Celtics Keys to Beat Mavs in NBA Finals | Garden Report

Celtics Keys to Beat Mavs in NBA Finals | Garden Report

hey Bob Manning here welcome to a Sunday edition of the gar report looks like we got a nice packed room already here to talk about the finals and we’re finally going to get a Maverick perspective on this series Kirk Henderson is here from Mavs Moneyball been wan to have you on for a while Kirk great to finally have you here um a surprising series I guess to many here this probably isn’t the series many Celtics fans would have thought would be the finals um going into the playoffs but you know one that I’ve really gotten excited about as it’s become more and more apparent that it was going to happen especially with both uh teams jumping out to three nothing leads in the Conference Finals there you got the Kyrie angle you got the porzingis angle looks like he’s going to be good to go at some point in this series uh so where does your mind go first on this series because I’m still trying to wrap my head around I’m almost glad we get like a week leading up to I mean it’s very much a Styles makes fights kind of thing um the the two teams shoot three-pointers and two-pointers in an almost like mirror look at things with the Celtics taking a significant number more threes and the Mavericks taking a lot more twos which you know makes sense when you look at the team’s makeup the Mavericks have on paper a bunch of guys who can’t really shoot the ball and then Luca and Kyrie whereas the Celtics have like 35 players that shoot 40% from three so it’s it’s going to be a really interesting look um I’m you know when when I first sort of think about the series it’s like all right well how did the Mavericks who played really great defense in the playoffs like really really great defense in the playoffs defend a team that can actually shoot the ball um what became clear against the Thunder really quickly is that they were a fake shooting team um everybody’s favorite uh internet presence Matt Moore HP basketball loves to talk about shooting variant he’s like ah the Thunder got bad shots and it’s like no guys who were shooting the ball weren’t good like they weren’t good at it like I’m sorry like but that’s just not the thing with the with I mean you got there just so many guys you go through the Celtics roster it’s like okay what are the Mavericks going to do because a lot of their their defensive um game plan to date is designed to allow three-point shots which seems really stupid against the Boston Celtics yeah and we saw that play out in you know the last game these two play teams played really the only one that’s you can gather from because obviously Dallas made all those midseason changes um bringing in Washington and sending out Grant this is the grant Bowl in many ways here poor guy unfortunately he won’t be part of this that would have made it even more fun from a Celtics perspective somebody should have him like as like a sideline reporter like or an alcast guy just like like randomly wandering around between the two teams that don’t particularly like him you know i”d be great we’d be more than happy to have him here but yeah you mentioned the three-point shooting that’s going to be a big thing here obviously um the Celtics have gone to Great Lengths to take it away from opposing teams in the last couple series here and that’s led to um you know teams effectively getting great two-point looks against them and that’s really where my mind goes first here to just think about what this is going to look like like the Mavs just get lobs off at will um you know Lively is just going to be flying to the rim again again against them and that’s you know you can you want to live with that if you’re taking away the threes from Dallas but it’s just such a great shot that they’re going to get it over and over again if you if you let them and you know I think porzingis coming back will help that a little bit if you have a guy who’s able to kind of drop back and you know tag some of those rollers but it’s been an area of struggle for the Celtics in these playoffs so obviously Luca is the first thing you look at from a Celtics perspective here and say how you going to deal with what he’s doing right now but that pick and roll game in particular to me I’m just fascinated to see how they’re going to try to handle it I don’t really have a good answer because the Wolves at one point tried eight or nine different coverages against him and none of them worked it really depends on how locked in he is which you think it’s the NBA Finals Luka donic ought to be locked in but he’s such an interesting player because you look at the guy and you’re like all right is he carrying 10 to 15 pounds more than he ought to is he really is he is he too mad at the referees is he mad at chrisps porzingis for something that happened four years ago like what’s going on in his head and so his level of locked in is almost the most important thing that nobody can really predict and I think that the first thing that the Celtics should should try to avoid to do at all costs is breaking and sending two guys at him if you send two guys at him you have lost uh not just because Kyrie’s the Outlet man but because he just makes the right read every time coming out of All-Star break the Mavericks really like really stumbled they lost I want it was at least like five games in a row we were all calling for Jason kid’s head so to speak because it’s like the Mavericks just made these trades they sent out these first round picks they look terrible what the heck is going on and what teams were doing at that point in time