FULL REACTION: Celtics beat the Mavericks in Game 1 of the NBA Finals 👀 Luka had only 1 AST 😳

FULL REACTION: Celtics beat the Mavericks in Game 1 of the NBA Finals 👀 Luka had only 1 AST 😳

Luca had just one assist in this game that’s something that he talked about afterwards well they mostly play oneon-one they s a lot of help so that’s why luuka you’ve obviously been here before you know down 01 in a series what do you remember about you know the the first round and the second round what the next day was like for you guys what did it look like what did it feel like I don’t remember U just a you lose or you win uh first to four uh we got to focus on the next game does that give you guys confidence though of course you want me to say we have no confidence I just want to hear you say it you know it’s good for our stories of course luuka obviously christops had a really big first half um just from what you remember playing with him um why was he so impactful out there just taking advantage of pretty much every match up he yeah yeah I mean he was great for them uh he was knocking down shots he was blocking shots uh so it was he was really really huge for them uh on both ends of the floor T right in the front what kind of problems does uh the Celtics five out offense present for you guys on defense uh this space their spacing is great and they have a lot of Shooters uh so I think we got to do a better job uh taking those three away Luca for you guys as a team defensively what needs to change it you guys have been so good throughout these playoffs what was different tonight what did they do to get you guys off off your front foot uh just like I said right now uh we got to take those threes away and that’s that was what hurts us the most this isn’t on the graphic I just want to mention it before I get to this 282 games Lucas played in his career regular season in playoffs this is the first time that he didn’t have double digit assist just one he did plenty of good things in game one 30 and 10 the rest of the starters not able to match his productivity particularly from Beyond The Arc just one of 10 from there Kyrie 045 in his first game back in Boston in the postseason here in this Finals series Boston jumps Dallas up 17 after the first day cruise to a game one Victory they hadn’t had Kristof porzingis in 38 days and he delivered with 20 some huge and impactful blocks felt like every bucket he landed was like a punch and a fight and he helped Propel Boston to the win here’s coach Missoula afterwards what led to going with the steps Off the Bench here and what allowed him to get off to that start he did in the first half yeah um Justa gave us the best chance to win and um he was great on both ends of the floor defensive exec ution game plan uh fighting for a spot in the offensive end being physical and uh making plays on both ends of the floor so I thought he played great and uh you know that’s that’s the KP that you know helped us get to the ear out today what do you see from Jason and the pressure he kind of Drew defensively and how he played around that yeah just Poise um they have a great defensive system great defensive team throw a bunch of stuff at you uh different spacings different coverages and uh the Poise to just figure it out make the right play is going to be the most important thing I thought he had that uh you know throughout the game Dave over here on the left side the Mavs were able to cut it to eight in the third quarter you guys respond with a 140 run and Chris hops is making plays enjoying that run as well just how big was that moment um and and for him to continue uh his impact after that hot start yeah uh game management is going to be important uh this is a great team they they have a tendency to go on great runs and um you know that’s going to happen and so you have to be able to manage those with poise and and uh execution know why those runs are being made and quickly put a stop to him with with high level execution so uh KP was a huge part of that that for that run um but I thought I like the way we handled uh their run cuz that’s going to happen you’re not going to stop that um you just have to have the Poise and the toughness to to work through it I thought our guys did that Tim legler ladies and gentlemen we’ve been waiting all week to get to this one and we got the touchcreen to to break things down but let’s start in the beginning it’s a 1715 game it’s like 550 to go they hit a three and here we go with 5 minutes of game time later it’s a 27-point lead what happened in that stretch Boston was getting all kinds of switches all over the floor and they were just absolutely beating whatever was in front of them and and and the weak side help was not good enough one of the things we’ve loved about Dallas through this stretch was their weak side defense protection at The Rim it just wasn’t there porzingis got going early with some of these mid-range jumpers but this is the stuff I’m talking about where you just are putting your head down winning your matchup getting to the rim nobody offering resistance and by by this point now he’s kind of rolling but here’s another one just bully Luca donic get to your spot go up power through very little resistance this obviously the highl play of the first half splitting those two Defenders and then flushing at the Rend one more time Tatum here just catches gets the switch with Kyrie turns out of that the reaction is late Boston’s aggressiveness and their confidence level that every match up in front of them was a favorable one for them