Yaron Weitzman
FOX Sports NBA writer
BOSTON — After watching the Miami Heat beat the Boston Celtics in last year’s Eastern Conference finals, Boston president of basketball operations Brad Stevens looked for ways to add depth. He thought the team needed a bit more size and could improve its interior defense. He also wanted some variety on offense, a curveball to use when opposing defenses stuck with the Celtics’ drive-and-kick game. So when the opportunity to trade for Kristaps Porzingis came up, Stevens jumped on it.
Porzingis wasn’t cheap — the Celtics had to give up a key member of their team, 2022 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart, to acquire him — but for Stevens, the opportunity to acquire a player with Porzingis’ skill set was too good to pass up.
“Being able to throw the ball in the post and shoot the ball off the switch and be able to do that efficiently and effectively, not to mention being able to play behind the line and shoot the ball and drive, that’s huge,” Stevens told reporters after the trade that acquired Porzingis from the Washington Wizards on June 23. “He brings a lot to the team. You can imagine, I can imagine, some of the lineups we can put in there right now, size-wise, are pretty interesting. And without losing any skill. So that’s a good thing.”
Porzingis proved Stevens’ decision right all season long, as his performances as a defensive and defensive back helped the Celtics go from a very good regular season team to the best team of all time, winning 64 games and becoming the team with the fifth-best scoring differential in league history.
But on Thursday night, Stevens seemed prophetic as Porzingis demolished the Dallas Mavericks in Game 1 of the Finals, leading the Celtics to a 107-89 victory. Porzingis had 20 points (on 8-of-13 shooting), six rebounds and three blocks in 21 minutes of action. But that stat underestimates his impact. Or, better yet, he was the first player in the series to take control of the game.
“He played great on both ends of the floor: defensive execution, game plan, getting into position on the offensive end, playing physical, playing on both ends of the floor,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said. “That’s what KP did, and we were able to perform the way we did today.”
Porzingis had missed the Celtics’ last two games with a calf injury and was eager to return for his first NBA Finals appearance. “It’s tough coming out of a month and jumping into the Finals, the most stressful game,” Porzingis said. Between pregame introductions and the start of the game, he hopped around the Celtics’ sideline, trying to calm his nerves. “The adrenaline was pumping through my body,” Porzingis said. Mazzulla brought him off the bench, something he hadn’t done all season, and when Porzingis played for the first time, the Celtics were leading by one a little more than halfway through the first quarter.
He continued to display all the skills Stevens mentioned in June. He knocked down a mid-range jump shot over a smaller defender. He dribbled past Mavericks center Derrick Lively while driving for a dunk. He knocked down another mid-range jump shot after the Mavericks again switched a smaller defender onto him. He knocked down a deep triple in transition. He bounced around and smiled. And in the process, he scored 11 points in the first quarter and deflected three Mavericks shots.
When the buzzer sounded to end the quarter, the Celtics had extended their one-point lead to 17.
“He looked pretty healthy from me,” Mavericks center Daniel Gafford said.
“He made shots, he converted shots, he blocked shots. He energized the team when he came off the bench,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said.
Porzingis unleashed everything for the Celtics, confusing the Mavericks. Dallas’ defense had dominated opponents in the Western Conference playoffs, but it had been slamming the paint and provoking opponents to finish over ace rim protectors Gafford and Derrick Lively II. That plan was undermined when Porzingis spotted up from 27 feet away. According to Cleaning the Glass, the Celtics made all 15 of their attempts to the rim, and with plenty of avenues to the rim, they were able to hit 42 3-pointers. They made more than half of their field goals, mostly from drive-and-kick attempts, making 16 of them.
The Mavericks were so shaken that late in the first half, Kidd abandoned the tactics he had used leading up to the finals, fielding a lineup that featured the more agile Maxi Kleber at center instead of Gafford and Lively.
Meanwhile, the Celtics executed their strategy perfectly. And it was simple: Let the Mavs’ dynamic duo, Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, score on their own. There were no double teams on either player. There were no pick-and-roll blitzes or weak-side scrambles. If the Mavs were to win, it would be by Doncic and Irving taking tough shots over bigger defenders.
Doncic finished with 30 points, but Celtics wing Jaylen Brown, one of the few players in the NBA with the size, speed and intelligence to match Doncic defensively, held him to 12 of 16 shooting. Irving was held to just 12 points on 6 of 19 shooting.
But more notably, the Mavericks dished out just eight assists, including a season-low one from Doncic. After coming into the game at a record pace of making playoff alley-oops per game, the Mavericks couldn’t make a single lob. The corner triple, a mainstay of their offense, was nowhere to be found, attempting just three. They finished the game with an offensive rating of 96.7, 20 points per 100 possessions worse than the league-worst mark posted by the Memphis Grizzlies during the regular season.
“The ball got caught too much,” Kidd said.
Meanwhile, the Celtics focused on attacking Doncic whenever they could, and Brown in particular led the Celtics after Porzingis’ initial explosion. Brown finished with a team-high 22 points, six rebounds, three blocks, three steals and two assists, but he got far more points on drives.
“What you saw tonight is kind of the challenge he’s set for himself coming into the year, not wanting to be boxed in to just one thing,” Mazzulla said. “He wants to play. He wants to be a well-rounded player.”
The Mavericks had the Celtics sweating after halftime, going on a 22-9 run to cut a 29-point lead to eight. The TD Garden crowd went quiet. The anxiety was palpable.
Coach Mazzulla called a timeout and the players had two minutes to discuss it before rejoining the team.
“We said we’re just going to take a breath. The game starts now. Just take a breath,” Brown said. “Just take a breath and keep playing basketball. When we get a chance to shoot, we’re going to take it with confidence. No turnovers, take care of the basketball and just play our game. We’ve got to get stops. They’re making big shots. Just run through.”
The Celtics responded with a 14-0 run and soon left the court with the victory, moving them to within three wins of their 18th championship.
“It’s all a blur right now,” Porzingis said later that night. “I was totally focused on the game. It feels great. It was a blast. I want to have more moments like that in the future.”
Yaron Weitzman is an NBA writer for FOX Sports. Going to the Top: The Philadelphia 76ers and the Most Audacious Process in Professional Sports HistoryFollow us on Twitter Yaron Weitzman.
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