The Celtics offense came out on fire early in Game 1, but the team’s defense led the way en route to a win.
The Boston Celtics‘ offense came out of the gates in Game 1 of the 2024 NBA Finals on fire. The numbers were undeniable: They shot 13-for-23 (56.5 percent) from the field, a scorching hot 7-for-15 (46.7 percent) from three, and nine of their makes were assisted in the first quarter. Kristaps Porzingis came off the bench and looked as good as you can after missing a month-plus with a hamstring injury, and was gigantic as the Celtics went from trailing the Dallas Mavericks by one point to opening up the largest lead after one quarter (17 points) in NBA Finals history. Outside of Jayson Tatum turning the ball over three times, everything was clicking.
And then, over the final three quarters of the game, the Celtic offense came back to earth a bit. From the second quarter on, Boston’s three-point shooting fell off — they only went 9-for-27 (a 33.3 percent clip) for the remainder of the game — and by the time they wrapped up a 107-89 victory, they team only posted an offensive rating of 115.1. All the caveats about one game vs. an entire season go here, but an offensive rating of 115.1 would have been 16th in the league this regular season, nestled right in between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
To be clear, Boston’s historically good offense (which had an ORtg of 122.2 this regular season) did more than enough to win on Thursday night, and the game state the rest of the way was largely determined by how well it performed in the opening 12 minutes. But the reason they won Game 1 so convincingly revolved around their performance on the other end of the floor. The Celtics’ defense was nothing short of magnificent from start to finish, as they did a brilliant job dictating the terms of engagement against a good but flawed Dallas offense.
The Mavs could not get much of anything going — their 89 points were the fewest they’ve put up in a playoff game this year. Their seven made threes and 27 attempts from deep were their second-lowest marks in a single game during the postseason. While Luka Doncic put up 30 points, Thursday marked the first time in his playoff career in which he only had one assist — his previous low in a single playoff game during Dallas’ run to the Finals this year was five.
