It’s a Boston Tea Party as the NBA Finals Kicks Off!

Hello there, sports fans!!! And welcome to this year’s edition of arguably the biggest, the most-viewed basketball spectacle in the world today, the NBA Finals! This year’s match-up features an unlikely dance duo with the East’s best, the Boston Celtics, tangling with the West’s beasts, the Dallas Mavericks.

It is a battle between the well-tested (Dallas) versus the well-rested (Boston); a showdown featuring one of the league’s best Dynamic Duos (Dallas’ Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving) versus one of the league’s best Triple Trouble (Boston’s Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Kristaps Porzingis). Consequently, it is a battle between the best backcourt duo (Luka/Kyrie) against the best frontcourt trio (JB and JT, plus KP). Add a bit of European flavor, it’s also a face-off between Slovenia (Luka) and Latvia (KP) for bragging rights.

There’s also the storyline on the return of two prodigal sons. Boston’s unicorn-of-a-center, KP, was traded away by Dallas, believing that he and Luka could not work together as a unit. Dallas’ mercurial wizard-of-a-guard, Kyrie, on the other hand, left Boston believing that he couldn’t lead this young team to the promised land. Now, both talents hold court on the other side of the fence, with the ability to punish their old teams for the grievous mistake of parting with them. Who gets to play out his revenge on his former team?

Which is what played out in Game 1 of our Finals series. A seemingly fully-recovered KP went on a rampage, leading the Celtics to devastate the Mavs 107-89 at the Boston TD Garden. Coming off a few weeks’ absence due to a calf injury, Kristaps torched the Mavs’ defense with 20 points in only 20 minutes of play. He was the unknown factor that kept the Mavs off-balanced when the Celtics started to pull away. Perhaps the Mavs were lulled into a false sense of security with the Celtics’ tentative play against an undermanned Indiana Pacers. Perhaps the Mavs felt they had survived the gauntlet in the west, disposing of the 1st , 3rd and 4th seeds in an uphill battle leading to the prestigious NBA Finals.

KP’s key contributions in those early minutes of Game 1 – in both the offense and the defense – totally confounded the Mavs’ coaching staff. He helped create the Celtics’ sizeable lead early in the game. As many cage buffs have noted: the Celts would need to build a big lead so as to deny the Mavs’ vaunted closers – Luka and Kyrie – the chance to weave their magic in the closing minutes.

But the Celtics cannot afford to be overconfident. They lost Game 2 at home to an undermanned Miami Heat team 111-101 in the first round; lost again to the Cleveland Cavaliers 118-94 in Game 2 at home in the 2nd round; and almost lost Game 1 to the Indiana Pacers in overtime 133-128 at home (again!) in the Eastern Conference Finals. This seeming homecourt weakness does not augur well for a worthy candidate for the NBA crown.

On the other hand, the Dallas Mavs are in very familiar territory right now. They lost to the LA Clippers 109-97 in Game 1 of the first round; and lost to the Oklahoma Thunder 117-95 in Game 1 of the second round. Both by lopsided margins; both in their opponents’ home gyms. And they recovered well, to move up in the playoffs. They will not be fazed by this situation.

On paper, the Boston Celtics are perhaps one of the most stacked teams ever in the NBA. With 5 present or former All-Stars in Tatum, Brown, Porzingis, Jrue Holiday and Al Horford, they have the skills, the smarts and the playoff experience that make them the gold standard in All-Stars among teams this year. In Game 1’s blowout win, the Celtics showed that they could live with the subpar performance of their main man, Jayson Tatum, if the rest can do their share. A big contrast to the Mavs, who will require consistent big games from both their superstars in order to compete.

Game 2 is on Sunday at Boston’s TD Garden. Expect the Mavs to come better prepared, with defensive and offensive options with KP in mind. But not to forget the rest of the all-star-cast of characters in Celtic green. Expect the Celtics to try to erase the stigma of their Game 2 meltdowns. Expect the Boston crowd to be noisy. This should be a game to behold. I still got the Mavs giving the Celts a good fight. Who you got? Be there or be square.

Cover photo courtesy of Cebu Daily News. Other pics courtesy of Orange County Register, Sports Inquirer.net, Star Local Media, the New York times, BVM Sports, Spectrum News, the New York Post, and Athlon Sports. For a closer look, just click on the pics.