Party Like It's 1981

I decided to keep a game by game diary of the NBA Finals.  If you’re reading this, I am very happy because it means the Celtics won their 18th NBA Championship.  This definitely wasn’t going to end up on the blog if the Celtics lost.  I titled it “Party Like It’s 1981” for a few reasons.  It’s a reference to my blog post from the last time one of my favorite teams won the championship.  The weren’t playing the Lakers so I didn’t pick 2008 or 1984 or one of the seven other times that they’ve beaten the Lakers.  They were playing a team from Texas so I thought 1981 or 1986 would be more appropriate.  I went with 1981 because the Dodgers also won the World Series that year.  Of course, I’m hoping that happens again this year.  And lastly, 1981 was the first of three championships for the Larry Bird Celtics.  I hope the Tatum and Brown Celtics have more to come.  This paragraph was the only thing I edited for content after the fact.  Everything else was my reaction at the time.  Let’s get to it.

We already know how this blog post ends.

Game 1

Game 1 went very well.  Of course, the big question was Kristaps Porzingis.  He was awesome with 20 points in 20 minutes.  He also had six rebounds and three blocks.  He sparked a run when he came in about halfway through the first quarter and the Celtics led by 17 at the end of the quarter.  He had a block on Kyrie Irving late in the first quarter and it was at that point that I would have written “Series over” in my notebook if I had been taking notes in a notebook.  I was very confident going into this series and this game was exactly why.  The Celtics are just better than the Mavericks.  They had a bad stretch from the end of the second quarter into the third quarter and it looked like it might be a game.  And then the Celtics just reasserted their dominance.  The Celtics’ defense is awesome and they have too many good players.  Jayson Tatum only scored 16 points and the Celtics still won by 18.  The Mavericks are way too dependent on Luka Doncic.  He might have a crazy game and win one by himself at some point.  Maybe the Mavericks get one other game.  But I really think the Celtics are going to win this series.  Everybody was saying six or seven games and more ESPN.com experts picked the Mavericks.  My thought before the series was Celtics in five.  I’m feeling pretty good about that right now, but you don’t win a series in Game 1.  Game 2 is huge.  The Celtics are 1-2 in Game 2’s so far and the Mavericks are 3-0.  Losing a couple of Game 2’s hasn’t stopped the Celtics from winning the series quickly, but obviously they’d be in a much better position being up 2-0 instead of letting it get to 1-1.  One last note is that it was good to see Sam Hauser shoot the ball well.  He’s struggled recently, but he’s somebody that could swing a game with his three point shooting.  Game 1 was great.  Let’s do it three more times in the next three to four games.

Game 2

I didn’t like Game 2 as much as Game 1.  The Celtics won so that’s awesome, but it looks like Kristaps Porzingis got hurt again.  I would be surprised if he plays in Game 3, but hopefully he’s not done for the series.  The Celtics did not shoot the ball well in the first half.  They were better in the second half, but still ended up shooting only 25.6% on threes.  Their defense continues to be good.  Jrue Holiday was the best player for the Celtics with 26 points and 11 rebounds.  He had a big deflection which led to a steal and then he hit a three in the fourth quarter when the Celtics needed a basket.  Jayson Tatum had a bad shooting game, but he ended up with 18 points, 12 assists, and 9 rebounds.  I thought Derrick White was having a quiet game and then he ended up with 18 points (4/10 from three), 5 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 3 steals.  The Celtics had a 14 point lead in the fourth quarter and then the Mavericks went on a run.  White blocked a dunk that would have made it a one possession game then Jaylen Brown had a dunk to pretty much wrap it up.  Luka Doncic was really good in the first half, but the Celtics slowed him down enough in the second half.  Again, the Celtics just have too many good players.  But if they don’t have Porzingis anymore (I’m hoping he’s not done for the series, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he is), that certainly closes the gap a little bit.  It’s good to be up 2-0.  But they really haven’t done anything yet.  They won two games at home.  Jrue Holiday was on a team that lost the first two games on the road and then won the next four.  If the Mavericks win their two home games, then anything can happen.  But if the Celtics can get at least one in Dallas, they’ll be in great shape.  I’m totally in favor of winning both games in Dallas.

