Kyrie Irving returning to Boston. Luka Doncic’s first trip to the title round. Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum getting another chance at a ring. Kristaps Porzingis facing his former team, too.
Pick a storyline. There are many in these NBA Finals.
The matchup is set: It will be the Boston Celtics against the Dallas Mavericks for the Larry O’Brien Trophy, but the best-of-seven series won’t start until next Thursday, June 6. The wait of nearly a week is a byproduct of the Celtics and Mavericks making short work of their respective conference finals.
Dallas eliminated the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday night, winning 124-103 to finish off a 4-1 victory in the Western Conference title series. Boston’s spot was clinched Monday night when the Celtics beat the Indiana Pacers 108-105 to complete a sweep in the Eastern Conference matchup.
The Celtics finished the regular season with the best record in the NBA, giving them home-court advantage through the playoffs, so the first two games of the title series will be on their home court. They haven’t wasted it, going 12-2 through the first three rounds, dropping one game apiece to the eighth-seeded Miami Heat and the fourth-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Mavericks, just the No. 5 seed in their conference, took down the fourth-seeded Los Angeles Clippers in the first round, 4-2, and then knocked out the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder by the same count. They built a 3-0 series lead against the third-seeded Timberwolves, who avoided elimination with a Game 4 win Tuesday night but couldn’t extend the fight Thursday as Dallas won 124-103 in Minneapolis.
“We’re going to the NBA Finals,” Doncic said during the on-court celebration. “Just can’t believe it, man.”
It’s Boston’s second time making its this far in a three-season stretch, with the Celtics falling to the Golden State Warriors in six games in 2022. Boston’s 17 NBA titles are tied for the record with the Los Angeles Lakers, who won their most recent championship in 2020. The Celtics have lost reached the NBA Finals twice since winning their most recent crown in 2008, also getting to the title series in 2010.
Dallas is in the title round for the first time since winning the championship against the Miami Heat in 2011. The only other NBA Finals for the Mavericks was in 2006, when the Heat won.
Much will be made, and rightly so, of Irving and the Celtics meeting with a title on the line. Boston made a blockbuster move in 2017 by trading for Irving, with the hopes of seeing the veteran guard grace its parquet floor in the NBA Finals.
Hey, it will happen now. Just not as Irving and the Celtics envisioned seven years ago.
Irving was an All-Star in both of his Boston seasons, then left as a free agent to join the Brooklyn Nets in 2019 a few months after saying — vowing, really — that he would be staying with the Celtics. There have been some interesting moments in his returns to Boston since then: He has been routinely booed and had a water bottle thrown at him, been fined for making an obscene gesture and raised ire by stomping on the Celtics’ leprechaun logo at midcourt after a Brooklyn playoff win there.
“Boston’s in the way and in between our goal,” Irving said after Dallas won Thursday night.
Irving’s message to the Mavericks: Enjoy this moment.
“Nothing’s guaranteed in this league, especially making it to the (NBA Finals) every year,” said Irving, who won a title playing alongside LeBron James with the Cavaliers in 2016. “We couldn’t have done it without a collective responsibility, us working together every single day, practicing hard, doing the little things. We should reward ourselves by playing hard.”
Porzingis spent nearly three years in Dallas after being traded there by the New York Knicks in 2019. He’s in his first season in Boston and has been a huge part of the Celtics’ success — but got hurt in the first round against Miami and hasn’t played since, though it seems reasonable to think he may be ready for the NBA Finals.
“He’s progressing well and he’s working really hard to get back,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said.
The Celtics won the two head-to-head meetings against the Mavericks in the regular season, 119-110 in Dallas on Jan. 22 and then 138-110 in Boston on March 1.
The Mavericks didn’t have an answer for Tatum; he had 39 points in the January game, 32 in the March matchup. The Celtics didn’t have an answer for Doncic; he had triple-doubles in both games: 33 points, 18 rebounds and 13 assists in January, then 37 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists in March.
Those games won’t mean much now.
“This group believes,” said Mavericks coach Jason Kidd, who played for the Dallas team that won the 2011 title. “They believe in each other. … This is a special group.”
When the Celtics faced Golden State for the title two years ago, the Warriors’ championship experience prevailed. Lessons were learned then, the Celtics have insisted, and now they will get a chance to finish differently this time.
“It’s a new challenge. It’s a different situation,” Celtics center Al Horford said. “I’m just excited to be in this position and to have this opportunity.”
The Celtics will have spent more than a week without a game when they tip off against the Mavericks. Mazzulla said all that time won’t be spent idly.
“Nothing’s really valuable if you let it go to waste,” the Boston coach said. “Between now and June 6th, we have to take every experience that we’ve been through, and we’ve got to make sure we take advantage of it and that we utilize it to put ourselves in the best position to win.”