were essentially treating Luca kind of like Steve Nash in the in the 2000s where you were forcing him to score and I know a lot like this forcing the scoring champ to score sounds kind of stupid but he wants to make the Highlight pass he wants to make the right pass so I sort of wonder if if an interesting strategy would be let’s see if Luca can get his points let’s work him into the ground and play best you know the Celtics have what probably five to six guys that are going to see different looks on him throw a different guy at him every couple of possessions see what happens see if you can wear him down physically over the course of the game and see what happens in that regard to where maybe the Mavericks get sloppy they get tired maybe you don’t give up that oop because one of the things that was just driving me crazy against the Timberwolves is Luca wasn’t shooting shots in the restricted area he finally started taking some like 10 to 12 Footers against the Wolves he had one nice little teardrop over Rudy but he didn’t like the shot blocker was really he was in his mind and so I I he he was that’s sort of my thought on like one way you could get him going uh or Le keep him from getting going is is almost pushing him to score more I know it sounds a little bit stupid but that’s what I’m thinking about yeah and the basketball side this is fascinating we’re going to get into a lot of this here this sort of where my mind goes first but some great storylines in this series too obviously before we get into some of those I want to um give a shout out to our sponsor here prize picks it is final season and prize pick has an amazing offer going into the series they’re going to give you among the players you can pick from and the stats you can pick from here your daily fantasy team Jason Tatum in game one on Thursday you can pick him to score more than 0.5 points uh so all he has to do is get on the board and you win and you would hope that would be the case um prize picks is our official daily fantasy sports partner you just pick two or more of those and it can be that 0 five offer that they have going right now uh and you’re off with your daily fantasy team here points assist rebounds of course you got baseball hockey going on right now as well H Dallas still in the mix as well for the Stanley Cup right it’s it’s the only team that sucks is the Cowboys which is really funny in the area unbelievable yeah so I’m looking forward to heading down to Dallas by the way we can talk about that in a little bit as well but prize picks use that code CNS go get that Tatum offer and uh they’re going to give you a 100% deposit match up to $100 right now as well uh game time want to give a shout out to them as well because obviously it’s going to be a tough ticket to get into the finals they have the app the it’s going to get you there if you are able to find a deal for this series it’s going to be on here right up until and even after game time is usually when you’re going to get the best deal here on game time and to help you out they’re going to give you $20 off your first ticket purchase here just go to the game time app use that code clns and you’ll get $20 off your first purchase of course terms apply so Kirk the biggest thing I want to ask you here Kyrie everybody’s talking about Kyrie versus the Celtics um Drew Carter who calls the Celtics games said for all the talk about that he’s heard that the Mavericks are probably actually the team that has the more animosity toward porzingis if we’re talking about the two players um that uh you know going to face their former teams here obviously a lot of injuries for porzingis in Dallas um you’re talking about him trying to get back from an injury for this series so we’ll see what he looks like what he’s able to do if we even see him at all in the series but where are Maverick’s fans at where are you at on porzingis all the years after they moved on from him here I think everybody’s mostly okay you know you you look at him physically and this gets lost in the narrative discussion he tore his meniscus against the Clippers the first time the Mavericks played the Clippers in the bubble y that injury and so then the NBA season started that was in August the NBA season started in December Luca was weighing like 280 porzingis his knee was a disaster faster and he really tried to get back because this is the thing about porzingis he has like something like 25 lower body injuries in his time it’s really crazy if you look at the look at the totals but the guy always wants to play basketball that’s not a question his body just sometimes doesn’t allow for it and I think the meniscus really impacted his ability to move and defend um the Mavericks went from being really solid at The Rim to really average he was not very good defensively offensively couldn’t move around and they had to basically run a different offense for him every couple of plays which was a little sad and so it went from being one of these things where Mavericks fans were mostly frustrated but you understood why a 7 foot three guy is kind of you know they call him unicorn for a reason it’s he’s not built to move like that and his shooting really went to hack like he was at like 29% at one point for for that last season with the Mavericks I think from three before the trade to just atrocious post numbers too and and to the point to where Rick Carla was saying the post is no longer a good move and he goes to Washington and he rebuilds his body he rebuilds the post moves and he figures some things out and has obviously accepted a slightly different role where he gets to sort of come