Game 3

The Boston Celtics are one win away from their 18th NBA Championship.  Today was the eighth grade dance that I had to go to.  I was counting the seconds until I was able to leave.  It’s not a bad eighth grade, but being with them instead of watching the Celtics in the NBA Finals is a nightmare.  Fortunately I was able to leave shortly after the game started.  I checked my phone as it was leaving and it was 9-2 Mavericks.  I listened on the radio on the way home.  The Mavericks had the lead up to 13.  That made me kind of optimistic.  As long as the Celtics didn’t let it get away from them, being down early was not a big deal.  The Celtics were going to go on a run and it would be demoralizing for the Mavericks.  Anyway, I got home and took a shower in time to watch the second half.  When I saw that the Celtics were down by one going into the second half, I was very confident that they would win.  Why?  Because the Celtics are better than the Mavericks.  But let’s back up.  Shortly after writing my Game 2 entry, I saw that Joe Mazzulla and Kristaps Porzingis had said that they weren’t concerned about his injury.  I didn’t believe them.  The news came out yesterday with whatever injury it was (not a common one) and he was listed as questionable.  It sounded like he was going to try to play.  But then when I was at the dance, I saw that he was out.  But still, the Celtics are better than the Mavericks.  Xavier Tillman got a chance to play with Porzingis out and he was good.  He played some good defense, made a big three, grabbed four rebounds, and was +9 in 11 minutes.  Give him some more time in Game 4 (I’m assuming Porzingis is done at this point).  Anyway, the third quarter was beautiful.  The Celtics were up 85-70 going into the fourth.  When it gets late in games, I like to start thinking about the number of points the Celtics need to get to where they’re definitely going to win.  The number I came up with was 110.  They never got there.  They had the lead up to 21 early in the fourth quarter and then they just couldn’t score anymore.  The Mavericks cut the lead to one, but they could never tie it or take the lead.  Luka Doncic ended up fouling out with a decent amount of time left.  Obviously he’s a great offensive player, but I was worried.  Why?  Because the Celtics already couldn’t score and I thought the Mavericks’ defense would be better without Doncic.  But the Celtics did enough after Doncic fouled out to win 106-99.  Jaylen Brown made a couple of huge shots and Derrick White hit a huge three and some free throws.  Jayson Tatum had 31 points, 5 assists and 6 rebounds.  Jaylen Brown had 30 points, 8 assists, and 8 rebounds (also +13).  Derrick White had 16 points, 4 assists, and 5 rebounds.  After Game 2, I would have picked Jrue Holiday as the MVP.  After three games, I would probably give it to Brown.  If the Celtics sweep, I probably will go to whoever has the best game in Game 4 out of Tatum, Brown, or Holiday.  Much like this game, the series isn’t over until it’s over.  The Celtics obviously should win.  But they still need to win one more game.  I really hope they sweep.  Winning Game 5 in Boston and winning the championship in front of the home fans would be fun, but don’t give the Mavericks any hope.  Bury them now.  Also, I love the idea of winning the championship on a Friday and then I can enjoy some NBA Championship Sam Adams beers and not have to go to work the next day.  But you don’t get anything for winning three games.  They have one more to go.  Let’s Go Celtics!

Game 4

I did not like Game 4.  I did not get to celebrate a championship on a Friday night.  The Celtics played terribly and got blown out.  Whatever.  It’s not worth spending time writing about it.  It will be more fun for the fans to win at home.  Hopefully they’ll get it done in Game 5.  Because if not, then they have to go back to Dallas and the Mavericks will have some hope.  But I think they’ll get it done on Monday night.

Game 5

I have few rules in life, but one of them is this:  any time the Celtics are playing to win their 18th NBA Championship on the 16th anniversary of their 17th NBA Championship, I have to keep a running diary.  Here’s what transpired.

8:38- The Celtics are wearing green for the first time in the NBA Finals.  It’s Game 5.  It’s stupid that it took so long for them to wear green and also stupid that they’re wearing green at home.  Nike is the worst.  In related news, the Dodgers unveiled their City Connect uniforms today.

