Thoughts on the Celtics 18th NBA Title
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The Celtics won their 18th championship last night. They did it relatively easily, disposing of the Mavericks in five games. Jaylen Brown was the rightful Finals MVP, Al Horford got his first ring and local guy Jayson Tatum shut his doubters up in the process, delivering a pretty great close out game. Let’s discuss.
I know the media will want to try and place this team in the annals of history today, and find excuses for Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving and start moving on to next season. I want to look back at these finals and give my impression.
Before the series started I picked the Celtics to win in six games, only a game off, and said I would not be watching much of it at all, I logged about two and a half quarters worth of tv time on these finals. I made it no secret that I do not like either of these teams. I have never been a Celtics fan and the mere presence of Luka Doncic's face makes me annoyed and angry. But, the basketball I did watch, I gained some respect for this version of the Celtics. They have two bonafide superstars currently on their roster. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are legit. They are both in the top 20, maybe 15, of the league right now. Brown was an absolute beast this whole series. He was consistent on both ends of the floor. He wanted this ring more than anybody, or that was how I saw it. He put in the necessary work, stayed healthy and became the best overall player on the Celtics when they needed him most. Tatum showed the viewing public another side of his game. He couldn't score as easily as he does, so he decided to become a ferocious driver and made the right pass time after time. Tatum knew what would work against the Mavs defense and he did it over and over and over again. The Mavs had no answer for this version of Tatum and he used that to his team's advantage. Derrick White was a hound on defense and he made big shots seemingly all the time. Al Horford stepped up and played a great role on both ends of the floor. And Jrue Holiday more than proved his worth each and every night. He may be the most underrated player in the entire NBA. The dude just wins. The Celtics bench stepped up when they needed them to. They rebounded well. They made the right play on offense. They survived their mental lapses. And they played suffocating defense. Their defense in this series was a thing of beauty. They were everywhere. They switched everything. They didn't care who had the ball, they were guarding one on one. It was a breath of fresh air for me to watch. They shoot way too many threes for my taste, but their defensive prowess more than made up for their offense to me.
As for the Mavs, they were overmatched from the jump. Doncic moaned and groaned all the way to fouling out during a crucial moment in game three. He spent too much time focusing on the refs. He got exposed on defense. Anyone that called him the "best player" in this series should be eating their words this morning. Sure, he scored, but he was bad in these finals, very bad. Kyrie Irving was worse. He never made an impact on either end. He had one game where he scored okay, but it didn't matter. He did not bring the same energy on defense that he had in the previous series. He couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. He struggled mightily. The bigs the Mavs had couldn't do much of anything. Derrick Lively Jr started slow, but did finish strong. He is also a young rookie, so hiccups were expected. Daniel Gafford was played off the floor. PJ Washington was irrelevant. Maxi Kleber was bad. Tim Hardaway Jr never got consistent minutes. The Mavericks bought into the media hype and they were exposed. And Jason Kidd got wildly outcoached by Joe Mazzula. Mazzula had a plan, it worked and he wavered only when he had to. Kidd's plan was to let Luka Doncic do whatever he wanted to do and hope for the best. Jason Kidd is incredibly knowledgeable on the game of basketball, but I do think he is wildly overrated as an NBA head coach. A 35 year old treated him like he was the young guy trying to figure it out in the finals. Joe Mazzula was masterful.
All in all, this was not a very good finals. But, the better team won. The Celtics are just that too, a team. They don't need the 1 star surrounded by role players. Brown and Tatum are upper echelon talents, but they understand the importance of playing team basketball on offense and defense. The Mavericks are not at that level, and I fear they may not get there with this roster and coaching staff. Congrats to the Celtics. They are in sole possession of the most titles in NBA history, and this could be the start of more to come. Time will tell.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.
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