Kristaps Porzingis and the Boston Celtics just absolutely cooked the Dallas Mavericks in game one of the 2024 NBA Finals. Despite a 30-point game by Luca Doncic, Boston was just too much to handle for this Western Conference team. The Celtics came out swinging as they busted open a 29-point lead in the first half and would go on to win by a final score of 107-89. Is this their year?
As reported by Yahoo Sports, this is the first time the Dallas Mavericks have been in the NBA Finals since Dirk Nowitzki took down LeBron James’ Miami Heat back in 2011. Dallas had been fantastic on the road in these playoffs, winning five straight games until they ran into a brick wall at TD Garden.
Kristaps Porzingis Returns to Torch the Mavs
Kristaps Porzingis had missed the last 10 games for the Boston Celtics with a calf injury. However, in his return, he torched the Mavericks, scoring a huge 20 points as well as grabbing 6 rebounds.
Dallas didn’t go down without a fight, though, as Luca Doncic and Kyrie Irving willed their team back to within eight points in the third quarter. Although, that was as close as Dallas would get as Boston answered back with a run of their own right away.
Unfortunately, Kyrie Irving had a very rough night, as he only scored 12 points in 36 minutes. Irving is now 1-11 in his last 12 games against the Boston Celtics. Irving then tried to play it off after the game by saying he “thought it would be louder” in the stadium. There is obviously still some bad blood between Boston fans and Kyrie.
Although the Boston Celtics took game one, the Mavs are still very much in this series. Nobody should expect another off night like this from Kyrie Irving. However, Dallas will need to figure out how to handle Kristaps Porzingis, or they could be in some real trouble.