8:39- Jrue Holiday scores the first basket of the game to give the Celtics a 2-0 lead.  Luka Doncic misses a three and then commits a foul.

8:41- Kyrie Irving misses a three.

8:42- The offense has been bad for both teams so far, but Jrue Holiday gives the Celtics a 4-0 lead.

8:43- The Mavericks get their first basket on an alley oop.  On the next possession for the Mavericks, Kyrie Irving turns it over and that leads to another basket for Jrue Holiday.

8:45- Big Al hits the first three of the game to give the Celtics a 9-2 lead.  The Mavericks call timeout.  The Celtics haven’t been very good on offense so far, but their defense has been good and the Mavericks’ offense has been worse than the Celtics’.

8:50- Luka Doncic gets a three point play after the timeout.

8:51- Kristaps Porzingis is into the game with Derrick White at the foul line.

8:53- The Mavericks are going at Porzingis defensively.  It’s now 13-11 Celtics.

8:54- Derrick White hits a three off a jump ball.

8:55- The Celtics call timeout with a 16-13 lead.  I don’t know if they can keep Porzingis out there defensively.

9:00- Porzingis has his first point after splitting a pair of free throws.

9:03- Sam Hauser hits a three on an assist by Jrue Holiday.  Then Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum get back to back layups off of turnovers.  The Celtics lead by 10.

9:04- Tatum misses a three to end the quarter, but the Celtics lead 28-18.  That was an excellent finish to the quarter.  Jrue Holiday was the best player for the Celtics in the first quarter.  He has an outside shot at Finals MVP.  I don’t care who it is as long as the Celtics win.  For all I care, give it to Luka Doncic in honor of Jerry West (1969 Finals MVP even though the Celtics won the series)  if the Celtics win tonight.

9:09- Sam Hauser hits his second three.  The Celtics lead by 11.

9:11- Porzingis had his best defensive possession of the game, giving Luka Doncic a hard time.  Doncic missed and the Celtics got the rebound.

9:12- Porzingis gets the ball in the post and scores on Kyrie Irving.

9:14- Jrue Holiday answers a Kyrie Irving three with one of his own.  The Celtics lead by 14.

9:17- Jayson Tatum gets a three point play and the Celtics lead 46-31.  This is good, but a 15 point lead in the first half in today’s NBA is nothing.  The Celtics need to pour it on.

9:25- The Celtics went with a small lineup (no Horford or Porzingis) and it didn’t work.  The Celtics call timeout leading by nine.

9:33- After Holiday scores on a nice assist by Tatum, Jaylen Brown gets a layup to get the lead back to 15.

9:34- Derrick White helped create a turnover, but he was bloodied after having his face smashed into the floor in the process.

9:35- Tatum assists a Jaylen Brown three.  He has nine assists.  I hope he ends up with like 16 assists or something ridiculous like how Rajon Rondo had six steals in Game 6 against the Lakers in 2008.

9:38- Jayson Tatum gives the Celtics a 20 point lead with a three, but Luka Doncic scores and gets fouled on the other end.

9:39- Doncic can’t complete the three point play and Payton Pritchard hits a half court three to end the half!  That’s what he does!  I was not surprised at all to see that go in.  Game over.

This shot passed Xavier Tillman’s three in Game 3 as my favorite shot of the Finals.

9:41- Okay, it’s not game over.  The Mavericks are definitely capable of making a run.  But that was a great second quarter.  Play a good third quarter and then it should be over.  Jayson Tatum was the best player for the Celtics in the second quarter.

9:59- We’re back for the second half.  Derrick White makes a three to make it a 24 point lead.  Keep pouring it on.

10:00- And Big Al hits a three.  The Celtics lead 75-50.

10:01- Kyrie Irving misses a shot, but he fell so they call a foul on Jrue Holiday.  Did the NBA tag in Scott Foster for the second half?

10:03- Big Al had two free throws.  He made the first and missed the second, but Derrick White got the offensive rebound and Jrue Holiday gets a layup.  The Mavericks call timeout down by 26.

