Celtics vs. Mavericks: With Kristaps Porzingis out, three ways the Mavs can take advantage in NBA Finals

The Boston Celtics announced that Kristaps Porzingis is out for Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday night after suffering a “torn medial retinaculum, allowing dislocation of the posterior tibialis tendon” in his left leg during Game 2. 

That’s a lot of medical jargon, and the link above tells you what you need to know about what is apparently an extremely rare injury, but for the purposes of this post, we’re going to keep it to basketball. 

Game 3 is a must-win for the Mavs as no team in history has recovered from a 3-0 deficit to win an NBA playoff series, let alone the Finals, and here are three ways Porzingis’ absence could be the break Dallas needs to get back in this series. 

1. Rim protection

Porzingis is a different rim-protecting animal that Al Horford. For starters, he’s five inches taller at 7-foot-2 and that makes a big difference as a deterrent. Porzingis has already blocked five shots in this series and altered more than that. This one on Josh Green in the open floor was ridiculous.

Here’s another fantastic block in transition on Daniel Gafford, and again, the good news is this play came after Porzingis came up lame with the calf injury and was able to stay in the game. 

That Porzingis stayed in the game for six more minutes after the injury and was able to make plays like this (he also stayed with Luka Doncic on a baseline drive and held up against a dancing Kyrie Irving in space) is an encouraging sign that the injury might not be as bad as Boston’s worst fears. 

But if it is, or even if he just needs a game off, Boston will miss his rim protection mightily. In the Finals, the Mavericks are converting just 36.4% of their shots at the rim against Porzingis (4 for 11), by far the stingiest mark of any single defender in the series. 

2. Shooting

Porzingis has only made two 3-pointers in the series and didn’t make any in Game 2, but the threat of his shot well beyond 25 feet stretches Boston’s spacing to virtually indefensible lengths. Also, the 3s are not the shot Porzingis is killing Dallas with;…

Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/celtics-vs-mavericks-with-kristaps-porzingis-out-three-ways-the-mavs-can-take-advantage-in-nba-finals/

Author : Brad Botkin

Publish date : 2024-06-12 23:02:50

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.