Tim Legler Touchscreen: Celtics beat the Mavericks in Game 1 of the NBA Finals | SC with SVP
Tim legler ladies and gentlemen we’ve been waiting all week to get to this one and we got the touch screen to to break things down but let’s start in the beginning it’s a 1715 game there like 550 to go they hit a three and here we go with five minutes of game time later it’s a 27o 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 their it just wasn’t there poring has 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 this point now he’s kind of rolling but here’s another one just bully Luca donin get to your spot go up power through very little resistance this obviously a high leg play the first half splitting those two Defenders and then flushing at The Rim one more time Tatum here just catches gets the switch with Kyrie turns out of that the re action 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 porzingis presented for them in the challenge in 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 luuka hits the three right nods a little bit has a little nod and you’re thinking like oh L’s feeling right now like now this is when they were problem one possession game it was out of that timeout when they got back to 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 going to 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 get Luka actually does a decent job initially like he’s 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 Irv 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 a week 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 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 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 CER on the island against Jaylen Brown now here’s what is important Scott if they’re going to do these switches very very important Clea 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 three 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 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 three months of the Season give Boston a lot of credit this was a dominant performance on both ends of the [Music] [Applause] floor NBA on the is
Tim Legler joins SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt and breaks out the famous touchscreen to break down how the Boston Celtics were able to dominate the Dallas Mavericks in Game 1 of the 2024 NBA Finals.
☑️ Subscribe to ESPN+: https://plus.espn.com/
📱Get the ESPN App: http://www.espn.com/espn/apps/espn
🏀 Subscribe to NBA on ESPN on YouTube: http://bit.ly/2yxs3Og
☑️Subscribe to ESPN on YouTube: http://es.pn/SUBSCRIBEtoYOUTUBE
☑️Watch ESPN on YouTube TV: http://es.pn/YouTubeTV
40 Comments
Tim Ledger you’re a clown. Choosing Dallas to sweep the Celtics 🥴
Who cares? Legoat is bigger than the nba!
Legs hurt he’s wrong a lot but when he’s right it’s usually something spectacular
Tatum smoked Kyrie on that double dip .. High Frequency game, that time out for Bossn, was extraordinarily commensense. Very good beginning, of this battle of entertainment. Amen 🙏
Mavs weren't defending 5 out teams for the last few months, especially with multiple individual mismatches
Legler got dallas winning this series shut up 3 MOEEEE HATERS 🍀🍀🔥🔥🍀🍀💯🍻
Game was pretty even besides 1st qtr Game 2 will be much different but prob same result if Kyrie isn’t uncle drew
The Celtics' secret weapon is Jrue Holiday. He can neutralize Kyrie, and then Luka has too much to do.
Still a great season from the Mavs. If you had told them before the season started that they would make the Finals before running into a buzzsaw, they'd have taken that 100 times out of 100.
Touchscreen Maestro
Nah don’t show common sense now. Y’all was all picking Dallas to win. Now Boston had their way. Duuuh we said that was gone happen a week ago
if Boston can cut their TO down from 14-6, hit their FT's than they'll be scary. They get too soft sometimes when they're up 22pts and just jack up 3s, they have to just keep driving on them force them to foul, keep racking up easy buckets
Mavs in 6, Celtics will win 2 games by more than 10, Mavs will win 3 close games, and one by 10+. Celtics only did what they're supposed to do what they're expected to do, which is to win game 1.
Kristaps Porzingas was the difference maker. He only played 20 minutes and dominated the glass on defense. He is like Ivan Drago in Rocky 4. All the Mavs could do was look up at the Tower of Strength. And the Celtics did not have a good night of shooting and still easily won by 18pts. I think we can get the Duck Boats Ready. Mavs may steal 1 or 2 at home but im picking Celtics in 6. 🏀😁
idk how a team with two horrific defending guards and no centers (Dallas) beat anyone in the west. somehow they did. but their weaknesses are being exploited by boston, just keep going at their small centers and go at luka and kyrie
Let’s go my Celtics great win in gm1 🔥🔥👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼.
Leggie, Legster…this guy's pretty good, man.
Boston is just better in every single way compared to Dallas bruh 💀
Celtics in 5
They asked who's Finals MVP ? I seen 7% on Brown. I laughed and kept scrolling 😂
That was Luka's fault. He did move once got beat. He just stood there. He should have been the next rotation. Pausebit at 3:06. Call it all the way out.
Brown does not pull defenders though, right? Tatum is clearly open because he pulls non-stop double and triple teams on his own… wait…
So glad people like Legs break this down because other pundits like Gil will say something stupid on his pod. This team plays like a team and both Jays are stars.
Its a bit early but the way Porzingis was taking those midrange shots with patiencr and poise reminder me of Karl Malone for a 2nd. That patient mid range jumper can be deadly.
Kyrie missed so many open shots so did PJ and Luka was talking bad shots give Boston credit, the difference was there ability to land 3s and porzignis 1st Q jumpstart, Dallas made every quarter competitive with the exception of the 1st which was ultimately the difference
Is Legler screaming because the background music is too loud. Maybe is me.
Man Celtics with healthy KP too much fire power Dallas needs big adjustments for game 2. KP got the freshest leg out of all the starting 5 and it’s showing. Man Boston getting so lucky this year they faced injured teams so didn’t need KP and he got so much rest got healthy just on time for the Celtics.
JB MVP!
2022 Finals Tatum was out of gas and forcing every single shot!
2024 Finals Tatum was spacing the wings and guards and making sure everyone got wide open shots!!
FULL CIRCLE
Foghorn Legler personally guaranteed a Mavs victory.
All of The ESPN retards picked Dallas.
where the dallas bandwagon fanbase at? 😂😂
And no injuries to blame on the other side… must be tough.
Mavs is no match from celtics. Check the past game how Celtics dominated the Mavs… Mavs only hyped by media.
Sweep sweep sweep 🧹🧹🧹🧹
Yall casuals in these comments are laughable. Mavs are masters of adaptability after they lose game 1 which they usually do. Kyrie was shooting bricks, Lively is still rookie and the pressure of 1st game in the finals got to him and also Jones Jr did some weakass rim attacks and pj open 3s didnt go in. And they lost rebounding game which they usually don't, they didnt get many 2nd chances and gave too many offensive rebounds. All in all it wasn't good game for any mavs players. They will show up for game 2 and go to Dallas with 1-1.
Prozingis was on a mission last night and Mavs had no idea how to deal with? as he was brilliant attacking and defending
Dallas can’t double anybody like they were able to essentially take ant-man out of the last series. The only way I see Boston losing is if they’re cold from 3.
Battle of the small ball
Stop making excuses for Tatum. He’s not going to get paid to be a passer. Dude diminishes when lights are bright! If JB was told to be #1 like Tatum is. JB probably be even better. Stop making excuses for y’all “#1” player.
Dallas has to play small ball and sit Kleber to add another high impact defensive player to make up for Luka/Kyrie’s poor defense. They have to guard this series which they did not have to do versus the Wolves or OKC.
Remember those casual fans that thought Boston would be blown out because they had an easy path to the finals?