they took advantage of it you can’t put a a measure on what Chris Taps porzingis gave them with his his jolt of electricity after not seeing him so long to come out have that kind of an impact man what that did to that building what it did to their team um it destabilized Dallas I don’t think they were prepared for what Chris brazing is presented for them in the challenge in that first half and we wondered would Dallas have some sort of an answer would they throw a combination of their own and they did and it gets to an eight-point game and you said to me up in the room upstairs you’re like well let’s see what happens now right you spend so much energy in the comeback you get stops and you get makes is that going to happen is that going to sustain itself what did Boston do when it got to that kind of frightening eight-point margin in the third to ultimately put this to bed Luca hits the three right nods a little bit has a little nod and you’re thinking like oh is feeling it right now like now this is when they were problem one possession game it was out of that timeout when they got back to live what their strength is which is using penetration to create chases at the three-point line that’s really what they did to kind of close this out and this is what they were doing the whole time Scott right they’re they’re just hunting who they want here’s Luca you’re gonna go and have Tatum set this screen right here and then Tatum’s going to peel out because you want ultimately Luca operating here against Jaylen Brown and that’s what they getting Luca actually does a decent job initially like he slides his feet he kind of offers some resistance watch Jaylen Brown’s determination he kind of gets tied up here but then he continues to go and the fact that Kyrie can’t help off the corner means it’s simple math if you can get into the paint and bring somebody from the weak side to help you’ve got three on two in the weak side and that’s basically what happens right here you’re going to get finally that backline Defender has to come and now you’re going to see because Horford’s on the Baseline that means that clea’s got to pinch down and now again do the math you got two Shooters on the weak side you got one Defender to try to figure this out jayen Brown’s going to make the kick out you get the Chase from the top one more swing it’s a wide with three this is Boston at their best two feet in the rim before they start getting the three here again one more example another switch jayen Brown obviously this is not the matchup you want if you’re Dallas you got Max and CA on the island against Jaylen Brown now here’s what is important Scott if they’re going to do these switches very very important CA has to be aware like this is where all of the activity is very very important defensively jump on that right hand and force him back to his left into the traffic he doesn’t do that he gets beat to the opposite side and what that means is you got two Shooters over here these guys aren’t leaving so now jayen Brown’s downhill you’re going to force this reaction from the backline defender to come over to get in front and of course you got a wide open three here and this is unfortunate for Dallas’s breakdown because you’re down to 3 seconds on the clock when Brown wins this matchup but again it always gets back to the same thing on this night which is Dallas’s inability to keep the ball in front of them in any sort of one-on-one coverage because of the ADV versatility of Boston’s players the number of switches that they were getting Dallas just really was destabilized from the beginning defensively this was not the defense that we saw Dallas play for the last 3 months of the Season give Boston a lot of credit this was a dominant performance on both ends of the floor we welcome christops porzingis now to the show hey it’s Scott vanel thank you very much for taking a moment in our business christops we’re supposed to have a better question than how does something feel but when you haven’t played in 38 days and you’ve just contributed in such a meaningful game in such a meaningful way I’m just interested in physically and then emotionally sort of what’s your feeling right now hey Scott uh yeah no it’s it’s it’s a it’s a bit of a relief right uh back on a court healthy back with my guys uh it was tough to sit out I’m not going to lie it was very tough um uh but you know I was I was connected with the team staying staying as engaged as I could even though I’m not playing and tonight I finally got the chance to be back out there and uh and get our first uh win here in finals and and it feels good I just was talking with Tim about that first quarter it went from a two-point game to a 27-point game in 5 minutes of game time you were in the middle of a ton of it what what do you remember krists about your role in that Avalanche that that really in many ways kind of won this game in the first quarter H you know what good question uh I was so in the moment I don’t even know like I was just I was just playing basketball getting to my spots teammates fighting me letting it fly and and ball was going in it was rolling the the crowd was uh absolutely bananas and we just had so much fun and and of course you know there’s ups and downs in the game and they made their run but but we stayed even killed we responded and and and and that’s it took care of business it’s not that I don’t believe you but when you haven’t played in 38 days and then you get in there and you go wild the way you do I mean maybe is it all just kind of a blur I mean it’s