+15.4), and they were 21-12 — let’s not pretend the Celtics fell apart in the clutch… although at times it felt like they did. If you watched those games, the Celtics’ offense could get bogged down and rely purely on your-turn/my-turn isolation in the clutch, they just got away with it because Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are that talented.

In a playoff matchup, I would trust Doncic and Irving over…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/takeaways-minnesota-vs-dallas-game-140917642.html

Author : NBC Sports

Publish date : 2024-05-27 14:09:17

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