in for the Celtics and be um he’s just a buzs saw when things are going he’s like an added bonus like the Celtics obviously haven’t needed him to get to the finals but then you throw them into the mix and it’s like okay this is just not fair like this is five out basketball at sort of Maximum effort so I would say most Mavericks fans are uh okay with him you know it’s it’s it’s a tough situation when injuries hold a guy back I don’t think you know where the Mavericks fans would get tired of him and this is just the way he speaks like he’s one of the few people like few athletes I’ve ever seen in media that actually says exactly what he means like his quotes are very like matter of fact there’s no you know Kyrie gives like um like soliloquies where things are buried in what he’s saying just because he talks so much porzingis will come out and say yeah I had a bad game because I shot the b ball poorly and I’m frustrated with the coach’s play calling nobody says stuff like that does though so that you know that sort of blunt honesty I think rubbed people the wrong way even though it was probably the correct was like the correct approach because the mavi has had really high hopes when porzingis was on the team is is there any what if seeing what he looks like now or do you think it just had to be something where he moved on to a place like Washington and had to look himself in the mirror I know he said that as well this year that he had to reevaluate everything coming out of Dallas so was it even gonna be possible to have this person version of porzingis there or did he have to move on and kind of have that I think he had to move on he got traded so he got traded from the Knicks when he was still recovering from his ACL injury and I still think despite the fact that Luca had kind of kicked his butt in international ball I think that he thought he was being brought in to be the alpha and Luca was going to be the running mate yeah and they actually they started off 20 um 2019 2020 16 and five they just came out the gates like crazy and then injuries started piling up and you know they they rebound a little bit for the bubble but there was just they’re really only flashes of how good they could have been what’s working for Kyrie here because it didn’t look like a seamless fit when they first made that move and this year it turns into a finals team the combination between he and Luca and obviously that’s a big conversation like on the Celtics side too the brown and Tatum thing making it work two guys at the same position uh who kind of need the ball in their hands in this case kind of even even more uh you know two guys who are very ball dominant but they’ve made it work how have they done it so what Luca does and this vexes Kyrie super fans to the core because there’s a lot of there’s like a traveling pack of Kyrie Irving super fans that follow him from Team to team and demand that he gets to be the one that has the ball all the time and you should let Kyrie cook and y y y what works with Kyrie in this situation is he can have games where he is not the guy he can have whole parts of games where he doesn’t do anything other than try on defense and be a facilitator and then all of a sudden he’s a scalpel stabbing you he has been really fun to watch because he gets he he he takes the game in in as it comes to him uh I was not not a particular proponent of the trait I didn’t want any more chaos within the team and he has came to the Mavericks and he simply played basketball that’s what he did he he he brings his family to the games now like I didn’t even know he had a family and he he speaks like a guy who’s in a different head space mentally than he’s ever been kind of anywhere professionally I sound great to hear yeah and you know um Jonathan shks used to always tell me that that guys needed to get to the tail end of their 20s particular like non super duper Stars needed to get to the tail end of their 20s to where they really started to figure out what they want and as as valuable as Kyrie is on the basketball court I think his best role has been as a as a 1B to someone else’s onea because like let’s be honest he’s 6 foot one and 170 pounds he’s not a big guy you know I don’t care what his measurables actually say I stood next to him like it’s he’s he’s a slight guy and the fact that he can play NBA basketball at this level really speaks to to his how impressive he is and he’s just found a place where he’s comfortable I think he’s gonna look to avoid saying anything or doing anything insane during these finals because just playing basketball and going home has brought him uh a really contented season the LA the thing I will say about his play though is at least in the postseason he’s defending like a madman I mean all over the court as hard as he can almost every position possession and I really never would have expected that yeah absolutely and you know I’m happy for him you know I I think it’s going to be interesting to see him Boston what the atmosphere is like they’re obviously gonna boo him they’re obviously gonna be on him but is it something that takes over the game takes over the series in a way that it did in that Brooklyn Boston series a couple years ago that’s the question I think like it’s gonna start in that place I feel like but is the series goes on and as you know the finals kind of take over and the championship Stakes here you do hope it kind of bumps to the back burn a little bit because we’ve we’ve done this too many times at this point well I think the the thing to watch is not Kyrie but Luca and Luca looks for offense like he looks that’s what I’m