just hard to process what’s happening uh did I can’t hear anything you got me cut off yeah I hear you now okay cool uh I just you I just want to make sure you got me christops yeah okay cool I was just saying that when you haven’t played in as long as you haven’t played and then the ball does start going in you’re pulling from 29 ft is it sort of a blur I mean you just kind of go kind of go blank uh yeah in no way I mean I was so into the moment that moment the crowd like even from the moment that I just I was walking out to warm up like I was getting Goosebumps like the crowd the support that I had behind me it was it was unbelievable and uh and everything just clicked and and I was getting to my spots and and yeah and like that time off you know kind of like that was that moment for me to just be back and and and put a put a mark on the game when did you know that you could go I mean at what point in this break did you start feeling like all right I’m me again off again one more time hello hello hello hello this is oh this is awesome oh this is good times I’m asking at what point in this break did you start to feel physically like yourself again uh I would say I probably felt the best from the beginning of the game right I was still fresh uh obviously month and a half without playing it’s it’s tough to jump and have the same conditioning as if you were playing all these rounds and all these games right so I’m still getting there and and and and obviously you know uh the medical staff is still being cautious with me coming back and playing these high intensity games uh but throughout the game I felt good and and and obviously you know some moments you run out of gas a little bit but you know there’s uh timeouts and and and and you know Subs obviously quick quicker Subs than usual for me so uh it was good we managed it well and and uh as I said we we got the job done I’m really I’m risking it to ask another question because you might not be able to hear me again but I mean you you’ve been all right you’ve been an excellent player and you’ve contributed significantly and you’ve had bigger scoring nights but as you drive home from this night first night in the finals and you impact the game on both ends of the floor the way you did H how do you how do you make sense of this night like what you just did in the NBA Finals uh you know what uh I try to like not you know not to get too high obviously it’s a nice like relief to be back out there playing have a good game and win at home but we have still a lot of work to do you know the these guys will not go away these are the NBA Finals uh and they’re going to keep throwing punches and and and coming for us and and we’re going to come for them uh same same same way we did tonight and again tomorrow and the day after and until we get the job done well thank you so much for your patience with our audio issues and thanks for throwing on a headset congratulations on a remarkable night tonight and best of luck the rest of the way all right yes sir thank you guys thanks you got it Christ Sportz is tremendous performance tonight as he’s the fifth player since blocks were first tracked in 1973-74 to have 20 points in three blocks Off the Bench in an NBA Finals game first to do it since Kevin mccale an 84 against the Lakers that series ended with a banner for Boston in seven games on The Other Side Jason kid imploring his guys not to lose Faith just one game the Third how do we do we want to okay how do we do in the fourth does anybody know no we won the fourth right do you understand that so we got to build on it right we got great looks our trust when we pop right when we’re wide open L throws it to you what can you do catch and shoot right when you’re wide open Let it Fly does anybody come out of the game if you don’t let it fly right you come out if you don’t let it fly but you got to catch and shoot shoot with confidence you make it or you miss it and guess what you run back no matter what on defense it’s only game one it’s a series remember that okay it is a series the Celtics were significant favorites before this thing started and as you understand the odds grow with them taking game one you see the odds for game two and uh you can get a little bit of get back like quite a bit of get back by the way if you think Boston’s going to win in a sweep that would seem like a steep hill to climb Dallas is going to fight back in this series you have have to believe 6 for 19 night for Kyrie Irving his thoughts after the Mavs drop game one of the NBA Finals Kyrie obviously with you and luuka you guys have two of the best one-on-one players in the world but ball wasn’t moving tonight how do you avoid with the way that the Celtics play defensively you know falling into kind of the Trap of relying on isolation and and becoming stagnant I wouldn’t I don’t necessarily agree that’s a trap you know that they want to set us I think that they really rely on on their great defensive ball pressure they’re one-on-one Defenders and uh they funnel us into certain areas I mean um you know even as I say that that they’re relying on the one-on-one every time I got a ISO there’s you know almost two three people waiting for me to get in there so I got to catch the ball in a live dribble and just be aware of my opportunities uh it’s uncharacteristic for us to have only nine assists um the ball’s got to move a little bit more and again that starts with me just being able to push the pace get us some easy opportunities and uh just adjust to what they’re throwing at us us so it’s a it’s