NEW YORK — The final buzzer at TD Garden hadn’t sounded yet, which Luka Doncic he was already in the locker room. Her thirty points were the most beautiful and useless of the evening. THE Boston Celtics they dominate game 1 against the Dallas Mavericks, they win 107-89 and send a clear message: this time they don’t want to watch their opponents celebrate, like two years ago with the Golden State Warriors. They have every reason to think so, and not just because they finished the regular season in first place in the rankings.
On their side there is not only the super star Jason Tatum (16 points), but the engineer Jaylen Brown, the most cultured and intelligent player in the league, the man who lectures at Harvard and is sought by NASA, author of 22 points, all scored when they counted, with baskets scored from sidereal distances and amazing blocks. He defended himself Doncic and attacked the entire opposing defense. “What you saw tonight – his coach commented after the match, Joe Mazzulla – is the goal that Jaylen set himself at the beginning of the season: he didn’t want to be seen as a player capable of only making one home.” He does at least two and very well. The flat-earther and novax player Kyrie Irving, Boston’s great enemy, the “renegade” who betrayed the fans in 2019 by leaving to Brooklyn in the space of one night. Kyrie he seemed unrecognizable, perhaps helped by the crowd’s boos to derail him: for him 12 points and that’s it, with 6 baskets out of 19 attempts and a confused ending in which he got lost among his dribbles, ending up against the knees of an opponent. The point is that Dallas rested all the fate of the match on him and Doncic, letting them the Celtics dominated all other duels.
This first game said much more: Boston has a much deeper roster, with six players in double figures, and with the return of Kristaps Porzingis, returning from injury, a 218cm Latvian who dominated in both areas. With him the franchise has found one more man to reaffirm its dominance under the basket. After a perfect first half, which ended 63-42, the Celtics gave in in the third quarter, allowing Dallas to get within 8 (72-64) with a basket from Doncic. The home crowd grew silent and appeared nervous, but Porzingis and Brown they got back on track after the timeout, leading a 14-0 run that brought them within plus 22 again, ending the match early. The greens, who played honoring the memory of on their shirts Bill Walton, the recently deceased legend, made nine blocks. Dallas nine assists.
The first ones made more noise. Plus 48 percent shooting, 38 percent from three and 47 rebounds. On Sunday we return to the field for Game 2 again in Boston. It is played as a best of seven games. Whoever gets to four first wins. The key will be Dallas’ ability to keep Porzingis out of the zone, but knowing that others will fill it.
