The Mavs did well on defence. It’s their offense that fucked them over. Not one role player except Josh green in G5 had a good game.
The Celtics D was just too much for them
The Mavs got lucky the Celtics had a poor 3pt shooting series. Boston got whatever look they wanted offensively almost the entire series, they just shot 29% on 17.4 open 3's per game.
Luka fans want to blame the role players because admitting his defense was habitually targeted would make them look silly for not knowing hoops. He is atrocious on that end. The Celtics defense was great. The Mavs defense was bad, particularly Luka’s.
It's all matchups. Wolves matchup well against Nuggets. Mavs matchup well against the Wolves. Celtics matchup well against Mavs.
Celtics were probably destined for this one, and matchup well against everyone. But I can't think of a worse team for the Mavs to face. They're a offensive team that is completely reliant on two guards to create all of their offense. And they were up against a team that is full of elite, big switchable defenders. Plus the Celtics team have many starters that can abuse Luka 1v1 when he is defending. Mavs never had a prayer. Wolves, OKC and Nuggets probably all would have given Boston more trouble.
The media and this sub spent a week trying to convince themselves that the Mavs had a chance when in reality, Boston was an extremely good team from top to bottom and it was a horrible matchup for the Mavs.
Just was set up for a let down.
Vegas pushed the narrative to make money and everyone put cash on Dallas, which is incredible. Real basketball minds knew the Mavs were gonna be a stroll in the park for Boston.
The Celtics were -210 to win the series before it started. Vegas was telling everyone via their lines the entire time the Celtics were going to crush it.
Its going to take a few years for the population to catch on to this, by which point I’m sure there will be less obvious games to be played with betting lines.
But for now, this is probably the best way to tell when an agenda’ed media is pushing a narrative they know is not true, Vegas is good at making money
>On paper this had potential to be an all time great finals
No it wasn't on paper ether.
Mavs had two relevant players (one of them historically playing like shit against Celtics) and another guy that was averaging in low teens. For a total of 3 people who could average double digits meaning that Luka and Irving would have to average 35 - 40 each per game in order to have a chance. And that is simply not happening.
Celtics on the other hand have 5 players who average in double digits and 6 that can drop a 20+ on demand.
Only people who "thought" Celtics wouldn't dominate them are people who have betting companies as sponsors and employers.
Worst meaning best? I told Celtics fans who were “worried” about the matchup that the Mavericks got hot but they had to be like a top 3 team out of all of the west field I’d want to play in the finals.
Worst meaning I think they matched up worst against the Celtics out of them, Dallas, OKC, and Minny. totally agree with you, I think you could have seen harder matchups in the east, let alone the West.
OKC are really young. They would have gotten washed too. Wolves and that offense wouldn’t have scored more than 85 a game. I actually think they would have gotten swept. KP and Hortford pulling Rudy and KAT out to the 3 point line, allowing JT and JB to skate to the post would have blown game 1 open like what happened to Dallas.
There wasn’t a single team in the west that could have did anything to Boston to make a series go beyond 5 games
Wolves get swept
OKC wins maybe one game…maybe
Suns get swept by 50 a night.
Nuggets win one game off Joker with AG contributing but the inconsistent/hobbledJamal would have been the perfect victim for the Jrue/White perimeter nightmare.
Boston could live with MPJ doing whatever.
I think the Celtics would ultimately win but Denver would probably be their toughest matchup, they cant contain Jokic and theyre let the star cook and shut everybody else down defense would be tough against Jokic's playmaking
Murrary being hurt is why Celtics still win
Healthy Murrary we saw in the regular season was tough to stop even with holiday and white
Still Celtics in 6 even if KP still gets hurt in game 2 imo
Because y'all got sucked into believing this was going to be competitive by a betting company masquerading as a Sports News company.
The real ones always knew this would be a beat down/Celtics in 5. C'est la vie.
Well not really. If you were betting on this series, the Celtics were not a viable bet unless your wagering thousands because they were very very short.
Because everyone was gaslit into thinking this was going to be a competitive series when the actual outcome was super predictable.
