Celtics’ Jrue Holiday didn’t win Finals MVP, but his value has never felt higher

When the Milwaukee Bucks traded for Damian Lillard last summer, they didn’t anticipate Jrue Holiday ending up on the Boston Celtics. But that’s how it played out, and fewer than nine months later, the Celtics have added an 18th championship banner to their all-time NBA ledger. 

That is not a coincidence. 

Holiday made the Celtics an entirely different team in ways both tangible and intangible. Not having to be a primary scorer or creator, he thrived in all the right cracks and took Boston’s defense, which was filled with interchangeable parts, to a suffocating level. Brad Stevens has made some incredible trades during his time. Landing Kristaps Porzingis and Derrick White are two of the best moves in recent memory. Many would argue getting Holiday was a step above even those two. 

Many would also argue that Holiday — though he didn’t take home Finals MVP honors (that went to Jaylen Brown) — was actually Boston’s most valuable player (to whatever extent that distinction exists on a team this balanced) against the Mavericks for his ability to flat out shut down whoever was in front of him. 

Until Jayson Tatum put up a line of 31-11-8-2 in the clincher on Monday, Holiday’s Game 2 performance of 26 points, 11 rebounds, three assists, a steal and a block was the best single-game showing in this series. You would have to go back to Michael Jordan in 1998 to find another player who carded at least 38 points with zero turnovers through the first two games of a Finals, as Holiday did against Dallas. 

The Mavericks’ chances in this series ended when Luka Doncic and, to a far greater degree, Kyrie Irving couldn’t create any sort of consistent downhill leverage. Brown was a beast, but Holiday had two of the most indefensible creators in the world in shackles every time he was in position to do so. I’m sure it happened at some point, but I can’t recall Holiday getting truly beat one time in this series. Against Doncic and Irving? That is an insane thing to say. 

Holiday has always been a terrific player, but since he went to Milwaukee,…

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Author : Brad Botkin

Publish date : 2024-06-18 05:00:41

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