A factor called Porzingis – AS.com

A 2.18 who does everything on the court, who loves to shoot from nine meters and with almost 230 centimeters of wingspan to avoid easy points in his basket, is something similar to a basketball player perfectLet alone in these times of five open players, bombardment from the triple and defenses of permanent changes. If that player is 28 years old, it is normal for him to be in full maturity, in or entering his best years of basketball. And if, furthermore, that moment finds him in a fabulous team, which precisely needed someone like him to take the definitive step after being one step away from glory too many times, the scenario seems unbeatable. The right place and the right time for that player: Kristaps Porzingis, the Latvian who lived in Seville; he all star of 2018 that seemed ruled out, between injuries and doubts about what was going through your headfor the NBA’s main floor, the first competitive floor.

So the first part of the first game of the 2024 NBA Finals (107-89 for the Celtics) was, surely, the great moment in the (sports) life of Porzingis, who arrived in Boston from Washington as X Factor and that, to add mystery to his significance in this series against the Mavericks, He had spent 38 days without playing due to a serious muscle injury. His team, left over in a rather poor East, did not need it against the Cavaliers or Pacers. But he did use it as a trigger at the start of the fight for the title, the dynamite with which the Celtics changed the morphology of the courtthe distribution of spaces and styles of, at least, this first assault.

After watching from the bench the tempered initial contact (12-13 for the Mavs), Porzingis appeared on the court like a cyclone. In a flash, the Celtics had blown the game: 37-20 to end the first quarter, 11 points and 2 blocks for Porzingis. that midway through the second quarter (48-27) seemed to be everywhere at once. Changing all the Mavericks’ shots, his former team (Oh), and scoring difficult suspensions the few times his teammates did not take free triples. In those first minutes of Finals 2024, and while the lead reached 29 points without even seeing the break (58-29), Porzingis had more points (15) than Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving… combined (14). From then on, there were no more calculations to do.

An attempt without much force from the Mavs

And the fact is that these surprising Mavericks, in their first Finals since 2011, something like the traveler who should not be there (they have destroyed three teams with more than 50 victories to win the West without home court factor), were able to come back to the game and start some murmurs from a Garden that had spent the first part of the (deserved) party. That +29 that pointed to a historic beating was a +21 at halftime (63-42, third largest advantage ever in a first game of the Finals)… and a +8 (72-64) without reaching the halfway point of the third quarter. Luka Doncic’s best minutes coincided with one of those birds that the Celtics usually have, as happy amassing overwhelming advantages as they later make a few gifts… only to, many times, tear them out of the hands of their rival again: a 14-0 partial brought the temperature back to the Garden (86-64) and assured that the first point, without surprises, remained at home. The last quarter was a formality.

The Mavs have won a very tough West… but they still need furthera new level that we will see if they have, to win four times auWe Celtics have eight wins in a row (since they were 1-1 against the Cavs in the semifinals) and 77 on the season. Three more, and they will have completed a hunt that seemed endless, the mission labyrinthine ring 18. The tiebreaker with the Lakers and the updating of a legendary franchise that has only won one title since 1986… and it was sixteen years ago (2008). He plays with, let’s not forget, the best offense and the third-best defense this season. A machine for crushing rivals (64 wins in regular season) that, the data is thunderous, During this course he has had more advantages of 30 points than disadvantages of 10. Against that, the Mavericks need further. It’s that simple.

With the Porzingis factor stabilized (finished with 20 points, 6 rebounds and 3 blocks), the most constant presence was Jaylen Brown (22+6 and 3 steals)perfect in decision-making and capable of being a director or complement depending on the moment of the game, intense in defense and quick with his head in attack. Jayson Tatum, as so many times in such a well-balanced team, did not need to do anything heroic (16 points), and their 6 losses had no major significance because only one of the two finalists plays with a net. Boston Celtics are very favorites: they have more resources, they have a home court factor that they maintain for now and they have plenty of energy because their playoffs have been, until now, a sunny afternoon picnic.

The Mavs have time to react. They did it in the series against the Clippers and Thunder after debuts that were also complicated. But, it is worth insisting, now its rival is another thing. The Celtics took away their three-pointers from the corners and alley-oops with the pivots (nothing at all in those ways in the first half) and they prevented Doncic (with Brown as the first defender) from starting the secondaries (just one assist, an alarming fact). The Slovenian, who did not receive those double markings that he exploits so well (a luxury that only a defense like that of these Celtics can afford), He finished with 30 points, 10 rebounds, 4 turnovers and a frankly discreet 12/26 shooting. Started in low gearsvery well defended, and could not do anything in the final flood of the third quarter, that of the hack definitive of the greens. In the central section, at least, it was the main reason why the +29 became, fleetingly, +8. Otherwise, it wasn’t a great match by his (extraordinary) standards. Not even a very good one.

Nor did Kyrie Irving shine, who continues to have a hard time managing his toxic relationship with a Garden from which he emerged as a public Enemy in 2019, when he chose to go to the Nets: 12 points and 6/19 in shots with more losses than assists (3 by 2) are not numbers with which the Mavs will survive. Not against these Celtics who controlled the vertical game of Derek Lively (the center rookie who has been one of the characters of these playoffs) and They made the Mavs do what their defensive plan had foreseen: shots from the middle distance, possessions in the hands of the secondary players… Meanwhile, the usual local hammering from the triple (11/27 at half-time, 16/42 final), a choral production, a defense without weak points and a differential factor called Kristaps Porzingis became a bag of arguments that blew up the balance of this first match that puts the Finals in a scenario that a priori seemed logical and against which we only have to see how far the reaction can go, because there will be, by Luka Doncic and his Mavs. On Sunday, second round.

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