Can the Dallas Mavericks UPSET the Boston Celtics in the NBA Championship? 🤔 | NBA Today

Can the Dallas Mavericks UPSET the Boston Celtics in the NBA Championship? 🤔 | NBA Today

it is The Final Countdown we are less than 6 hours away from tip off of game one of the NBA Finals between the Mavs and the Celtics right here in TD Garden welcome to countdown to the finals presented by ESPN bet he is our senior NBA Insider Adrien Wen rasy she’s the one and only cha gum the champion of the bald Community Richard Jefferson is here with us and the champion with the Boston Celtics Kendrick Perkins guys this is it I know you know exactly perk what it is like to be lacing them up in this building on this stage help us set the lay the groundwork here what is this like for these players I mean you’re nervous until the jump ball but at the end of the day it’s time to get your feet hot it’s time to get your feet hot but this is the time that you lean on the others in the locker room because everybody have the same emotions everybody are going through the same situations whether that’s buying buying tickets for the family members whatever the case may be but today is the day that you set your mind you go through your regular routine and you try to embrace the moment at the same time we’ve been talking about this for days right waiting for game one of the NBA Finals now that it’s finally here Rich what are you most looking forward to the game I forward to the game it’s like look I understand this and I’ve been on both sides I’ve been here in the media side and I’ve been the player we’ve been sitting down breaking down everything look at the plays and how they’re going to go and what are the matchups and this person’s heal and who should guard man we don’t know anything up here we don’t know anything that’s going to happen on that Court until it happens and then we dissect it that’s the part that I’m most excited about speak for yourself Richard Jefferson I’m excited for this game and I am excited for this match up because we’ve got two of the greatest if you talk about Duos in the NBA two of the greatest Duos that have isolation games in their bag and also teams that are looking to make legacies based off of how they close we know Kyrie’s been there done that Luca has been the most phenomenal player overall but then you look at the Celtics we’re here for a reason they earned home court to have every benefit go towards them winning a championship yeah and a lot of championship series playoff series the team with the best player often wins yeah Boston I think clearly has the deepest most talented team I think Dallas has the best player in LCA donic and maybe outside of nicolea yic the player in the league who can really control the last five six minutes of a game and that separates him from almost everybody it’ll be fun to see how that plays out in the series this is the stage where stars are made and for two years Jason Tatum has been stewing on falling short in 2022 he has been thinking about how he could have left more out there he’s coming off averaging 310 and six in the Conference Finals and still he wasn’t the Conference Finals MVP I am looking forward to seeing what he brings in his home building knowing that he has been waiting to sort of exercise these demons for years and years I’m really looking forward to seeing that and game one it is important the winner of game one can be indicative of who ends up winning the rest of the series if director Kathy we can pull up this full screen here just to show everybody because they go on to win more often than not the Celtics they have been stuck right on Banner number 16 for Banner number 17 rather for 16 years and so their quest for 18 it continues tonight you were on the floor but their quest for Banner number uh number 18 it continues tonight it would break a tie with the Los Angeles Lakers of course Celtics they’ve been favored to win the championship every every single day since the season began as they looked to go wire to wire as title favorites by contrast the Mavericks they were never a top five title favorite during the regular season the Mavs they are plus 180 underdogs to win the series so if they do so they would tie the 2016 Cavs hey Richard for the third largest finals upset in the last 40 Seasons trailing only the 2004 pistons and the 29 Raptors and the Celtics they were underdogs in just a total of three games all season long that is tied for the fish by a team to reach the finals this Century the Mavs they were underdogs by contrast 42 times so as Zack attack Zack low joins us in person do you think that the Celtics they deserve to be this big of a favorite over the Boston Celtics yeah they do 64 games number one offense number two defense and they’re not huge favorites like people are giving the maps a chance plenty of people are picking the Mavs MAV and Celtics and six Celtics and seven those are compliments to the Mavs this has been the most dominant a team from start to finish they have home court advantage they don’t play as well at home as they need to maybe that changes now but yeah why not they deserve to be favorites someone say something my God I mean yes look they have the better team especially on paper they have the best starting five in basketball with christop Pingas in the lineup think about it they have five Allstar caliber players they have homec court advantage I believe they have the most experience right Al Horford he’s been to the NBA finals Jason Tatum and jayen brown NBA Finals Drew holiday won the NBA Championship they have the most experience they should be the favorite but I will say this oo the game is one between the lines and just because you have the the Personnel on paper yeah does you still have to perform and be ready to get those feet high and I thought what WRA said was interesting the the best player on the floor may be on the Dallas maybe’s no maybe and often times you look at okay who’s the best player on the floor and you give that the that team the number that that’s different I I I think in certain series you do that when you get to the NBA finals you’re talk the NBA is not won by having the best player it’s by having the best team but often times when you have the best player that’s a very good starting block right that’s a good starting block so whenever you go into a series you look at this one you say yes they might have the best player in the series but you know maybe it’s Kyrie but two through six is on Boston so like it’s it’s not as you know LeBron James in my opinion in 18 