Five key players in Dallas Mavericks vs. Boston Celtics NBA Finals 2024

BOSTON — Welcome to the 2024 NBA Finals, where the lights are just a little bit brighter… unless you ask Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla.

“Unless they change the bulbs in the arena, there won’t be any lights brighter than last series,” Mazzulla said.

Boston’s coach is trying to deflect pressure from his players, but the pressure comes with this stage, and a lot of players will feel it. It was hard to narrow this list down to just five key players for the NBA Finals because guys like P.J. Washington for Dallas or Al Horford (just to name a couple) could end up being critical in this series.

Here are the five players where the spotlight will shine brightest.

For the last two rounds — thanks to injured opponents and the play of Al Horford — the Boston Celtics won handily without Kristaps Porzingis on the court.

That’s not happening against Dallas. Boston needs Porzingis out there.

He will be, saying he will play in Game 1, returning from a strained calf.

However, he’s quick to admit he’s been out since April 29 and there are conditioning and rust concerns.

“I haven’t played. I haven’t played for a while. [Thursday] will be my real, like, first real minutes in a while, you know?” Porzingis said. “I did as much as I could to prepare for this moment, but there’s nothing like game minutes and game experience that I’m going to get [Thursday]. It will be tough to jump into the Finals like this. I did everything I could to prepare for it and we’ll see [Thursday] night.”

Porzingis — who had three disappointing seasons in Dallas but has found himself again and thrived this season in Boston — changes this series because of his shooting and defense. But mostly his shooting.

Dallas has had defensive success prioritizing rim protection. It likes to drop centers Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford back into the paint to protect the rim — Porzingis’ 3-point shooting (37.5% this season) will pull them out because they can’t just concede 3s. Porzingis messes with Dallas’ matchups and if he can play a good 25+ minutes a night, the Celtics’ chances of winning it all go way up.

Boston also could use Porzingis’…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/five-key-players-dallas-mavericks-002824921.html

Author : NBC Sports

Publish date : 2024-06-06 00:28:24

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.