10:06- We get highlights of Game 6 in 2008.  I want Gatorade dumped on Joe Mazzulla tonight.

10:10- The Celtics have gone cold and the Mavericks have cut the lead to 19.

1014- The Celtics call timeout with an 18 point lead.  The Celtics’ offense hasn’t been very good in this quarter.  They closed the first two quarters very well.  Hopefully they can do that again in this quarter.

10:19- The Celtics are getting a bunch of offensive rebounds, but they’re not doing a good enough job of taking advantage of those second chance opportunities.

10:22- Hauser and Brown make back to back jumpers to get the lead back to 21.

10:24- The Celtics lead 86-67 after three.  They didn’t play a very good quarter, but the Mavericks could only narrow the gap by two points from halftime.  I’m going to set the number to win for the Celtics at 115.  It probably shouldn’t take that many points, but if they get to 115 in the fourth quarter, they’re winning.  (As it turns out, I was being extremely over cautious saying 115.  I should have said 107 because that would have meant that that the Mavericks needed to score more than 40 in the fourth quarter to win.  The real number that the Celtics needed to win was 89 and they already had 86 points.)

10:28- Derrick White blocks a Dereck Lively dunk attempt.  Derrick White has been so much fun to watch this year.

10:31- We’re two minutes into the fourth quarter and nobody has scored.  I mean, if we go the whole quarter without anybody scoring, the Celtics are NBA Champions.

10:33- We’re almost three minutes into the quarter and Porzingis has the first basket for either team on a dunk after a nice pass from Jaylen Brown.

10:36- Ray Allen is in the building.  He hit seven threes in Game 6 against the Lakers in 2008.

10:37- Derrick White hits a three with the shot clock running down.  The Celtics lead by 21.

10:38- After Doncic scores, Jayson Tatum gets a three point play to make it a 22 point lead.

10:40- Kristaps Porzingis is coming out.  He’s probably done for the night.  He gave the Celtics everything he could in the Finals.

10:42- The Celtics lead by 20 with 5:48 to play.  I want the Mavericks to wave the white flag.  We’re not quite there yet.

10:43- Tatum scores, White gets a steal, and Tatum scores again.  The Celtics lead by 24 with 4:39 to play.  The Mavericks call timeout.  It’s white flag time.

10:47- We’re back from the timeout and Mavericks still haven’t taken out Doncic.  He slips and turns the ball over.  Jayson Tatum is going to the line for two.

10:48- Tatum makes both and the Celtics have matched their largest lead.  I’m drinking a Summer Ale right now by the way.  I think I’ve had a beer during every Celtics playoff game this year until Game 4 of the Finals.  I wanted to save the beer to celebrate the Celtics winning the championship.  I had the same plan tonight and I was hoping I could start drinking in the fourth quarter to celebrate the championship and here I am.

10:53- The Celtics are challenging an out of bounds call up by 21 points with 2:37 to play.  As long as the Mavericks are playing their starters, there’s no reason not to challenge this.

10:54- The Celtics win the challenge.  And now the Mavericks are waving the white flag.  Kyrie Irving played a bad game and he is out.  Luka Doncic is out.  I want Luke Kornet in the game.

10:55- And he’s getting set to check in.

10:56- Luke Kornet is in for Big Al.  Big Al is going to be an NBA Champion.  He will not catch Karl Malone for most playoff games without a championship.  Karl Malone should forever be number 1 on that list.

10:57- Hauser and Pritchard are in for Tatum and Brown.

10:58- Holiday and White are out of the game.

11:00- Final score:  Celtics 106, Mavericks 88.  The Celtics have their 18th NBA Championship.  This is their fourth championship of my lifetime, but only the second that I can remember.  In 2008 they won it against the Lakers.  Of course, that’s the best possible way to win a championship.  If you can’t beat the Lakers to win a championship because they lost in the first round (but congratulations on winning the Tournament of Meaninglessness), the next best way to win a championship is to beat Kyrie Irving.