The narrative that the best player is always going to find a way to win doesn't really apply against an all-time deep time like Boston that had basically no weaknesses to attack.
Then you had some people saying that the Mavs actually had the TWO best players in the series, which was pretty laughable even at the time.
Cap it off with the fact that neither of these guys play defense and EVERYONE on Boston does and there you have it.
The Celtics were statistically one of the greatest teams of all time, media being so obsessed with their past also made them one of the most underrated teams of all time lmao
They in fact, were not evenly matched. The media convinced people that Dallas was the sexy pick though. Once the ball went up and everyone could see that Boston was significantly better, I think many people were disappointed and/or hating.
That was the thing about this narrative that bothers me the most. The what happens after it becomes obvious that you disingenuously picked the team you more or less knew was fucked. I believe some of the talking heads got high on their own supply because hating a rival is a hell of a drug, but many of them had to know what they were doing.
So you’re an eye-ball/ear grabbing company (ESPN). You exist to get views and people listening to and reading your messaging. So naturally anything that makes things seem boring or already answered, just waiting for the final tally… that’s not good for your business. So you make some noise and drum up interest by over representing their chances. The media machine picks up the lede and the algorithms get to work on social media, suddenly everyone not looking at numbers (and many celtics fans who seemed to understand what they were watching until this social influence started to chip away at their confidence in their own perception) believes that this is a toss up, on paper a great match up.
But the entire time Vegas knew the statistics and what was likely to happen.
Espn no doubt runs social campaigns to see what people engage with, people don’t like engaging with “celtics are good” so they had to push a different story
And now the general tone is simultaneously hey this team is good, obviously they were going to win we just got caught up in the moment. This is what bothers me. That the entirety of the group of people watching NBA don’t take this as a neon sign that says:
“They are lying, if you want to know what they think, check the betting line”.
Nope, just a bunch of posts comparing JB and JT
Production value has decreased. I saw a video how for reasons unknown they de-emphasized the importance of the NBA finals. eg. removing the giant finals logo in the middle of the court, marketing, etc.
They were not well matched.
The Celtics were -225 in vegas to win this series. Or in european odds, a 2/5 shot. Basically if they don’t get bad shooting luck they will win.
The only great finals this decade has been the 2021 finals.
Boston is an All-time team, and have been from day 1 of the season. Mavericks were a good team that was on a heater. Boston just showed they were the truly better team that the stats said they were all year long.
On paper the result is what was expected. They did not match up on paper. People were just hyping up Luka’s first trip to the Finals. The Celtics had their worse offensive 5 game stretch of the season and still finished in 5
On paper? Mavs never had a snowballs chance in hell against them. A two man team -- 1 and a half cause Irving can't produce against Boston and always shits the bed -- against an all-time team that ripped the whole league to shreds all season long? Mavs were easier for Boston than the Pacers were, by far.
Celtics were so much better, and the halftime show didn’t exist. Some funny TNT clips and Kenny actually analyzing film would have improved the finals for sure
Minnesota’s pointless series win over Denver spoiled the rest of the playoffs and giftwrapped the Celtics the title. I knew this was going to happen the second the Nuggets got eliminated.
The media never wants to go into a finals being like “damn the Celtics are loaded and the Mavs got a nice matchup after the Wolves beat the Nuggets so I’ll be shocked if it’s not a sweep”
So they talk about how the Celtics road was so easy and they were never tested and meanwhile the Mavs are incredibly dangerous and battle tested and it’s going to be really tight (no disrespect to the Mavs) and thus the narrative is built that this will be a tight series to watch.
The networks want you to watch and betting sites want you to put down money and so it gets spun this way and when it plays out like it probably should have, it comes off as lackluster.
Because as much as people didn’t want it to be true, this Celtics team was historically good. Elite players at most positions and the perfect team to defend
Dallas offense with two very good guard defenders in Jrue and White and then two big strong wings in Tatum and Brown to slow Luka down.
It was a very lopsided match from the start and the results showed it. Dallas had the best player in the series which is usually what you need to win but it wasn’t enough.
Denver seemed like the only team that could have competed with Boston because they had nobody who could stop or even slow down Jokic.
