The Boston Celtics are two wins away from winning their first championship in 16 years. After years of falling short of the goal, Boston finally has the upper hand in the NBA Finals over the Dallas Mavericks. A nail-biting win in Game 2 ensured that they will head to Dallas with a 2-0 lead.
There's been a lot of standouts for the Celtics in the first two games against the Mavericks. Jaylen Brown has been consistently excellent. Jrue Holiday's lockdown defense came with a side of 26 points in Game 2. Derrick White has come up huge on both ends of the floor. However, for former Golden State Warriors GM Bob Myers, a different guy stands out as the MVP: GM Brad Stevens. (video via ClutchPoints)
“Bob Myers: “Who's the MVP of the NBA Finals?”
Malika Andrews: “Jaylen Brown.”
Josh Hart: “Jaylen Brown.”
Michael Wilbon: “Jrue Holiday.”
Myers: “I'm going Brad Stevens.””
Myers might be a tad bit biased: game recognize game, after all. However, Stevens absolutely deserves credit for building this iteration of the Celtics that made it to the Finals. As the former head coach of this team, it would've been easy to chalk up them missing the Finals last season to a bad year. He could have run it back with mostly the same personnel, the players he's familiar with.
Instead, Stevens bit the bullet and pulled the trigger on trading Marcus Smart and Robert Williams III, two cornerstones of the 2022 Finals team. What did he get in return? Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis, both of whom had statement games in the first two games of the Finals. The Celtics' talent had to make it work, but credit to Stevens for seeing the vision and taking that risk.
Celtics dominating in Finals appearance
So far, the Celtics have been absolutely dominant in the Finals against the Mavericks. After the gauntlet that the Mavs ran through in the West, many believed that they were sneaky favorites to win the chip. However, Boston proved to be a much tougher beast than any of their playoff opponents. A dominant Game 1 blowout sent a clear message: They are not to be trifled with.
Game 2 was a much closer endeavor than the first game, but the Celtics for the most part still controlled the game. Their strategy of keeping Luka Doncic's passing game in check has worked wonders: Doncic had 31 points, but no one else touched 20 points. Not even Kyrie Irving, who's been mostly quiet this series.
It's not like the Celtics haven't had their own problems in the series. Jayson Tatum's scoring has not been on par with his usual performances. Boston also shot abysmally from deep in Game 2, an anomaly considering their regular season performance. Still, the talent disparity has been too much for the Mavs to capitalize on Boston's errors in this series.
Teams that go up 2-0 in the Finals win the series around 86% of the time. Those are good odds for the Celtics, but not necessarily a guarantee for their win. The series now shifts to Dallas, where the atmosphere will be intense as well. Can Boston close out this series on the road and bring the Larry O' Brien back to TD Garden?
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