might have been the best player in the series but the Golden State Warriors had an absolute whip with them so there was nothing that he could do so it’s not it’s not always like a perfect translation yeah I mean Jason Tatum is probably not the best player in the series because we all understand that it is Luca donic but the reality is that’s not how this team was technically designed they were designed to be a collection of stars that could get them to this point where we’re literally watching them finish the regular season in 10 game 12 games up and also have homec court in the NBA Finals that’s how they were designed they were also designed to withstand maybe some off games that’s why we saw Jaylen Brown win Eastern Conference Most Valuable Player should they be the favorites Absol freaking lutely yes do you all know where the MS were pink tell them pinky wow bra brain bra thank you pinky is preaching why because the MBS they had 25 to1 odds to make it to the NBA finals when this started things changed at the trade deadline and then they became one of the best teams in basketball but consistently as you mentioned Malika over the course of the regular season and the postseason it’s been the Boston Celtics and now we’re getting the the scoring champ in the regular season versus the best team in the NBA something we haven’t gotten since 98 when MJ played uh producer cis’s Utah Jazz but but betters are feeling a little bit conflicted too A lot of people are picking the series in six picking it in seven but but look at this odds makers see Boston is the favorite the public going the other way ESPN bet reported 89% of bets on the series are are on Dallas to win so clearly there are plenty of people the MS are rolling with how can they pull off this upset Zach well they have the best player and we know Luca donic is going to break every defense you throw at him it’s just a matter of time you drop back he’s going to break it you Blitz he’s going to break it you play in between he’s going to break it he will break the Celtics defense the Celtics have to switch it up tons of different times and that’s the only way to sort of contain him so that’s step one have the best guy and if he breaks the Celtics defense and they don’t have an answer the Mavs can win perk is going to make his big list I got my big list but it’s perk’s big list of players 1 2 3 4 five if we get to the end of the series and Kyrie is two and Luca is one or if it’s like a tie for two the Mavericks are winning the championship oh yeah yeah yeah I agree with you 100% but that’s why Kyrie [Music] game we start we got hours we got hours no game is W in the first quarter okay so we got hours to do up here no I look when you talk about how can the Mavericks pull this off we know that the Celtics they’re good to give away a game we know that they’re good to give away a game a game that they shouldn’t they do it all the time right we know that they’re not great at home they’re not great at home the Celtics aren’t so be careful Richard I heard the people looking at us now I don’t care oh look I’ve beat them three times in the postseason they’re already been saying if they hate me now they going hate me later who cares my point is this you know the Celtics give away game right they have over the course of the postseason it’s like they lose a game that they shouldn’t and you just kind of feel a certain way and then we overreact to it and then they respond and answer but then they also don’t play well at home so if you look at that they’re not they’re a great team there are an engine but there are holes in that engine and the Dallas Mavericks play great play great basketball for I’d say five games they need five games of great basketball because you can play great and still lose think about it d the the Boston Celtics they love to spread you out okay Al Horford Christoper zingas they’re they’re going to be on the wing how can you cover them and protect the Interior right this is a huge adjustment for him he’s not going to be able to be sitting you know 2 N and then doing those things the way that the Celtics play what no you know what’s interesting perk you say something that is insightful and I think about it I’m like oh he’s been the best big in the postseason and then I started like doing the math there’s been homeg grin there’s been Rudy there has been C there’s been no porzingis and Lively was 16 for 16 in the Conference Finals when he went down they lost he is there energy booster than the energy booster so when you I think a lot of times people hear these things like what is Park talking about I agree but I went down the list in my head in real time and you are right his impact in able to finish Dallas has the most lobs layups dunks again I said 16 for 16 he is the energy provider so you’re right he has been the most active he may not be the biggest name the biggest star but he is a star in his role and that’s why they’re in the he has he has an old soul don’t find you don’t find rookies that the best thing that happened you remember the game I forgot it was during the Minnesota series he was miked up and you could hear him anchoring the defense because the first the first thing of of of actually having a great defensive team is having a defensive Center that’s going to communicate even when he’s not involved in the action and being excited for your teammates because everyone talks about uh Luca getting Rudy on an island but did you see Lively turned around so excited for his teammate and catching up with him yesterday he he understands that he’s coming into this he told me with a a learning mindset a learning mentality he knows he hasn’t been quite on this stage before but he’s ready to sort of soak up that Knowledge from his teammates because he wants to be that for his guys because what did you say he’s the third he could be the third best player on the Dallas he’s often the third best player the but this whole segment was a compliment to the Celtics because we how are the how are the Mavericks going to win we TI Kyrie’s got to play well luc’s got to play well role players got to play well they got to contain the rim contain the three that’s the enemy they’re up against you got to be perfect and and that’s it Dallas has to be exceptional Boston just has to be very very good [Music]

Richard Jefferson, Kendrick Perkins, Chiney Ogwumike and Zach Lowe join Malika Andrews on NBA Today to discuss if the Dallas Mavericks can upset the Boston Celtics in the 2024 NBA Finals.

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