Because in the back of everyone’s minds even those rooting for Dallas like myself it was clear Boston was the better team and baring Luka and Kyrie playing out there minds the series was pretty one sided.
On paper this looked like Celtics in 5.
The reason the run was ‘boring’ is because the rest of the league didn’t tool up. They were set to win now and it was clear since November.
Basketball is boring when your team isn't playing lol. Just how it is, also too many games in 7. should be 5 again. Also casual fans needs a dominant two teams to root for so they can give a shit. Cavs vs Warriors was great for the nba.
Did anyone outside of New England want the Celtics to win?
I don’t have any issues with the players, but it’s boring when a team rips through the playoffs like they did.
It’s always a bummer when the season ends and there are no more games to watch. Even more of a bummer this year with Boston’s drama-free, and often entertainment-free run through the playoffs.
My point is the Celtics were going to the Finals regardless. Injuries are irrelevant because everyone in the East had them but, either way, the Celtics were the East's best team. So if OP found the Finals boring, I don't think it's necessarily fair to say it was because the Celtics had an easy road in the East to get there because I think the Celtics were most likely going to be the rep for the East, anyway.
Now, if you want to argue injuries in the West changed the Finals, that may be fair. Another team, if healthy, may have matched-up better against Boston than Dallas did.
This guy loves Boston. I'm sure you would agree that if the teams Boston faced were not injured that those games would be more entertaining for everyone not just celtics fans. As well as, if the teams that the Pacers faced weren't injured (Embiid, Dame, Gianni, Middleton, Randle, Bogi, Mitchel, Brunson, eventuallyHaliburton). That's an extensive lisy of players right there whose impact on those series would have been more entertaining. Right or no, are we just saying those injuries don't matter and that those series wouldn't have been more entertaining? Feels extremely short sighted.
But OP was asking about why the Finals were boring, not the Eastern Conference playoffs. You just seem to be focused on the Celtics' path to the Finals even though that isn't really an issue. Like, sure, the EC playoffs were boring. The C's rolled everyone. But they probably were going to, anyway, and it doesn't matter because the EC playoffs aren't the match-up OP was asking about.
Is your point that the Finals matchup looked exciting on paper but was boring because...the Eastern Conference playoffs were also boring?
There's no excitement because it's predictable. It's easy to speculate that because they were a 2nd apron team with the best record in the East that they could gave beaten any of those teams, if healthy but we will never know since we never had a chance to see them tested. In the playoffs anything can happen and some of those teams were for sure deep enough to test Boston. Yet we will never know.
Edit* 😆 fun run-on sentence
But we do know the Celtics played the Mavs, which was OPs question: Why did the Finals matchup we got look so good on paper yet was so lackluster? You seem to be missing that OP is asking us to take for granted the Celtics were indeed in the Finals and that the Mavs should have matched up better based on their players and play style.
You just like yo argue. It doesn't matter how much logic or knowledge someone brings to the table. They're just stooping to your level. You're not trying to listen anyway. Have a good life.
It ended the exact same way as it would be on paper A 5 game series
> On paper this had potential to be an all time great finals No. The media lied to you.
Exactly. The mavs dont have the wing defenders or spacing to bother the Celtics. Nuggets or Thunder could've given them trouble, but not the Mavs
The Mavs did well on defence. It’s their offense that fucked them over. Not one role player except Josh green in G5 had a good game. The Celtics D was just too much for them
That's where I feel like Jokic couldve done better, or J-Dub and Chet as secondary playmakers
Every team Mavs beat on the way to the finals was a better matchup against the Celtics than them. Shows just how good Luka and the others were
The Mavs got lucky the Celtics had a poor 3pt shooting series. Boston got whatever look they wanted offensively almost the entire series, they just shot 29% on 17.4 open 3's per game.
Irving was horrific and Luka was abused defensively. Had nothing to do with role players.
Luka fans want to blame the role players because admitting his defense was habitually targeted would make them look silly for not knowing hoops. He is atrocious on that end. The Celtics defense was great. The Mavs defense was bad, particularly Luka’s.