curious about like is he gonna internalize what’s going on with Kyrie he will like you you saw him if you watched game game five against the Wolves he picked one random fan in like the third Court behind the ston and was like you’re dead so like like I I was it’s almost uncomfortable watching him do this sort of thing because he’s so thorough and when he does you know just really when he goes for it so I that’s that’s kind of my my I don’t know just fan take on it in terms of what I see happening I I suspect what will happen is in Boston at least in games one or two you’ll see a little bit of a Kyrie dud um he doesn’t have great games in and out when you wa when when you go watch what he’s done in the postseason I mean again the the Oklahoma City Thunder uh they put Jaylen Williams on him and he was I don’t want to say he was ineffective but he played a very different game much more facilitation of the ball uh really picked and CH his spots like if if I’m the Celtics I sort of wonder if you put you know even Brown on him for periods of time and just sort of attempt to blank him out because length is is what bothers Kyrie at this point in in in his life size like the Wolves had to go had to sort of dare um Mike Conley to stick with uh Kyrie in the end because they just had to keep rotating guys over to Luca and that’s when that’s when Kyrie started to eat so I think if you if you’re trying to blank Kyrie out of the game you do so with some length yeah I know and that’s going to be the key with the switching there Celtics have the wings they can switch onto those kind of guys and I think it’s going to be on them a lot of times to actually slow those guards if that’s what they want to do and and of course there going to be the thinking too that like you can let those guys get theirs and and hold everybody off too I think you’re just going to have to try everything in the series defensively and certainly the Celtics have a lot of answers here defensively I do want to ask you what what worries you or what you’re looking at on the Boston side that’s going to you know be key for Dallas here but first we’re just drowning in sponsors and we love it herol fresh is back one of my favorite sponsors here that we’ve had um and they are America’s number one meal kit for a reason they’re fun affordable and they make home cooking easy skip the trips to the grocery store and count on hellofresh uh to make all your summer meals a smooth sale this uh this this summer as it begins here into June they got farm fresh preion ingredients and the seasonal recipes delivered right to your doorstep it’s customizable you can adjust it to your diet and again it comes to the door right when you want it pre-portion ingredients menus it really makes cooking fun um which is what I’ve enjoyed most about it here and again you can kind of pick what kind of diet specific things you want your preferences too you can basically build your own box here which is key and again everything’s sort of set out for you laid out they make it easy and they even have quick and easy 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where if they were to lose in the finals they would join like like two or three other teams in NBA history that have managed to do this so I think the Mavericks at least on paper are probably heavier underdogs than they than they ought to be I do think the the Chris STS porzingis element of it all is pretty important if you can get KP on the floor 25 minutes and force the Mavericks to do something different where let’s say for example you’re bombing threes to the point to where Daniel Gafford can’t play and the Mavericks have to go much more lively which I don’t hate but also more Maxi kba playing Five where you’re trying he’s an interesting guy in this series he drives me crazy I’ve watched Maxi cber for several years and he is a gutsy hardworking guy who also sometimes gets the worst Yips I’ve ever seen from a basketball player where he had a stretch uh March of 22 where he shot like he didn’t make a three for a month and then he went into and I’m kind he made seven threes the entire month and then the first game he plays against the Utah Jazz in the playoffs he hits eight the first game and so he’s like capable of really incredible Highs but he’s also capable of like gut-wrenching lows and um I think it was uh joh so one of the Wolves beat writers pointed out that like the Mavericks sometimes use him in pick and pop situations but teams don’t care because he won’t shoot and so it’s like if you’re trying to go like for like and match you know a five out basketball your five Out Center actually has to shoot when you get those opportunities and we’re not talking once we’re talking probably five times because that’s the kind of shots that the Celtics defense are going to live with within the Mavericks offense you don’t want Kyrie or Luca taking it you don’t want PJ uh PJ Washington taking that corner three so if if the Celtics AR to push ahead in this series I think it’s because their offense dictates the Mavericks do something differently on their offensive end um it’s not like the Celtics are for are driving into the paint recklessly anyways I mean what the Mavericks have done to this day is effectively say that that no one is coming here into the paint um it’s going to drive Celtics fans mildly crazy when you do drive into the paint fouls simply don’t get called on the Mavericks anymore um I I I I’m not used to it it feels like watching that 2020 Lakers team in the bubble where Dwight po Dwight Howard would just the crap out of everyone uh and it’s it’s very uh I love it don’t get me