2024 NBA Finals: Five key questions heading into Celtics-Mavs Game 2

2024 NBA Finals: Five key questions heading into Celtics-Mavs Game 2 originally appeared in NBC Sports Boston

The Boston Celtics threw the first punch in the 2024 NBA Finals with a 107-89 win in Game 1 at TD Gardenand now it’s up to the Dallas Mavericks to respond.

The Mavs have been in this situation before. They lost their first game in the first round and in the conference semifinals. They bounced back with a win in Game 2 in each series.

Replicating that success for a third time will be a difficult challenge for the Mavericks. The Celtics have won a franchise-record eight consecutive playoff games and star center Kristaps Porzingis is back in the lineup after missing most of the Eastern Conference playoffs.

What should we watch for in Game 2 on Sunday night in Boston? Here are five key questions.

Will Mavs actors stand out?

The Mavericks can’t win this series if their players don’t show up. Dallas players not named Luka Doncic or Kyrie Irving combined to score just 47 points on 17-of-39 shooting in Game 1, and those numbers are inflated a bit by Jaden Hardy scoring 11 garbage points during the fourth quarter.

PJ Washington was the only other Mavs starter besides Irving and Doncic to score in double figures.

Derrick Jones Jr. scored five points. Josh Green, Dereck Lively II and Maxi Kleber scored just two points each. Foul troubles limited Lively to just 18 minutes of action.

It’s fair to wonder after Game 1 if the Mavs have the firepower to keep up with the Celtics. The C’s are averaging 111.1 points per game in the playoffs. They had six players score more than 10 points on Thursday, and Sam Hauser was close with eight. Even though Doncic and Irving each scored 30 points, the Mavericks still need several other players to contribute offensively at a high level. Players typically perform better at home, but the Mavs need to win at least one game in Boston to become NBA champions.

Washington is the key. The Mavs lost Game 1 in the first and second rounds of the playoffs, but won Game 2 in each of those series because Washington scored 18 points against the Clippers and 29 points against the Thunder. Can he put together another stellar performance in Game 2 on the road on Sunday? Dallas really needs this.

Will Kyrie Irving be more efficient offensively?

Doncic scored 30 points on 12-of-26 shooting and 10 rebounds in Game 1. It was a good performance, but not great. Irving, on the other hand, played poorly. In fact, it was one of his worst games in the playoffs.

Irving scored just 12 points on 6-of-19 shooting. He missed all five of his 3-point attempts and committed three turnovers. He finished with just two assists.

The Celtics did a good job defending Irving, including at the rim.

“I think (the Celtics) really rely on their great defensive ball pressure and one-on-one defenders,” Irving told reporters in his postgame press conference. “They direct us to certain areas. Even when I say that, they rely on one-on-one, every time I get an iso, there are almost two, three people waiting for me to get in there. I have to get the ball in a dribbling live and just paying attention to my opportunities.

“It’s not typical that we only have nine assists. The ball needs to move a little more. And again, that starts with me being able to pick up the pace, get some easy opportunities and just adjust to what they are playing at us.”

The Mavericks are 3-3 in the playoffs when Irving scores 16 or fewer points. They are 9-3 when he scores more than 16 points. Doncic can’t beat the Celtics alone. If Irving doesn’t help significantly offensively, this series will be over soon.

Can Kristaps Porzingis replicate his Game 1 performance?

Porzingis played one of the best first quarters for a Celtic in NBA Finals history in Game 1. He came off the bench and scored 11 points and blocked three shots in the first half. The Celtics had a one-point lead when he entered the game and it grew to 17 by the end of the quarter.

Porzingis shot 2 of 4 from 3-point range and also took advantage of matchups against smaller players, shooting over them with his 7-foot-2 frame.

Porzingis finished with 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting. He also played very well defensively, blocking three shots and altering several others.

This sequence during the first quarter illustrated the two-way impact Porzingis had in the series opener.

It will be interesting to see what kind of adjustments in Game 2 the Mavericks make regarding Porzingis. He’s a very different type of center than the one they faced in the Western Conference Finals when Rudy Gobert was on the floor. Porzingis can score from anywhere on the court and is a brick wall defensively in the paint.

“KP was great, he knocked down shots. He changed shots. He blocked shots,” Mavs coach Jason Kidd told reporters after the game. “He gave them a spark when he came off the bench. We just need to make things a little more difficult on the offensive end. We need to make him do something different. He had a great look and he shut them down.”

If Porzingis plays anywhere near the level he did in Game 1 for the rest of the series, the Mavs will be in trouble.

Will Jayson Tatum be more assertive in his search for a goal?

You know the Celtics are a special team when their best player doesn’t need to score more than 25 points to make a big impact on the game.

Tatum is the team’s best rebounder. Frankly, he’s one of the best rebounding guards in all of basketball. He pulled down 11 rebounds in Game 1 and leads the Celtics with 10.4 rebounds per game in the playoffs. Tatum also makes a big difference as a playmaker. He draws a lot of attention on drives to the basket, but instead of forcing hard shots, he is consistently finding the open man. He had five assists on Thursday, and that number could have been much higher, but his teammates were just 5-of-19 in their feeds.

But even if the Celtics don’t require a high-scoring game from Tatum to rack up wins, it would definitely help if he was a bit more of an offensive factor. He scored just 16 points on 6-of-16 shooting in Game 1. He attempted just two free throws. The superstar forward played the entire first quarter but only had one shot attempt in the frame.

Tatum is capable of dominating offensively — he averaged 30.3 points per game in the conference finals — and there are plenty of favorable matchups for the Celtics to take advantage of when he has the ball in his hands. A more assertive Tatum on that end of the floor on Sunday night would be a nice boost for Boston.

Is Game 2 a must-win for Mavs?

Is this a silly question after a game? Maybe a little, but consider the following facts:

• The Celtics only lost consecutive games four times during the regular season, and their longest losing streak was two games.

• The Celtics have not lost four times in five games all season.

• The Celtics are 6-0 on the road in the 2024 playoffs and have won eight consecutive postseason games dating back to last year.

• The Celtics are 42-1 all time in the series, during which they have taken a 2-0 lead. Their only loss was to LeBron James and the Cavs in the 2018 Eastern Conference Finals.

The Mavs have not faced an 0-2 series deficit in these playoffs. They stole home-field advantage in the first two games of each of the first three series. So if they were to lose 0-2 against the best team in the league, which often plays better away than at home, it would be a different kind of pressure that Dallas hasn’t faced in the 2024 playoffs.

It wouldn’t be impossible for the Mavericks to win the series if they lost 0-2, but history wouldn’t be on their side. Only three teams since 1977 — 2021 Bucks, 2016 Cavaliers, 2006 Heat — have fallen behind 0-2 in the NBA Finals and won the series.