a fun series um you know it was fun just you know going into the game it’s still going to be fun but uh there’s going to be a level of Chess that still has to be played and um you know game one was just about adjustments we obviously wanted to win this basketball game gave ourselves a chance in the second half when we were down by eight and they brought it up to 16 and they got up to 22 when we called the timeout um so just going to be replaying some of these possessions um but you know at the same time um look at some of the positive that we can carry on to game two here in the front Mike Kyrie Mike Curtis Dallas Morning News um you mentioned the environment how did that either meet or kind of exceed your expectations and how did it affect you tonight no I mean it’s it’s basketball at the end of the day um you know being in this environment um you know I’m used to it at this point um you know early in my career there was a a different um relationship that I had with Boston just being able to come here be settled with a veteran group gr now I’m here as the veteran um over the past few years just experiencing the playoffs here um even regular season it’s it’s been the same thing I thought it was going to be a little louder in here um but I’m expecting the same things uh going into game two crowd trying to get me out of my element um my teammates out of my element but again the Energy’s got to be focused towards the game uh felt like I had a lot of great looks they hit back rim or um you know they were just a little left or right so I just got to stay confident and stay poised throughout this man this this is the best time of the year be playing it’s only two teams left let’s put it in perspective you know so um the environment is going to be what it is but my focus is on our game plan and making sure my guys feel confident and I feel confident um and continue to shoot great shots Kyrie has been brilliant throughout this postseason run this was the worst game he’s had in this postseason they were outscored by 19 when he was on the floor 0 for five from three six of 19 in total his second worst in a game this postseason Tim legler is with his legs I’m looking at the box score you’re doing the same thing I say assists are 23 to9 Boston I say threes are 16 to7 Boston of those two which is more troubling for them uh for Dallas tonight and has to change in game two they’re actually connected Dallas’s assist numbers are so low because of how anemic they were at the three-point line that’s a low number to take 27 for that team making seven and some of a couple of those were late in the game um so that to me is is where they’re they’re connected offensively to Boston in that way they’re going to get high assist volumes when they make a three-point shots they didn’t get a lot they didn’t make the ones that they did get certainly not enough I think JJ made this point after the game I do think it is a strategic um option for Boston to try to take away those Corner kickout threes by Luca with the late pass once he gets guys to coners late favorite thing right the late find he’s the master ated waiting for guys to converge them in paint hitting the corner kick out they weren’t really leaving that guy and so as a result I think Luca got in there a couple times in the first half several times where he wasn’t thinking about scoring because he was waiting for the natural reaction of the defense and knowing that’s normally a kickout that might be a different approach for Luca now going into the game he might need 40 and that might mean those five or six balls that he didn’t shoot because he was waiting for that help that never came maybe now see Luka going in there with a different intention understanding this is how you’re going to play me then I’m going to go ahead cuz I’m capable of scoring on any of these guys are in front of him but he wants to have it both ways and Boston didn’t really allow him to do that tonight it’s clearly a point of emphasis for Boston defensively to try to limit that but there’s also like Kyrie just talked about it there’s also just some missing of open shots I mean I do do you place more sort of weight on what Boston did as opposed to just Dallas missing I think I’m really good about watching a game and knowing the difference between the two that’s not what I saw tonight this was this was affected by the Boston Celtics the the frenzy the the energy that they played with was fenetic on that end of the flooor the entire first half and we talked about this the beginning of the game you said wow that’s Kyrie’s first touch felt like we were five six minutes into the game before he had anything remotely looking like a scoring opportunity that’s going to be different in game two Kyrie one thing I’ll say about him man he is not going to string together typically backto back poor scoring nights when his team needs to have it so I I think Kyrie is a guy that I expect to have a pretty good response in game two we got to go and you know when I say this I mean it we got a sentence you like that before you still like him I still like him yeah but this was definitely a dominant performance by Boston Brown asked about the off seon additions porzingis and Drew holiday they were uh pretty good in this one weren’t they two great additions between Chris abs and Drew and any given night it could be any of us you know and uh christops had a monster game for us just his um presence shooting the ball and him able to uh attack those switches and mismatches he he uh made him pay every time and that’s what we