Topic: 2019 NBA Pre-Season - page 163. (Read 914606 times)

While I do agree that Dallas is a great team, like Lebron mentioned, Boston has four players that can play with the ball, which is going to make it a lot harder. I mean think about it, they do not have a "point guard", they have ball handlers in every position, so their offense is amazing and will not change all that quickly, it will stay to be very powerful no matter what.

I do not think that they have that much problem on defense neither, because they are capable of switching in four different positions, meaning that you can't just call for pick and roll, you have to just accept what you have. This is going to be the year Boston may finally win it, not saying they will, but I see them as favourites going into this finals.

Luca and Irving are so good even on regular season. People is just too focus on the big team like Denver, Lakers and others because they are proven that dominates the NBA due to last year result when Denver win the finals with Jokic help.

Nobody expects that Dallas can be so lethal with their sharp 3s especially the duo even against strong teams but Luka itself is a monster when it comes to playoffs even before so they really have a potential for a championship if he have a reliable team like the current roster which the center clearly step up a lot.

The hardest hurdle to them now is Boston which has same play style with them. I think most of their game will be over 200 since they are both focus on offense,

Lets fucking go! I think nobody was expecting to see Dallas in the main finals this year, asides of them having super players/stars like Luka DOncic and Irving, we all know they are not so good playing as a team, but now seems like they have adquiared some good work.

Aside of that i think is one of the most easy finals for Boston to play, they are way better than Dallas Maverick.

I agree, let's wait for OP to change it.

So, I have been lurking all over social media and the popular streaming services and I always find the same analysis when I open their clips.

"Dallas Mavericks will have a hard time with the Celtics."
Why? They say for many reasons. Derrick White is a good defender and Jrue Holiday is known as one of the best defenders in the league too. Both are backcourt defenders, yes, against Luka and Kyrie. But I think they are forgetting the larger picture. They have Lively and Gafford and the Celtics have Horford only. See the difference?
Luka and Kyrie can just literally throw the ball near the rim and someone will probably catch it, either of the two. The strength of the Mavs doesn't always happen with Luka and Kyrie, it's from everyone and they had been telling it in their post-game interviews over and over again.
Lively had never missed a shot in the playoffs 16/16 if I am correct. That means most of the assists upstairs are either on point or he is just really good at catching the ball.

I've watched the East playoffs and the Conference Finals many times, the floor is so wide when you watch it like anyone can penetrate the paint. It's not going to be like that against the Mavs.
Just my two cents.
What do you think?

Edit: I think I got to get this off my chest.
I apologize to Kyrie Irving for judging him because of his belief outside the game. Somehow, I forgot that he is one of the league's best players because of that. It's unfair. It should not be mixed up.

Now the one week wait until June 6th when the Finals kicks off. I love the storylines I’m seeing with Kyrie coming back to beat his old team while Luka tries to win his first chip. The same for Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. I feel a little bit like it’s Boston’s year but you can’t count out Dallas while Luka is on the roster.

Right, he had help this time, before it was Luka and a bunch or role players, now he had Irving to back him up in scoring and their tandem is perfect. And again, as I have said, Irving is the scary factor here, in their match against the Clippers, Irving was a non-factor. But in the series against the Wolves, he has awaken and help Luka secure a marvelous 4-1 series win.

And the trade in February, getting Gafford to be the man in the middle, and then PJ Washington as their perimeter defender. And then the rookie Lively become one of the best weapon they also have and then Jones Jr becoming a good defender too. The Celtics might have a difficult time in the middle and the Mavs for sure could dominate them in the inside.

It's not all about Luka now, before Irving was traded, it was all Luka that has been carrying the team and they are already a good team. Now, it's Luka + Irving and some good role players. They have improve their game as they are good on both inside and outside, and plus those alley op plays is hard to stop that even the best defensive player in the NBA this season can't do anything about that.

The starting 5 of Dallas and its bench are very dangerous, you can see the kind of chemistry they have, if one is struggling, the other will step up. Just like the OKC series, PJ Washington had great numbers, and in this series, Lively and Gafford and Jones Jr, how can you stop that?

Both Irving and Doncic played very well and managed to put an end to this series. I didn't think Edwards and his friends could last too long, I think it happened as we expected and Dallas Mavericks won the conference final.
I like the basketball they play very much. When they win the match, the whole team has a share in this victory. They win not just because 1-2 players play well, but because they play well as a team

It's hard for them to come back because Luka torch them early with 20 big points. I don't know why they haven't made an adjustment, they could just doulbe Luka and let his teammates shoot the ball because when Luka is hot, it's very dangerous, haven't they learn from what happen to the Suns back then?

This is the opportunity of the Dallas backers because the odds are very attractive, just recently checked the series odds, Dallas are x2.80 to win the series, that extra 80% of our bet is just a great bonus if Dallas will win. Although they are the underdog, I honestly feel so confident with them, but I'm seeing this another exciting series, probably a close one.

By seeing how great for wolves to get a win on game 5 and it seems they already figure out their struggles on their first 3 games no one really expect to see this kind of result today. Since its seems Wolves became so helpless today and they can't penetrate good to lower down the lead of Dallas. Its really amazing how Luka perform and getting early 20 pts on first quarter this ignite Dallas to advance and didn't let Wolves to at least get a early momentum.

