A CONFERENCE FINALS MIDWAY CHECK-IN
NBA / Basketball
Written by Eddie Huband
Source (Background Photo): Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Tied at two games apiece heading back down to South Beach, this series has already had some pretty drastic peaks and valleys for both teams.
The story of this one so far is that everyone is just trying to stay on the court right now, and you really never know who’s going to be out there from game to game at this point.
Boston essentially punted Game 1 after having to play a Game 7 against the Bucks just 48 hours prior by choosing to sit banged up starting point guard Marcus Smart and starting power forward Al Horford, and not surprisingly got smoked.
Game 2 was the Marcus Smart revenge performance, he came through with perhaps the best basketball game he’s ever played, helping Boston tie the series. Game 3 will forever be remembered as the “double-Willis Reed” game with both Smart and Jason Tatum making miraculous injury comebacks, only to lose to the Jimmy Butler-less Heat.
In Game 4, with Butler along with Kyle Lowry both banged up (both were game-time decisions but opted to play), Miami looked completely gassed, allowing Boston to tie things up even without Smart once again who was a late scratch.
So here we are, what’s been a wild Eastern Conference postseason is down to a best of 3. It’s looking like this series will come down to which team can simply just outlast the other health-wise.
It has been and will continue to be, so hard to predict because each team is being held together with duck tape right now and the on-court personnel is changing on a daily basis, but the keys remain the same for each team.
If Miami is going to win this series it’s going to be by hitting a lot of 3’s and limiting Jason Tatum and forcing everyone else to beat them. If Boston is going to win it’s going to be because of their suffocating defence and by not turning the ball over.
The C’s had 19 turnovers in the Game 3 loss compared to just 9 in game four.
This is a toss-up. Both sides are hanging on by a thread physically, and time will tell who has enough left in the tank to come out of what’s turned into one of the weirdest series in recent memory.
This series is kind of over before it ever got a chance to find its footing it seems, as the Warriors have stunned the Mavs thus far, taking a commanding 3-0 series lead. It’s now looking like an inevitability that they’ll be heading for a 6th NBA Finals in 8 years.
So what exactly went wrong for Dallas?
Well, like Boston, they fell victim to a brutal turnaround heading into Game 1 after beating Phoenix in Game 7 in round two, and it showed in a blowout loss. Game 2 was where they really let things slip away, giving up a 19-point lead to hand the game away in the fourth quarter.
Game 3 back in Dallas showed that the Warriors just have too much on offence for this Mavs team to contend with.
Stephen Curry has been unstoppable in the last two outings, averaging 31.5 points per game on 55 percent from deep. His, along with Jordan Poole and Klay Thompson’s ability to move the ball and relocate to the three-point line has given Dallas fits, and the three of them have so much quickness coming around screens and pin downs that it puts a lot of pressure on the defence.
Anything Andrew Wiggins gives them, which was 27 points and a monster poster in Game 3, is gravy. Kevon Looney is playing his rim-protecting/rebounding role to perfection right now, and Draymond Green continues to be a great defensive anchor.
Luka Doncic on the other side has been brilliant, but the Mavs are just a couple of guys short talent-wise in this matchup, and it hasn’t helped that Maxi Kleber has been downright awful.
It’s all falling into place for Golden State for a shot at another title. The two teams remaining in the East are both extremely formidable, but it has to come into question whether either will be healthy enough to take down the Warriors when they end up finishing Dallas off.
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