The Boston Celtics are one of the best perimeter-scoring teams in the NBA. Joe Mazzulla likes his team to get up a lot of 3s. Boston also has eight players who can all score from deep, seven of whom are legitimate three-level scorers. As such, the Dallas Mavericks struggled to contain Boston’s floor spacing during the opening game of the NBA Finals.
During his postgame news conference, Luka Doncic admitted that Boston’s spacing and 3-point offense were both issues for Dallas’ defense. The MVP candidate admitted that his team needs to do a better job in both defending the three-point line and converting more of their own perimeter attempts.
“I think they are the best 3-point shooting team in the NBA, so sometimes really hard to take those away,” Doncic said. “Especially when they have five guys out and they can all shoot. Obviously, we’ve got to make more. We didn’t make enough shots today to beat them. But we’ve got to be better on both ends.”
Mazzulla has done a fantastic job with Boston’s offense. They work to find open shots. They are happy to score out of the post or get to the rim. Yet, when all their shooters are spacing the floor, they become almost impossible to defend.
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Dallas will undoubtedly make adjustments heading into Game 2 on Sunday (June 9). However, containing Boston’s offense in a best-of-seven series projects to be a daunting task.
If the Mavericks can’t figure it out, the Celtics will be raising a banner in the TD Garden later this summer.
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