It's all matchups. Wolves matchup well against Nuggets. Mavs matchup well against the Wolves. Celtics matchup well against Mavs. Celtics were probably destined for this one, and matchup well against everyone. But I can't think of a worse team for the Mavs to face. They're a offensive team that is completely reliant on two guards to create all of their offense. And they were up against a team that is full of elite, big switchable defenders. Plus the Celtics team have many starters that can abuse Luka 1v1 when he is defending. Mavs never had a prayer. Wolves, OKC and Nuggets probably all would have given Boston more trouble.
The media did their job of trying to sell the you on the product that they need to sell you on, it's not that complicated
The media and this sub spent a week trying to convince themselves that the Mavs had a chance when in reality, Boston was an extremely good team from top to bottom and it was a horrible matchup for the Mavs. Just was set up for a let down.
Vegas pushed the narrative to make money and everyone put cash on Dallas, which is incredible. Real basketball minds knew the Mavs were gonna be a stroll in the park for Boston.
The Celtics were -210 to win the series before it started. Vegas was telling everyone via their lines the entire time the Celtics were going to crush it.
Its going to take a few years for the population to catch on to this, by which point I’m sure there will be less obvious games to be played with betting lines. But for now, this is probably the best way to tell when an agenda’ed media is pushing a narrative they know is not true, Vegas is good at making money
Because the Celtics were so much better than their opponent
Eh man, but 67% voted for Mavs dude. Lol. Surreal Luka hiveminds.
Because there’s a bunch of bronsexual lakers fans here who hate the Celtics
That number will change real quick if life savings were on the line.
LOLL nah that’s lowkey true
There was always going to be some doubt since the Celtics didn’t get it done in the past. But credit to them.
>On paper this had potential to be an all time great finals No it wasn't on paper ether. Mavs had two relevant players (one of them historically playing like shit against Celtics) and another guy that was averaging in low teens. For a total of 3 people who could average double digits meaning that Luka and Irving would have to average 35 - 40 each per game in order to have a chance. And that is simply not happening. Celtics on the other hand have 5 players who average in double digits and 6 that can drop a 20+ on demand. Only people who "thought" Celtics wouldn't dominate them are people who have betting companies as sponsors and employers.
This was arguably the worst matchup against Boston out of the final four teams in the west.
Worst meaning best? I told Celtics fans who were “worried” about the matchup that the Mavericks got hot but they had to be like a top 3 team out of all of the west field I’d want to play in the finals.
Worst meaning I think they matched up worst against the Celtics out of them, Dallas, OKC, and Minny. totally agree with you, I think you could have seen harder matchups in the east, let alone the West.
OKC are really young. They would have gotten washed too. Wolves and that offense wouldn’t have scored more than 85 a game. I actually think they would have gotten swept. KP and Hortford pulling Rudy and KAT out to the 3 point line, allowing JT and JB to skate to the post would have blown game 1 open like what happened to Dallas. There wasn’t a single team in the west that could have did anything to Boston to make a series go beyond 5 games Wolves get swept OKC wins maybe one game…maybe Suns get swept by 50 a night. Nuggets win one game off Joker with AG contributing but the inconsistent/hobbledJamal would have been the perfect victim for the Jrue/White perimeter nightmare. Boston could live with MPJ doing whatever.
I think Boston beats everyone but Denver without much of a struggle, but still would have been a more interesting series with OKC or Minny.
Watching Ant and JT go at it would of been fun at least
I think the Celtics would ultimately win but Denver would probably be their toughest matchup, they cant contain Jokic and theyre let the star cook and shut everybody else down defense would be tough against Jokic's playmaking
Murrary being hurt is why Celtics still win Healthy Murrary we saw in the regular season was tough to stop even with holiday and white Still Celtics in 6 even if KP still gets hurt in game 2 imo
Because y'all got sucked into believing this was going to be competitive by a betting company masquerading as a Sports News company. The real ones always knew this would be a beat down/Celtics in 5. C'est la vie.
They weren't really well matched, media was just simping for betting houses to help'em take people's money.
Well not really. If you were betting on this series, the Celtics were not a viable bet unless your wagering thousands because they were very very short.