11:14- Jaylen Brown is the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP.  It’s pretty crazy that Jayson Tatum led the Celtics in playoff points, rebounds, and assists, but he didn’t win the Larry Bird Eastern Conference Finals MVP or the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP.

This was fun.  Let’s do it again next year.

Random thoughts after the Celtics won the championship:  Basketball Reference has Hall of Fame probabilities.  I assume these numbers will be updated, but they had Tatum at 17.7%, Horford at 12.23%, Holiday at 0.75%, and Brown at 0.32%.  I assume those numbers will be updated now that they won the championship, but those numbers were pretty ridiculous.  It’s the Basketball Hall of Fame, so many players make it.  Tatum and Brown were pretty much locks assuming they play at least five more years.  Horford is now a lock.  I don’t know about Holiday, but I wouldn’t be shocked if he got in.

People really thought the Mavericks were going to win this series.  Why?  More than half of the ESPN experts picked the Mavericks.  All the ESPN experts who picked the Celtics said six or seven games.  Before Game 1, I sent John a tweet from Keith Smith (not of ESPN) predicting the Celtics to win in five and laying out the case for it.  I said that was how I was feeling.  The Celtics were so much better.  Let’s assume that the top two players on the two teams were even (hold on, I’ll come back to that one).  The Celtics were much deeper than the Mavericks.  The Celtics had Holiday, White, Porzingis, and Horford.  The Mavericks can’t match up with that.  As for the two best players on each team, Tatum and Brown were both clearly better than Kyrie Irving.  And I’ve thought for a long time that Luka Doncic is overrated.  I’ll agree that he was the most talented offensive player in the NBA Finals.  But what about the other half of the game?  He’s nowhere close to Tatum or Brown as a defensive player.  Brian Windhorst was completely right about Doncic after Game 3.  Doncic played one good defensive game.  Congratulations.  There’s no shame in losing a short series to a better team.  LeBron James got swept by the Spurs in 2007.  But LeBron James was always in great shape.  Luka Doncic is in terrible shape and he has been for his whole career.  If you want to be a championship caliber player, get in shape and play some defense.

Back to good and bad predictions.  My favorite NBA podcaster Zach Lowe was right about the Celtics all along.  He predicted them to win the championship before the season, he predicted them to win the championship going into the playoffs, and he predicted them to beat the Mavericks (he said six games, but he deserves a pass on that one).  On the other hand, Bill Simmons predicted the Lakers to beat the Celtics in the Finals before the season because he was scared of Austin Reeves or something.  The Lakers weren’t good last year and then they had a decent run in the playoffs.  What reason was there to think they would be any better this year?

Losing to the Lakers in 2010 was miserable.  I think it would have been even more miserable to lose to Kyrie Irving.  I can at least respect the Lakers.  Kyrie Irving was my least favorite Celtic guy who played for the Celtics of all time (as noted in this post, he doesn’t deserve to be called a Celtic).  I heard some people talking about what might have happened if Gordon Hayward hadn’t gotten hurt in his first game with the Celtics.  I’ll tell you what would have happened:  Kyrie Irving would have messed everything up.  He played two seasons with the Celtics.  He got hurt in his first season and the team made a really good run in the playoffs without him.  And then he made his second season the most miserable season I can remember as a Celtics fan.  They’ve had teams that were worse, but those teams weren’t talented.  He took a talented team and made them completely miserable.  At that point, I was losing a lot of interest in the NBA.  The NBA was being run by these superstars who were disgruntled and doing whatever they could to assemble super teams (Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, etc.).  But the last four champions have been built the right way.  The Bucks, the Warriors without Kevin Durant (it wasn’t fun losing to them, but I could respect them), the Nuggets, and now the Celtics were built without all these dislikable superstars who forced their way onto teams.  Besides being the most dislikable guy who played for the Celtics ever, Kyrie Irving has just been a generally bad person for several years. Somehow, everybody except for Celtic fans seemed to forget this.  Nets fans probably remember also.  If Hamas was watching the NBA Finals, I’m sure they were rooting for Kyrie Irving since he’s cool with anti-semitism.  If Luka Doncic ever wins a championship, I sure hope it’s without Kyrie Irving.

