BOSTON — It did not take long for Jason Kidd to turn to a move that wreaked of desperation in the NBA Finals with his “best player” comment about Jaylen Brown before Game 2. The eye-opening comment gave pundits plenty to gossip over during the past 24 hours but masked a troubling reality for Dallas. Kidd and the Mavericks needed Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown to return to their old bad habits after a Game 1 win or they were going to be in trouble in this series.
The mind games did not work and the on-court adjustments were not successful for Dallas in Game 2, simply because there weren’t many good ones for Dallas to make. Even after one of Boston’s worst 3-point shooting nights of the season, the Mavericks couldn’t break through. Instead, the lack of an impressive supporting cast around Luka Doncic stood out Sunday night and that includes Kyrie Irving so far in this series.
While Kidd has tried to play mind games, Joe Mazzulla is winning the head-to-head battle on the floor in this series from a tactical standpoint, making one key adjustment to take away one of the Mavericks’ biggest strengths.
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The Mavericks had some of the best rim protection in the NBA playoffs this postseason entering the Finals, thanks to the front court of Derek Lively and Daniel Gafford. The team had allowed just 59 percent shooting at the rim through the first three rounds of the playoffs.
However, that strength has vanished immediately against the Celtics in this series. Boston went 15-of-15 from the restricted area in Game 1 and the team doubled down on getting to the rim in Game 2, knocking down 74 percent of their shots at the rim (20-of-27) with a sharp increase in attempts. Through the regular season, the best team in the NBA at finishing at the rim (the Bucks) knocked down 70 percent of their attempts. Boston has gone well above that mark, knocking down their rim shots at a 83 percent clip through two games against the Mavericks.
So how exactly are Joe Mazzulla and his staff game planning to have the Celtics pick apart a Mavericks defense on the interior to a degree that they were able to withstand a miserable 3-point shooting night (25 percent in Game 2)? It all comes down to one interesting tweak.
Normally, a non-shooting center plays by the dunker spot on the block (just outside the paint). With Al Horford and Kristaps Porzingis both serving as stretch shooters, Boston has had the ability to play a five-out offense all year long to maximize spacing and keep rim protectors out of the paint.
Mazzulla has thrown a bit of a curveball in this series though offensively by electing to routinely place a guard, usually Jrue Holiday, in the traditional dunker spot. His presence has provided a reliable passing option for Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown on drives to the rim when the Mavericks have collapsed. However, the bigger plus from this change has been the fact it has put a subpar defender (usually Kyrie Irving) as the last line of defense for Dallas in the paint. Tatum and Brown have been able to blow by their individual defenders so much, they require help at the rim. The problem is the likes of Irving and PJ Washington don’t do much to slow Boston’s stars unless they are double teaming them.
With Gafford and Lively occupied on the perimeter or stuck making rotations after drive-and-kicks, easy dump off passes were awaiting Tatum (12 assists) and Brown (7 assists) all night at the rim, as Holiday (9-of-10 from 2-point range) feasted in the paint during his team-high 26 points.
Jrue Holiday Game 2 shot chartNBA
Tatum laid it out simply after the win.
“I mean, every time I’d take a couple dribbles, there was, like, three people were right there,” he said. “So we got a bunch of shooters on our team and guys that can space the floor. They kept leaving Jrue open. So it wasn’t like I had to do anything spectacular. It was just about finding the open guy.”
Kidd tried to lull Tatum into playing hero ball and the Celtics All-Star went the other way. Now, it’s unclear what Kidd and the Mavericks coaching staff can do to counter Mazzulla with Tatum holding this mindset. Dallas bigs are constantly pulled away from the rim against Boston and there’s no one they should feel safe helping off of. Throwing a center on Holiday in the dunker spot only creates more problems since it provides a size mismatch elsewhere on the floor for Boston while putting a big on a 40+ percent 3-point shooter.
With Boston managing to overcome a miserable shooting night on the perimeter and from Jayson Tatum overall, the Celtics look primed to put even more pressure on the Mavericks in Dallas while holding a 2-0 series lead with the unorthodox alignment having some staying power.