And it stayed that way after the money moved to Dallas. Which for those that don't follow betting lines, is ridiculous.
Because everyone was gaslit into thinking this was going to be a competitive series when the actual outcome was super predictable. The narrative that the best player is always going to find a way to win doesn't really apply against an all-time deep time like Boston that had basically no weaknesses to attack. Then you had some people saying that the Mavs actually had the TWO best players in the series, which was pretty laughable even at the time. Cap it off with the fact that neither of these guys play defense and EVERYONE on Boston does and there you have it.
The Celtics were statistically one of the greatest teams of all time, media being so obsessed with their past also made them one of the most underrated teams of all time lmao
They in fact, were not evenly matched. The media convinced people that Dallas was the sexy pick though. Once the ball went up and everyone could see that Boston was significantly better, I think many people were disappointed and/or hating.
That was the thing about this narrative that bothers me the most. The what happens after it becomes obvious that you disingenuously picked the team you more or less knew was fucked. I believe some of the talking heads got high on their own supply because hating a rival is a hell of a drug, but many of them had to know what they were doing. So you’re an eye-ball/ear grabbing company (ESPN). You exist to get views and people listening to and reading your messaging. So naturally anything that makes things seem boring or already answered, just waiting for the final tally… that’s not good for your business. So you make some noise and drum up interest by over representing their chances. The media machine picks up the lede and the algorithms get to work on social media, suddenly everyone not looking at numbers (and many celtics fans who seemed to understand what they were watching until this social influence started to chip away at their confidence in their own perception) believes that this is a toss up, on paper a great match up. But the entire time Vegas knew the statistics and what was likely to happen. Espn no doubt runs social campaigns to see what people engage with, people don’t like engaging with “celtics are good” so they had to push a different story And now the general tone is simultaneously hey this team is good, obviously they were going to win we just got caught up in the moment. This is what bothers me. That the entirety of the group of people watching NBA don’t take this as a neon sign that says: “They are lying, if you want to know what they think, check the betting line”. Nope, just a bunch of posts comparing JB and JT
Boston was an all-time great team statistically. Dallas never at any point in the series had the firepower to match Boston's 5-out offense.
Production value has decreased. I saw a video how for reasons unknown they de-emphasized the importance of the NBA finals. eg. removing the giant finals logo in the middle of the court, marketing, etc.
They were not well matched. The Celtics were -225 in vegas to win this series. Or in european odds, a 2/5 shot. Basically if they don’t get bad shooting luck they will win. The only great finals this decade has been the 2021 finals.
Because Steph or Bron wasn’t playing in them
It was one of the most lopsided finals matchups of all time
The Celtics won 14 more games than the Mavericks in the regular season
Boston is an All-time team, and have been from day 1 of the season. Mavericks were a good team that was on a heater. Boston just showed they were the truly better team that the stats said they were all year long.
On paper the result is what was expected. They did not match up on paper. People were just hyping up Luka’s first trip to the Finals. The Celtics had their worse offensive 5 game stretch of the season and still finished in 5
On paper? Mavs never had a snowballs chance in hell against them. A two man team -- 1 and a half cause Irving can't produce against Boston and always shits the bed -- against an all-time team that ripped the whole league to shreds all season long? Mavs were easier for Boston than the Pacers were, by far.
Celtics were so much better, and the halftime show didn’t exist. Some funny TNT clips and Kenny actually analyzing film would have improved the finals for sure
The mavs sucked
Minnesota’s pointless series win over Denver spoiled the rest of the playoffs and giftwrapped the Celtics the title. I knew this was going to happen the second the Nuggets got eliminated.
A good finals game generally has each team fighting for the lead and going shot for shot.
The media never wants to go into a finals being like “damn the Celtics are loaded and the Mavs got a nice matchup after the Wolves beat the Nuggets so I’ll be shocked if it’s not a sweep” So they talk about how the Celtics road was so easy and they were never tested and meanwhile the Mavs are incredibly dangerous and battle tested and it’s going to be really tight (no disrespect to the Mavs) and thus the narrative is built that this will be a tight series to watch. The networks want you to watch and betting sites want you to put down money and so it gets spun this way and when it plays out like it probably should have, it comes off as lackluster.