wrong but it’s also just so odd um so I I I don’t know I I’m kind of going all over the place with my answer because I think that the Celtics have so many different options offensively that if they force the Mavericks to do something to match offense for offense that breaks the Dallas defense which has become their biggest strength heading into the playoffs yeah and that’s what I’m interested in too like how how is Dallas going to defend beyond all the stuff you said there Boston’s offense here with all the three-point shooting with all the different guys that they can throw and how they’re going to try to methodically attack some of those you know Dallas guards there um the numbers were kind of Staggering the last two time time these teams played each other um I saw like a number tracking wise as high as like 80% when the Celtics shot against Luca in that game sure um it was kind of astounding so NBA officially had them at 11 for 15 uh Celtics were seven for 14 against Washington in that game eight for 13 against Kyrie uh seven for 12 against Lively like it just goes on and that was a red hot night for Boston 138 points but this is what they do they don’t let any weak Defenders off the hook they’re just gonna go with those guys over and over and over again put them in actions they’re going to try to make Luca work here but Dallas’s defense has been much better late in the year into the playoffs how do you kind of balance those two things out obviously there’s some mismatches Boston can go at here but the Mavericks have come a long way defensively how are they G to try to slow Boston I’m gonna be really curious to see who matches up with who um PJ Washington has played really great Wing defense he actually struggled pretty he struggled a bit with Carl Anthony towns in the last in the last round but I’m going to be curious to see if the Mavericks put him on Tatum or brown but again the Celtics offense will also Force like they’re probably going to bum hunt Luca to a certain extent less so Kyrie I think uh but I really think the attacking of Luca it makes the most sense and Luca’s just got to be ready to work he did okay I the last two series he was allowed just based off of the matchups was allowed to sort of float and play you know they would still get him on mismatches but it wasn’t happening for you know three four five possessions in a row it was happening two out of five and it’s just a different it’s a different load to lift if Lucas expected to play Let’s just say 42 minutes a game you know by the end of the game he’s gonna be tired and and that works against uh Dallas offensively as well um so it’s it’s so much of what the Dallas defense is designed to do is to take away what a team wants but if the Celtics want three-pointers which is what you know Joe missoula’s talked about often enough I don’t don’t really take away three-pointers for a team that can Field Five Guys at all times that can shoot them yeah absolutely and I you know I think the Celtics can fall into a little bit of isolation here um so the pace is going to be a big thing here H you know Ken Dallas control that pace can they you know Force stops turnovers especially Dallas a little high on the turnovers in the playoffs the Celtics have done a great job not commenting them all year they a number one team in the league with that so you know the little things in this series Beyond like the big stuff here that kind of separates the Celtics the little things like rebounding turnovers free throws as you mentioned there you know those are all pretty close for these teams but the Celtics have like really dedicated to winning those across every series and that’s a big reason they’ve been able to separate themselves to the way they have here in this so I look across the board and I just I like Boston in the series like the the two guys there in Dallas are so dangerous and I do think the role guys complement them and such a good way that this could end up being a longer series especially if porzingis isn’t in the mix here but it is hard outside of Boston just imploding and everyone keeps imagining this but it just hasn’t happened this year like they’ve only lost two games in a row at any given point the playoff production plus 10.8 it’s been out of this world the path was a little easy here so I do Wonder a little bit you know now that you’re facing a fully healthy fully loaded team with its Stars intact what that looks like but I end up just thinking that looks like this series going a little longer like six maybe seven games if porzingis isn’t available rather than Boston melting down here and losing this as you said like they’re sizable favorites here I think you respect the Mavs and what they’re able to put up here but there’s a reason a five seeds never won a final series sure yeah I mean it’s like the the Houston Rockets and the like in the the Clinton Administration well one one in the what was it 90 95 I one of those two years but it’s it’s been you know it’s been 30 plus years since anything really mattered I mean this this Mavericks team is very different um than what they were prior so if if you’re looking at any of the games from probably before March 1 I’m I want to just caution everybody to throw that sort of stuff out it has shocked every I mean I I I told the Wolves guys like look like they’re gonna drive you crazy and you’re not going to understand how they’re winning this series is gonna be a mental Challenge and Joe said that like if Luc is going off how do you deal with that like do you do you react to that and that’s gonna be the biggest challenge here by far for Boston should