Boston is really good and I think this will be a big challenge for Mavs. For sure that we can see a satisfying match up here so provably will make sure not to miss any opportunity to bet on the side of Mavs in game 1.

Well he learn his mistakes from the last game, he shot poorly and so the lost that game and it could be a sweep for them. At least the Wolves prevented a 4-0 lost against the Dallas. And this is not the end of the road for them. I mean they are very young team with ANT as their franchise player. For sure next year will be very different for them.

Now, let's look at the Dallas vs Boston Celtics. The Celtics is the clear favorite here, but we have seen what the Mavs is capable of. They also have Kyrie, a former Celtics so it's a very interesting finals and we didn't expect that Dallas will be at the championship this year.

It was a complete package for coach Kidds squad, everyone who got that chance to play provides either good defense or helping the star duo to make those shots, I like how Gafford and Lively showcase their internal presence giving KAT and Gobert a big challenge, Mavs outplay the Wolves and maintain the same rhythm till the end of the game,

that exhcanges of attacks between Luka and Kyrie gave them that comfortable leads and heaven how hard KAT and ANT did try to come close they Luka and and Kyrie always have an answer.

After witnessing how Mavs finished the series, I do hope that they will bring something here, knowing that there's something personal especially with Kyrie and KP looking for these two stars to spark up and bring it all in for these series.

Great win by Dallas. I did not expect the game to be fully dominated by Dallas. Unbelievable! Luka was playing at his best making great shots right from the start and barely missing. I am happy Lively was able to return on time. The rookie played well and is looking to become a great star potential in the next seasons.

The finals is coming. Boston had its long rest. It will be exciting how this match fares. I am favoring Boston to finally get their long awaited championship trophy. Maybe 4-2 or 4-1 but who knows, Dallas with it's superstar Luka Doncic might surprise us once again.

For sure Holiday will be assigned the task to guard Kyrie, but I don't think that anyone can guard the best handlers we have in the NBA right now. What he can do is limit Kyrie's point and impact to the team. Throw that regular series numbers out of the window, this is the finals, everyone will put their 100% in every game. And I'm also thinking that White could be the second man by Boston to throw against Kyrie.

It will still boils down to Luka doing his magic, scoring and showing us his ability to pass. And then the rest of the core team providing the hustle and going after the ball. We will see who's going to guard Luka here. And the only way for the Mavs to defeat the Celtics is to play good defense.

Although at regular series Mavs lost a lot from Celtics but I expect that there's something different will come up especially right now they are now facing each other to finals so we can expect that more physicality will happen and maybe we could able to see a more intense Mavs knowing that they came from amazing win since they defeat Wolves which is very though team to beat. I can't figure out if Celtics or Mavs have advantage for each other but for sure we will see a more intense match in finals.

Interesting to see if Holiday can really lock up Kyrie when they meet so let see on game one since for sure lots of fans are so hype knowing that Kyrie is really eager to defeat Boston and want prove something to them

Luka gave that to them, just like what he did in the game 7 before against the Suns. I think Luka is really a star, he doesn't panic and he has this killer instinct that help him to close the game well, even on the road. Wolves is a great team, in fact they were the favorite in the betting, but turned out Dallas just dominated them by finishing the series in 5.

The aggressiveness on the paint, Lively and Gafford will take care of that and they'll just let the big men of Celtics shooting outside which is a low percentage shot, unless Horford will be like Steph.I think the problem here in the series overall is when they are not doubling Luka, because Luka made a huge damage not only in the offense but with his playmaking skills as well.

Yes, dominating them in their own homecourt, Luka doesn't want to extend this series anymore and he really do everything, him and Kyrie who took over the game early and you can see how confident they are in the starting gate and take that huge lead and never look back.

The Mavs have the numbers here, they will only have to content with Porzingis and Horford in the middle. While the young Lively is very athletic and so is Gafford. And Dallas plays this two together and they know how to take advantage of them. Even against the twin towers of the Wolves, Gobert and KAT, they out hustled them.

It will boils down to the support case for me, it's already given the Luka/Kyrie vs Tatum/Brown. So then there, there's a lot like KP if he will play and then Al Horford against Gafford and Lively, so very interesting match-up.

And I guess we will see Holiday trying to lock-up Kyrie here. So it's really a great finals and hard to see who will win although the Celtics has the home court advantage but they are going to be tested by the Mavs here.

I think the Celtics matchup pretty well against the Mavericks. They’re also a little more familiar with Kyrie’s game than most. I think this series will come down to if Luka can keep performing magic or not. I’m leaning towards Boston though.

I agree and think it would be nice to see a poll on who will win the Finals.

They certainly are a problem especially the 2 big men who have earn big minutes during the WCF. I just watch a video about how fans of Celtics really hate Kyrie, I think this is going to be fun as in game 1 it will be in TD Garden where the fans will certainly come to support the home team. As to the betting odds now, Celtics are heavily favored, but I like the Dallas as they went through a tougher challenge compared to the Celitcs. 

@OP maybe it's time to change the poll now.