BOSTON — The NBA Finals are finally tipping off in Boston, and a week or two from now, the Boston Celtics or the Dallas Mavericks will be crowned champions.
Is it finally time for Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown to add their own banner to Celtics’ vast collection, or will Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving play spoiler for Boston? The WBZ-TV and CBS Boston sports team makes their picks, and everyone is going Green with their predictions.
Dan Roche, WBZ-TV Sports
I think THIS Celtics team has answered every question/situation thrown their way this postseason. It’s their time.
Both of their losses — Game 2 against Miami and Game 2 against Cleveland — resulted in bounce back Game 3 victories on the road.
Need a big shot from your two best players? Game 1 against Indiana it was Jaylen Brown with a huge three to send it into overtime. Then Jayson Tatum delivered a three-point play followed by a dagger three with 43 seconds left in the extra session. Your two superstars delivered when it was needed most.
Game 3 in Indiana was Jrue Holiday’s turn to step up, and he did so on both ends of the floor in the final seconds. The ageless Al Horford also buried seven threes in that road victory.
Game 4 was Derrick White, who came up with the clinching three late in the corner.
This is a t-e-a-m at its finest, and Joe Mazzulla has a team that listens and understands exactly what their head coach wants from them.
Boston is also 12-2 in the postseason, a perfect 6-0 on the road and 6-2 at home. They’re also 3-for-3 in series clinching opportunities.
And now – Kristaps Porzingis is ready to return from a calf strain. Yet another weapon on both ends of the floor.
Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving are superstar players leading a Dallas team that learned to play championship defense the final months of the season. They deserve to be here.
But Boston has more weapons on offense and plays quality defense. It should be a battle, but I’ll take the Celtics in six with Jayson Tatum earning MVP honors.
Nick Giovanni, WBZ-TV Sports
It’s been a postseason of gentlemen’s sweeps and a complete sweep for the Celtics. That trend may not continue against the Mavericks, but with Kristaps Porzingis back I think it’s only a matter of time before Banner 18 is in place.
It just comes down to how healthy KP really is. His 10-second pause when asked if he’s still playing through some pain makes one wonder how close to 100 percent he really is. But his mere presence out on the Parquet is enough to make the Mavs think twice about trying to find their points in the paint.
As far as solving the problem of Luka and Kyrie, that’s no small task. Just ask the Nuggets and Timberwolves. But, I think the Celtics collectively can keep both from going off with their NBA all-defensive second team backcourt of White and Holiday with some help from Jaylen Brown.
End of the day, a healthy Porzingis = Celtics in 5. Porzingis still overcoming the calf injury = C’s in 6.
Matthew Geagan, CBS Boston
It’s time for the Celtics to finish the job. This has been building for Tatum and Brown for years, and Brad Stevens gave Joe Mazzulla and company the missing pieces this offseason in Porzingis and Holiday. Now they’re in the Finals after a dominant regular season and mostly dominant run in the playoffs. Having to win three close games against the Pacers in the Conference Finals proved the Celtics can come through in the clutch.
The Mavericks will be Boston’s biggest test this postseason, and there’s a good chance most of these games are going to be tight contests. That’s a scary thought, considering Luka has made the Celtics pay late in games before. (Remember when he spoiled Kevin Garnett’s special day at the Garden a few years ago? Yeah, I blacked that out of my brain too.)
While the Mavs have the best player in the series, the Celtics have the better team from top to bottom and a much, much better defense. In the end, that will lead Boston to Banner 18.
Luka is going to score a lot and Kyrie will get his points too. But I believe we’re going to get at least one Tatum takeover game, another game-winner for D-White, a lot more ridiculous defense from Holiday, and Brown will break some more ankles on his way to adding another MVP trophy to his growing collection. Celtics in 6.
Joe Weil, CBS Boston
The Celtics are 76-20 this season. I repeat…THE CELTICS ARE 76-20 THIS SEASON.
Luka Dončić, Kyrie Irving, and this remade Mavericks defense are going to be a tough challenge, but I think it’s important to put into context the historical uphill battle that Dallas is trying to climb. The last NBA Finals winner that was lower than a three seed was the 1995 Houston Rockets (and while they were a six seed that year, they won the championship the year before, they played a young Orlando Magic team in the 1995 Finals, and they added Hall-of-Famer Clyde Drexler via a midseason trade that year). And as C’s aficionado Bill Simmons noted, there have been 10 teams over the last 50 years that had 20 losses or less by the time they made the Finals, and the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors are the only one in that group to lose the Finals.
The Celtics were the best team in the regular season. They posted the fifth-best regular season point differential ever. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are playing the most complete basketball of their careers, Jrue Holiday and Derrick White are perfect role players for this team, Kristaps Porzingis appears healthy now, and Al Horford is somehow still a very useful player at age 38.
The C’s playoff path has been easy, but that’s the benefit of having the one seed. And even without Porzingis for most of the playoffs, the C’s are still 12-2 this postseason. Celtics in 6.