need going forward in the series christops was big um but those other guys Derek white Drew holiday um JT they all can get going at any point in time so that’s the beauty of our team we just got to you know every game has its own story we just got to stay ready stay composed and and taking one game at a time Brian wior back with us we we don’t have the podcast extended playroom that we had last night when we emptied the bag but this is kind of what you and I were talking about last night right like Boston was demonstrably the best team all year and I don’t know why people kind of try to talk themselves out of it they just got depth they’ve got options Jaylen Brown is is another one of their star players on a night where porzingis shines and Tatum didn’t have to do a lot what caught your eye about Brown’s contribution he was it was such a star game from him and what I mean by that is just all the different ways the impact of the game he gets three steals two of them are pick sixes he has three block shots one of them is that awesome one at The Rim he is extremely efficient offensively he takes 12 shots scores 22 points did miss some free throws which as Celtics fans will tell you is a bit of a thorn in their side of the time at times only had two turnovers like what a perfect performance that he gave he takes on the responsibility of guarding Luca out of the the gates in the game as a primary Defender like this is exactly the type of game that you need from a guy like Jaylen Brown the way the Celtics are built Scott they’re not I’m not going to say it never happens but they’re not going to have games where their star players score score 40 points they’re going to have games where they get great contributions up and down the lineup Jaylen Brown did that exactly I’m telling you he plays a few more of these games they’re going to end up with a trophy at the end of this yeah and all the idiots last June that said you can’t give them the money and have to like part way is I just would always say yeah and how do you get better when you do that he’s still there and there were three wins away from their 18th Banner defensively the the point of emphasis from Boston tonight in your estimation was what so legs just talked about it a little bit where he’s talking about how keeping Luca’s teammates from getting going was so important the number that everyone’s going to focus on is that he had one assist and that is obviously an outlier amongst outliers he’s never had a game where he’s played this many minutes and had just one assist and his teammates missing threes especially contributed to that but that’s not the number I’m focused on the number I’m focused on is that the Celtics only allowed his teammates to have six chances for assists from Luca they were one of six that six number I’m going to circle it underline it and highlight it that is a huge victory for Boston cuz we talked last night that incredible stat that his teammates were shooting 57% of his passes you’re better off just letting him shoot because he doesn’t shoot 57% you’re better off letting him shoot every time down the court they had to deal with that number now obviously Kyrie missed some shots obviously there were some looks that didn’t go down that’s not going to happen again but but they have to be thrilled with their game plan discipline and the way they were able to to to successfully handle Luca when he you know without sending any double teams and really almost never sending help so that they could stay on those teammates honestly I don’t think they care if Luca scores 30 in a game I don’t care I don’t think they care if he scores 35 or even in 40 as long as it’s not super efficient that is the the formula that Celtics need to keep following if they’re going to win this thing and they’ve got to be thrilled at that guy we talked about last night there was a total question mark porzingis was an man he was an exclamation mark in that first quarter just remarkable on both ends of the floor he couldn’t stop from smiling you see that Scott he just well he came on Amazing worked his whole life he lost the audio feed but I think he would have stayed and talked until 2 in the morning well wouldn’t you please tell us about please christs tell us about the greatest moment of your career that you just had I think he would have loved to talk with you he couldn’t stop himself from smiling and I don’t know whose decision it was to bring him off the bench for all I know they had 15 meetings and brought in statistical and Analysis and all and put it through AI however they decided to bring him off the bench and when they brought him in the game it was absolutely perfect it was a absolutely inspired choice and that move made it all happen for the Celtics early in the game Brian wior from Boston thank you so much for your time as always appreciate you thanks Scott t [Music]

Tim Legler and Brian Windhorst join SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt to react to the Boston Celtics’ 107-89 win over the Dallas Mavericks in Game 1 of the 2024 NBA Finals.
0:00 Luka Doncic
2:19 Joe Mazzulla
4:15 Tim Legler’s Touchscreen
8:40 Kristaps Porzingis
13:50 Jason Kidd
15:00 Kyrie Irving
17:42 Tim Legler reacts
20:35 Jaylen Brown
21:11 Brian Windhorst joins

✔️Subscribe to ESPN+ http://espnplus.com/youtube
✔️ Get the ESPN App: http://www.espn.com/espn/apps/espn
✔️Subscribe to ESPN on YouTube: http://es.pn/SUBSCRIBEtoYOUTUBE
✔️ Subscribe to NBA on ESPN on YouTube: http://bit.ly/SUBSCRIBEtoNBAonESPN
✔️ Watch ESPN on YouTube TV: http://es.pn/YouTubeTV