be fun though I mean it’s it’s I I think the Wolves would have gotten absolutely picked apart like their defense um as I saw it was built primarily on knocking the crap out of you uh they they some of the stuff I saw over five games was really shocking for the number one defense for a significant portion of the regular season if not the entire time because it’s not just it sort of wasn’t real I don’t know how to explain it other than it just like watching I know Kyrie and Luca are good but they got those guys in situations where it’s like what is going on here uh there were a couple of guys short really if we’re if we’re candid about their their bench um I I think the Mavericks will will need to do their best to to try to win some of the bench minutes between these teams um I’m like so I’m like cautiously worried about someone like Payton Pritchard like finding his go and just lighting the Mavericks on fire he’s a big swing guy in this series yeah and and you know it’s it’s gonna drive everybody crazy when like you see Derek Jones Jr a 10-year vet in the league who shot like zero% for most of his career he just doesn’t have a shot all of a sudden you see him in these one of these Series where he goes two of three from three and you’re like that can’t happen again that’s never never going to happen again and then it happens again it’s it’s really I don’t I don’t want to be too ridiculous about this but there have been some of these games where I’m like all right this team you know just like this team’s unbelievable and I can’t explain it you know sometimes things just go you know go their way like the um you talked about the Ali oops earlier the Ali oops feel like a different version of what Steph Curry was doing to teams in 2015 and 16 where he’s just bombing from down cour is like did did you see the the alleyoop that sealed game three uh where Daniel Gafford just like Luca was falling over and he throws up a left-handed alley over the defensive player of the year for Duncan it’s like how does that happen how did he even get that off and there’s like three plays a game like that from Luca that just if you’re rooting against him it feels hopeless so that’s where I I’m I’m curious to see if and and and if everybody can kind of keep control of their emotions and not let things like not let heavy hits swing because I think like you’re going to see some really large leads in this series and I also think you’re G to see some really large leads given up um it should be a whole lot of fun like six to seven games seems right to me uh but also I wouldn’t be shocked if like you go through and and the Celtics were to bomb the Mavericks like four to one it’s just basketball is like that sometimes and I don’t I I’m really looking forward to this one because it does like how we got here to a certain extent doesn’t make sense but it it it it’s it’s looking like if if you like basketball and like the different brands of basketball this isn’t two three-point shooting teams this is going to be really fun no contrast the Styles there’s different types of players across the court those two Dallas bigs are a ton of fun I love Lively love them in the draft that goes back to just how surprising this is here if you imagine this was going to happen when Dallas kind of Tanked out of the playoffs last year the Kyrie thing was you know Hit or Miss there was really some drama last season about whether you know they’d even resign him or not given how that went there and then you know you bring him back you get that pick you keep it in the lottery Lively is a Smash Hit even this year it takes a little bit to you know work out and the grant signing doesn’t really work and you got to go back on that so it just blows my mind that they’re here I’m happy they are I love this series I’m excited to go down to Dallas I think it’s going to be a lot of fun as you mentioned but man this has to just be such a shock for Mavs fans that they’re here after everything they’ve gone through over the last 365 I mean I have to the morning of the finals game one I have to drive to College Station which is where Texas A&M is located because three months ago I planned a vet appointment for my like for a specialty vet appointment out there like I don’t think the Mavericks G be in the finals my wife is out of town for part of it it’s like this is going to be I just wasn’t you know why would I plan that like it’s the Mavericks were were 26 and 23 at one Point like they were as mediocre as you could be which is a step in the right direction compared to where they were at at you know the the tail end of last season but this is not like this is wild like it’s it truly doesn’t make sense and I I I you know the crowd in Dallas will be really great though ticket prices for these final games like they hurt me like well you should see Boston oh I saw some G friend of mine sent me a snapshot of a potential game seven Boston seats on the floor that for $20,000 I was like that like what and it’s interesting to see how that’s going to impact the crowd too right because when it gets that high sometimes who a little bit of the different quality yeah different level of fan engagement but yeah it’s it’s I just I can’t wait I I’m very I’m functionally annoyed by the way that the um the NBA does the finals where it’s like two to three days off between every game I just realized that yeah especially after like we’re going to wait 13 days for this effectively and then we’re going to get two days off after game one like come on it could be an 18 day series if it goes seven games 18 days well plenty of time to talk so thank you uh for stopping