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2024 NBA Finals – Game One
Throughout an 82-game regular season, the Boston Celtics were the best team in the NBA. In the playoffs, they beat whoever was in front of them, usually handily.
Still there were doubters — and the Celtics answered them emphatically in Game 1 with an 18-point win that wasn’t that close and was in garbage time with five minutes to go.
Boston played well on both ends and cruised to a 107-89 win, taking a 1-0 lead in the NBA Finals. Jaylen Brown led the Celtics with 22 points and three blocks. Game 2 is Sunday.
Here are three takeaways from Game 1.
1) Porzingis completes the Celtics
Game 1 changed with 7:17 left in the first quarter — it was a one-point game when Kristaps Porzingis came off the bench to a massive ovation.
“He just went on a run where he just, he hit the three, hit the middy, then ran back, got the block at the rim in transition,” Brown said. “He was just making play after play and it was just like, all right, he’s back, there was no question about it.”
Porzingis was always the skeleton key that would unlock the Celtics offense in the Finals, and that showed the second he stepped on the court. Porzingis changed the game because he was hitting shots — he started 3-of-4 — and, more importantly, threw off the Dallas matchups that had worked pretty well up to that point. Porzingis entered the game with Boston up one and quickly it was 28-18, forcing Jason Kidd to call a timeout. It didn’t matter. Boston started to pull away and never relinquished that lead.
Porzingis finished with 20 points in 21 minutes, shooting 8-of-13 overall with a couple of 3-pointers, plus six boards and three blocks. His strong play continued into the second half — when Dallas cut the Boston 29-point lead down to 8 in the third, Porzingis was a crucial part of turning that around.
Porzingis said he felt good physically, but he hadn’t played in more than a month, and he had questions about how he would feel physically.
“Tonight was an affirmation to myself, that I’m pretty good [physically], you know?” Porzingis said. “Maybe I’m not perfect, but I’m pretty good and I can play like this and I can…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/mavericks-vs-celtics-nba-finals-051105371.html
Author : NBC Sports
Publish date : 2024-06-07 05:11:05
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