Where does this Celtics team rank among Celtics teams?  It’s very hard to say.  I’m not going to try to compare them to the 11 Bill Russell Championship teams or the two championship teams from the 70s.  Of the Larry Bird championship teams, the 1985-1986 team was definitely the best.  And I think that has to be the best Celtics team of my lifetime (perhaps the best Celtic team ever, but I hesitate to put a team without Russell ahead of a team with Russell).  It’s hard to compare the last two championship teams.  They were similarly dominant in the regular season.  The 2007-2008 team won two more regular season games.  But that team also lost eight playoff games.  In fairness, the 2007-2008 Celtics had a much tougher road to the championship than this year’s team.  They never should have gone seven games against the Hawks, but that team had good players (including rookie Al Horford).  Then they had to play LeBron James, the Pistons (who haven’t won a playoff game since that 2008 series against the Celtics, but they had an excellent run in that decade), and the Lakers.  This year’s team played four teams that were probably worse than the Cavaliers, Pistons, or Lakers in 2008 and the Heat without Jimmy Butler were probably worse than the Hawks in 2008.  But you can’t blame this year’s team for being so much better than everybody else in the NBA.  So anyway, I don’t really have a good answer to the question of where this year’s team ranks.

Where do Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown rank in Celtics’ history?  I can give a better answer on that one.  Right now I have Paul Pierce as the fifth best Celtic of all time (behind Russell, Bird, Havlicek, and Cousy).  Tatum should pass him.  He hasn’t yet, but only because of how young he is (Pierce played 15 seasons with the Celtics, Tatum has played seven).  If he wins multiple championships, then we can start talking about how he compares to Cousy, Havlicek, and Bird.  But he should pass Pierce.  I think Jaylen Brown has a chance to pass Pierce.  If he won another championship, he’s probably going to end up ahead of Pierce.  They’re both young so I’m hoping for more championships to come.  But we’ve seen how hard it is.

Brad Stevens did a tremendous job of building this team.  Obviously it all goes back to Danny Ainge trading Pierce and Garnett (which I acknowledged on the blog was the right move at the time).  After trading Pierce and Garnett, Ainge used the picks to draft Brown and Tatum (in both cases, the 76ers and Lakers could have drafted them and that makes it even better).  There were people who didn’t like the Porzingis trade.  To me, that was like the Pierce/Garnett trade.  It was obviously the right call.  I wish Marcus Smart could have been a part of this.  But they traded Marcus Smart for Porzingis and got draft picks also.  People were talking about how they were going to miss Marcus Smart.  I love Marcus Smart, but there was not one single moment this season when the Celtics missed him.  Then Brad Stevens traded for Jrue Holiday.  I was a little skeptical of that trade because I thought the Celtics were at their best over the last couple of years when Robert Williams was healthy.  I quickly realized the problem with that thinking:  Robert Williams is never healthy.  Porzingis has trouble staying healthy and Robert Williams is much worse.  Holiday was the perfect replacement for Marcus Smart (he’s Marcus Smart, but a good amount better).  And you can go back to the trades to get Al Horford and Derrick White.  I think there were people who didn’t like the Al Horford trade, but I remember looking at his stats and he was still putting up good per 36 numbers.  And of course, Kemba Walker was done (Kemba Walker and Isaiah Thomas are two other guys who I wish could have experienced this, they’re both a million times more likable than Kyrie Irving).  I liked Brad Stevens as a coach, but he’s been much better as an executive.

The Celtics played 101 games this year.  I tried to figure out how many I didn’t watch because of conflicts with college football or they were weeknight games on out West.  I came up with six that I’m fairly confident that I didn’t watch, but there might have been a few more. My father probably missed even fewer than I did. It was a lot of fun to experience this from start to finish.  

The Celtics are the favorites to win the championship next year.  Tatum and Brown definitely have the potential to win multiple championships, but it won’t be easy.  The motivation won’t be the same.  Horford will be a year older and there are always concerns with Porzingis with his health.  So I would love it if they could find another big man to help.  But for now, none of that matters.  The Celtics are NBA Champions for the 18th time.