The Dallas Mavericks are less than a day away from playing Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics. In their final practice day before the start of the series, Luka Doncic was working on quickfire 3-pointers coming off a hand-off. The success of the shot led to Luka joking with Kyrie Irving about adding that to his game next season.
Luka Doncic: “This is me next year.”
Kyrie Irving: “I believe it.”
Luka Doncic: “This is me next year.”
Kyrie Irving: “I believe it.” 😂
(via @TomerAzarly) pic.twitter.com/mk57Z9CqTO
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) June 5, 2024
Kyrie’s encouraging response to Doncic showing excitement for this off-ball facet of the game which could lead to faster possessions for the Mavericks was great to see. Doncic has adjusted his game heavily to accommodate Irving this season, primarily in terms of playing at a faster pace rather than grinding the shot clock down to get an open shot.
The Mavericks run hand-off actions more than most teams in the NBA to enable open looks for the multitude of shooters on their roster or open up the lane for a rim-running big to catch a lob. Doncic is still not a willing catch-and-shoot player, with plenty of clips of him avoiding open shots and waiting for a defender to guard him so he can hit a step back on them.
Doncic is averaging 28.8 points, 9.6 rebounds, and 8.8 assists this postseason, leading the Playoffs in over eight statistical categories. Kyrie is averaging 22.8 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 5.2 assists, but is changing his reputation by being the perfect second star next to Luka with his aggressive on-ball defense and high-motor.
Joe Mazzulla Knows There’s No Stopping Luka And Kyrie
The Celtics will have their hands full with trying to limit the production of this fiery duo. Doncic and Irving are setting postseason records for their combined efforts as a pair, which has led to Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla openly admitting that no amount of analytics can stop Luka and Kyrie from going off.
“If those guys play well, then they beat you. They don’t look at your offense, they don’t look at your turnovers, they don’t look at your transition, they don’t look at your second chance points, they don’t look at your execution on the offensive end.”
Mazzulla also admitted that the Celtics cannot stop them from producing.
“This series is going to be about stopping those two guys. There is no stopping them. There’s defending them at a high level and there’s playing a complete game because every part of the game is connected. And so they’ve played nine close games, we’ve played four. There’s going to be close games.”
“We’re not here to stop those guys. We’re here to play a complete game of basketball and have an understanding of how each possession has an effect on everything else.”
The Celtics are favored to win this series after a dominant campaign all season long. The franchise picked up 64 wins in the regular season before going 12-2 over the Playoff field to book their Finals berth. The Mavericks won just 50 games and went 12-5 in three series’ against 50-win teams to make it this far.
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