NBA Finals: Depth won Game 3 for the Celtics, and it’s going to lose the series for the Mavericks

P.J. Washington made two 3-pointers and scored eight points as the Dallas Mavericks went on a 22-2 run in the fourth quarter to trim a 21-point Boston Celtics lead down to just one. Those numbers might not seem especially notable, but think about them in context. In the first three quarters of Game 3 of the Finals, Mavericks not named Kyrie Irving or Luka Doncic scored just 19 points. Washington’s 3-pointer with 1:04 remaining in the third quarter was the first any non-Doncic or Irving Maverick had made all night. Dallas desperately needed somebody, anybody, to start scoring points besides its superstar duo. The moment that happened was the moment the Mavs nearly stole Game 3.

It’s been that kind of series for Dallas. Four of the top six scorers in the series thus far are Celtics, and it would probably be five out of seven had Kristaps Porzingis played in Game 3. Doncic has led the Mavericks in scoring in all three Finals games thus far. The Celtics have had three different leading scorers: Jaylen Brown in Game 1, Jrue Holiday in Game 2 and Jayson Tatum in Game 3. The idea that the Celtics are deeper than the Mavericks is hardly new, but this series has swung largely on what a spectacular job the Celtics have done in cutting off the few types of plays that make these Dallas role players viable on offense.

Just think about how the Mavericks got here. When they faced the Oklahoma City Thunder in the second round, the league’s No. 4-ranked defense decided to trap Doncic and Irving and force the Dallas supporting cast to beat them. The Mavericks were comfortable with this arrangement. They averaged more than 16 corner 3-point attempts per game. 

Even though they only hit 36.1% of them, that volume was so high that it ultimately doomed the Thunder. When Washington and Derrick Jones Jr. weren’t killing the Thunder from deep, Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford were doing it at the rim. Those doubles on Doncic opened up lob after lob, and the Dallas bigs rode those alley-oops to nearly 11 restricted area field goal attempts per game in the…

Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-finals-depth-won-game-3-for-the-celtics-and-its-going-to-lose-the-series-for-the-mavericks/

Author : Sam Quinn

Publish date : 2024-06-13 04:26:32

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