2024 NBA Finals: Luka Dončić and the Mavs must find answers on offense — and quick

These baskets that Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving made in Game 1 of the 2024 NBA Finals? Brother, these are some cool baskets:

They are also, though, mostly tough baskets: difficult shots made over tight contests from one or multiple defenders, through contact, fading away from the basket, more likely not to clang clear than to fall through the net.

You know what kind of baskets are easier? Lobs to soaring 7-footers for extremely loud slam dunks, and drive-and-kick feeds to 3-point shooters waiting to cash out from the short corners. The Mavericks have been elite at creating those shots throughout the 2024 NBA postseason, with Dončić, Irving and the rest of Dallas’ playmakers (but, really, mostly Dončić and Irving) setting up 54 alley-oop dunks through the first three rounds, by far the most of any team in these playoffs, and generating corner 3-point tries on 13% of the Mavs’ shot attempts, the highest rate of any postseason participant.

Against Boston in Game 1, though? Just three total attempts from the corners — and one of those came in the final minute, with both teams’ stars off the court and the Celtics having long since salted away a blowout win — and only one look at a lob … which Jaylen Brown, in the midst of a stellar two-way performance, promptly snuffed out:

From the opening tip, the Celtics sold out to take away the easy stuff and force Dallas to subsist on hardtack. They pressed up tight on the Mavs’ corner shooters, at times even face-guarding them, even if it meant letting a dangerous creator like Dončić or Irving attack in isolation:

The Celtics refused to put two defenders on the ball, refused to put themselves in rotation. With Al Horford starting at center, they switched ball screens, trusting the ageless wonder to move his feet, contain the ball and force a contested shot, which — even coming off the fingertips of Dončić or Irving — Boston vastly prefers to an open one coming from someplace else.

And when Kristaps Porziņģis checked into the game, they leaned into drop coverage in the pick-and-roll, trusting that whoever was guarding Dončić or Irving — chiefly…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/2024-nba-finals-luka-doncic-and-the-mavs-must-find-answers-on-offense–and-quick-211415356.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-06-07 21:14:15

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