by here Kirk how’s the atmosphere in Dallas pretty good I mean most the like such an odd Sports Market Dallas is probably third behind the baseball team and football team Mavericks like in terms of Power Rankings I think everybody’s pretty excited to be there though um and and we’ll see we’ll see it goes it’s it’s funny seeing people all of a sudden wearing Maverick shirts out in public you know what I mean so a lot of Kyo I’m sure well game one is Thursday check out Mavs Money Ball is one of your sources there for some Mavs perspective through this series great to finally get Kirk on here and great to finally see these two teams going out at this level Luca Tatum’s gonna be a fun thing too um you know the debates on both sides everybody kind of claiming who’s going to be the better player there too that’s that’s a another factor in this series as well that I’m looking forward to here so uh you got you got something on that no it’s it’s it’s this is a great like this is just a great matchup you power rank players and there’s just so many fun fun debates I think I’ve said Styles make fights four times and it’s just it’s it’s going to be really great to see uh what the the two coaching staffs like kind of Jin up and and you know kid has only won a single like the maver only won one game one the whole time uh it’s going back to 2011 well it’s it’s been a real long time and so it’s I just hope that both teams Come Out Swinging because these game ones uh for the Mavericks at least for most of the playoffs have been pretty so I’m I’m just ready to see some exciting basketball and uh uh kind of answer some of the questions that we have yeah two feisty coaches as you mentioned it there too I could see some fiery moments from those two in this in this one as well um between kid and Missoula there so Thank you Kirk thanks for stopping by um and that is it for us here today appreciate you and enjoy the series K thank you bye all right and for everybody still hanging on here want to do some service for our great sponsors and I got the pxg Hat on we’ll give them a quick shout out as well here a sponsor we’ve enjoyed go to pxg.com Gard report and get great gear like this for the golf course hats polos te’s everything you can need of out there just use the code Garden report to save a checkout and uh back again a great sponsor we’ve really enjoyed at different points when you’re pulling your hair out watching the Celtics team there hasn’t been as much of that lately but some of you might still either deal with hair loss or you know want to get ahead on that potentially and that is the key there is getting ahead on it before it even starts and that’s what neutr fall allows you to do um go to neutr fall right now and basically you’re gonna deal with it at some point like it’s just going to go and you don’t know when it’s going to happen but basically what you want to do is get ahead on it and neutri fall gives you great uh dermatologist recommended hair growth supplements with over one million people seeing thicker stronger faster growing hair with less shedding um 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one of my favorite sponsors we’ve had here love them that’s one free appetizer per box while your subscriptions active at hellofresh.com Garden apps I go to the game time app use that code clns for $20 off your first ticket purchase over there of course terms apply and prize picks they’re offering a 0 five more pick on Tatum scoring in game one on Thursday so go over there and get that as well and use the promo code clns to let them know we sent you and get that deposit match over there uh that’s our show for tonight we’ll have a full series preview early this week and then more practices leading up to game one on Tuesday and Wednesday so stay tuned for all the shows and preview material that’s just going to keep rolling we’ll get as many guests as we can up in here um feeling good about the Celtics in this one as I dive into it but still G to try to dig up more film dig up more information here and just see could the Mavs have a chance could the Mavs threaten them here and try to you know give them that benefit doubt that I always try to here but again it’s tough to not like what the Celtics are doing right now thanks one more time to Kirk Henderson who came through here you can find him at Kirk serus face on X and mavmoney ball.com I am Bobby Manning and this has been a preview edition of the gar report

Bobby Manning welcomes Kirk Henderson from Mavs Moneyball to provide a preview of Dallas entering the NBA Finals, including how challenging Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving will be to slow, what Mavericks fans think of Kristaps Porzingis and more.

🍀The Garden Report’s Key Moments:
0:00 – Introducing Kirk Henderson from Mavs Money Ball
2:58 – Importance of three-point shooting in the series
5:59 – Wearing down Luka physically throughout the game
8:20 – Porzingis’ challenges with injuries and impact on Mavericks
10:56 – Porzingis’ resurgence and role with the Celtics
12:38 – Mavericks’ promising start and subsequent challenges
15:18 – Kyrie’s contentment and improved defense in the postseason
16:56 – Kyrie’s postseason performance analyzed
20:22 – Importance of Porzingis for Mavericks
22:13 – Mavericks’ strong defense in the paint
25:38 – Importance of pace and turnovers in the series
27:56 – Mental challenge of dealing with Luka’s dominance
29:30 – Unpredictable outcomes and shocking plays
33:55 – Excitement building up for the series
37:22 – Benefits of using Nutrafol for hair growth

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