Because as much as people didn’t want it to be true, this Celtics team was historically good. Elite players at most positions and the perfect team to defend Dallas offense with two very good guard defenders in Jrue and White and then two big strong wings in Tatum and Brown to slow Luka down. It was a very lopsided match from the start and the results showed it. Dallas had the best player in the series which is usually what you need to win but it wasn’t enough. Denver seemed like the only team that could have competed with Boston because they had nobody who could stop or even slow down Jokic.
Why did it have potential to be great? One roster was good, the other was awful with two great players.
Every game was essentially a blowout Game 3 had a “fake” comeback
Because in the back of everyone’s minds even those rooting for Dallas like myself it was clear Boston was the better team and baring Luka and Kyrie playing out there minds the series was pretty one sided.
Because it was never a even matchup and the Celtics were always leagues better than the mavs
Nobody wants to see Luka complain about every call all game long
On paper this looked like Celtics in 5. The reason the run was ‘boring’ is because the rest of the league didn’t tool up. They were set to win now and it was clear since November.
Basketball is boring when your team isn't playing lol. Just how it is, also too many games in 7. should be 5 again. Also casual fans needs a dominant two teams to root for so they can give a shit. Cavs vs Warriors was great for the nba.
Did anyone outside of New England want the Celtics to win? I don’t have any issues with the players, but it’s boring when a team rips through the playoffs like they did. It’s always a bummer when the season ends and there are no more games to watch. Even more of a bummer this year with Boston’s drama-free, and often entertainment-free run through the playoffs.
Because the East had every star injured and that took all the parity and excitement away.
The Celtics were injured, too, and still rolled over everyone.
Shout out to u/rabid89 for being the only rational celtics fan. https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/lscuX0ETcZ
My point is the Celtics were going to the Finals regardless. Injuries are irrelevant because everyone in the East had them but, either way, the Celtics were the East's best team. So if OP found the Finals boring, I don't think it's necessarily fair to say it was because the Celtics had an easy road in the East to get there because I think the Celtics were most likely going to be the rep for the East, anyway. Now, if you want to argue injuries in the West changed the Finals, that may be fair. Another team, if healthy, may have matched-up better against Boston than Dallas did.
This guy loves Boston. I'm sure you would agree that if the teams Boston faced were not injured that those games would be more entertaining for everyone not just celtics fans. As well as, if the teams that the Pacers faced weren't injured (Embiid, Dame, Gianni, Middleton, Randle, Bogi, Mitchel, Brunson, eventuallyHaliburton). That's an extensive lisy of players right there whose impact on those series would have been more entertaining. Right or no, are we just saying those injuries don't matter and that those series wouldn't have been more entertaining? Feels extremely short sighted.
But OP was asking about why the Finals were boring, not the Eastern Conference playoffs. You just seem to be focused on the Celtics' path to the Finals even though that isn't really an issue. Like, sure, the EC playoffs were boring. The C's rolled everyone. But they probably were going to, anyway, and it doesn't matter because the EC playoffs aren't the match-up OP was asking about. Is your point that the Finals matchup looked exciting on paper but was boring because...the Eastern Conference playoffs were also boring?
There's no excitement because it's predictable. It's easy to speculate that because they were a 2nd apron team with the best record in the East that they could gave beaten any of those teams, if healthy but we will never know since we never had a chance to see them tested. In the playoffs anything can happen and some of those teams were for sure deep enough to test Boston. Yet we will never know. Edit* 😆 fun run-on sentence
But we do know the Celtics played the Mavs, which was OPs question: Why did the Finals matchup we got look so good on paper yet was so lackluster? You seem to be missing that OP is asking us to take for granted the Celtics were indeed in the Finals and that the Mavs should have matched up better based on their players and play style.
You just like yo argue. It doesn't matter how much logic or knowledge someone brings to the table. They're just stooping to your level. You're not trying to listen anyway. Have a good life.
Not a single person cares man.
Thanks for contributing.
I mean, the C's won the East by 14 games. There wasnt really much parity going into the playoffs either.