On Thursday evening, Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics will hit the floor at TD Garden for Game 1 of the NBA Finals vs Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks. Tatum and the Celtics had a cakewalk through the Eastern Conference playoff picture en route to the Finals due to injury luck but will be thrown into the fire against a Mavericks team who has had to take three straight 50-plus win teams to get to the game's biggest stage.
Still, despite what this year alone might say, the Celtics have the definitive experience advantage in this series, and recently, Paul Pierce–a member of the Celtics' last championship team in 2008–broke down why he believes that Boston will be able to ride that advantage to a victory in Game 1.
“The Finals won't overwhelm the Celtics,” said Pierce, via UNDISPUTED on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter. “They've been here before. When you're playing in your first Finals, as Luka Doncic is–and I know he's played all over the world, but he hasn't played in Boston in the Finals. I really think that crowd… when I played in the Finals, just the production of it alone, it's incredible. It can overwhelm you. It really can… because Dallas is not a big market team. Now you're going into the Finals where there are hundreds of cameras, interviews every day, the production of all these lights. Man, when I first saw all that, it can be intimidating, and I really think this is going to get to the Mavericks in Game 1. I do think the Celtics will win pretty handily in Game 1.
A huge challenge
Of course, one player on the Mavericks who has been there and done that is former Celtics point guard Kyrie Irving, who is sure to hear a chorus of boos every time he has the ball in his hands during the games in Boston. Still, Irving has played in a hostile environment or two over the years and is 3-1 against the Celtics in the playoffs throughout his career.
Still, the biggest problem the Celtics will have to worry about is Mavericks superstar point guard Luka Doncic, who just eviscerated the Minnesota Timberwolves' number one ranked defense for five straight games in the Western Conference Finals to reach this stage.
In theory, the Celtics should have the best cast of characters out of anyone when it comes to slowing down Doncic, as Jrue Holiday and Derrick White both made all-defensive teams this year, and Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum are both elite defenders on the wings in their own right. Still, the more realistic goal for the Celtics, or any time, when it comes to defending Doncic is slowing him down and making him work rather than truly stopping him.
All that said, the Celtics have five out of the best seven players in the series, home court advantage, the experience edge, and are the definitive favorites for a reason.
They will get things underway Thursday at 8:30 PM ET.
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