The Celtics reached a level, a flow state, unseen until Game 1 of the Finals on Thursday night. Given the stakes, the scene and competition, this was unequivocally the best basketball Boston has played all year.
In your wildest basketball dreams, what did the Celtics look like in these Finals?
Were they a whirring offensive machine that buried Dallas under a series of hellacious rim attacks and a barrage of 3-pointers?
Did Jaylen Brown posterize three Mavericks with a single dunk in the first half? Did Derrick White, Al Horford and Kristaps Porzingis fire quick-trigger 3s and float back on defense, carried by the roar of an eager crowd?
What about their defense?
Obviously tied together on the proverbial string. Unspoken connectedness between five Celtics, switching and then blitzing and then sometimes dropping, all to keep Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving into a perpetual state of unease. Boos raining on Kyrie.
Well for one half, your dreams, a city’s dreams, came true. All of them.
The Celtics reached a level, a flow state, unseen until Game 1 of the Finals on Thursday night. Given the stakes, the scene and competition, this was unequivocally the best basketball Boston has played all year.
It birthed a 29-point lead in the second quarter and five minutes of garbage-time celebration at the end.
This was the Celtics, finally, tested against a worthy opponent, under crunching pressure, freeing themselves from age-old frustrations and bad habits on basketball’s biggest stage. A fully engaged, focused group armed with an edge matching their unmatched talent. The Celtics who were promised.
Celtics 107, Mavericks 89.
One down, three to go.
Of course, being the Celtics, we did wake up for a stretch there in the third quarter.
