The Celtics' reality beats the theories

Whatever you think you thought about Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown and stardom in the NBA is running up against a little thing called the Larry O'Brien Trophy.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

---

Gypsy With a Cigarette; Edouard Manet; 1860-62

The Boston Celtics are up 3-0 in the NBA Finals, possibly 48 hours away from their first championship since 2008 and an 80-20 record for the season.

Results always matter more than theory, and yet so much of the NBA discourse focuses on theoretical reasons this or that can or cannot happen. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown couldn’t be the best two players on a championship team except … they are, and they would have been two years ago without an exceptional run in the Finals by Steph Curry. Brown is leaning hard on the “haters fuel my hard work” trope right now … and he’s the rare pro athlete for whom that line of motivation is completely valid. He got stoned by critics for his ball-handling trouble in the 2022 Finals (despite him playing quite well overall) and took tremendous heat for signing the biggest extension in NBA history last summer (a contract that will be trumped this summer, which will then be trumped next summer — this is a math problem, not a value judgment).

Tatum too has room to crow, even though he didn’t have his first great offensive performance of the Finals until Wednesday’s Game 3. He’s been dismissed as lacking the clutch gene because of the Celtics’ occasional late-game struggles (despite having some all-time high-pressure successes already on his resumé). There’s been a constant drone of discourse around Tatum and by extension the Celtics rarely having the best player in a series barring fortuitous match-ups or opponent injuries because Tatum isn’t a top-5 star yet (or ever). All the talk during that long break after the conference finals was about the Mavericks having possibly the two best players in the series. As I wrote last week, that was some real disrespect to Brown and incredible disrespect to Tatum, a 26-year-old with four All-NBA honors to his name, including the first team in each of the three most recent seasons.

I’m a true blue Luka Doncic believer. I thought he could be a generational superstar coming into the NBA, and I still think that’s possible with some caveats about parts of his game that need improvement. He’s having the best statistical performance of any player in these Finals (30-9-6). And yet: the Mavericks are trying to hunt Tatum and turning out an offensive rating of 104 for the series. The Celtics are mercilessly hunting Doncic and turning out an offensive rating of 116. Luka isn’t the problem here, but he has some problems (defense) that the Mavericks’ other problems (offensive depth) are making hard to survive.

The other way to look at this series is that the Mavericks do have the best individual player, but great teams trump stars. The Celtics’ defense has continued to mostly deal with Doncic and Irving in single coverage, shutting off their ability to get lobs and corner threes for their more limited teammates. That turns Luka and Kyrie into pure scorers, and they can do that. Doncic looked unstoppable again early in this game before the worm turned; for the game, he shot 9/18 in the lane and 2/9 outside of it. Irving had his best game of the Finals by far despite shooting poorly in the lane. Also, his best included Al Horford shutting him down in single coverage on the perimeter with the game on the line.

Great teams trump stars, and the Celtics have a spectacular team, even without Kristaps Porzingis. The Mavericks largely limited Tatum’s scoring in the first two games … and lost both, because Boston has top-line depth that Dallas can’t come close to matching. You shut down Luka or Kyrie at this level of competition and you probably win. You shut down Tatum or Brown at this level of competition and you still have to deal with Jrue Holiday, Derrick White and, before Game 3, Porzingis. And in Game 3, the Mavericks shut down neither Tatum (31-6-5) or Brown (30-8-8).

Results always matter more than theory. Tatum and Brown are one of the winningest duos in the NBA over the past half-decade. Claims they couldn’t co-exist long-term, that they couldn’t win together, that they weren’t good enough or didn’t like each other or whatever — results always matter more than theory. It’s not just them now, just as it wasn’t in 2022 or during any of the several conference finals runs the team has made. But they are at the center of it — Brown is likely going to win NBA Finals MVP after missing All-NBA if they close this Friday, unless Tatum drops 50 or something, in which case he could win it.

At some point in this sport, you need to believe what your eyes see over what your brain thinks. Your eyes have watched the Celtics win over and over and over during this era. Your brain may not be able to understand how a team without the very best individual stars does not, but it’s happening. Accept it.

---

‘Be Better Than That’

Luka, of course, fouled out with four minutes left and the Mavericks closing the gap after going down 21.

It’s a bang-bang play but probably the right call. It’s really rough to foul out on a bang-bang play but that’s what happens when you pick up five fouls and cannot or will not move your feet on defense.

Luka had help back and with five fouls should obviously have just taken away Brown’s right hand, forcing him toward Josh Green with his much-maligned left. Easy for me to say sitting at home watching Jaylen Brown steamroll in slow motion, of course. But also easy for me to say that this was one of a dozen mindless Luka defensive possessions in the game.

Much has been made through the playoffs about Luka’s defense being underrated, with some examples of him standing strong against opponents trying to work him one-on-one. And he has indeed had some successful moments. But all you have to do right now is get him in rotation and it’s over. Make him hop out on a switch or cut behind him and it’s a bucket. He’s big and strong, so backing him down isn’t going to work. Unless you’re really quick or have incredible handles, beating him one-on-one isn’t always going to work. Make him make a decision, though, or get a little head of steam, and it’s often over.

And in fairness to Luka: Kyrie suffers the same issue. Watching those two dudes get lost repeatedly in this series makes me think more highly of the Celtics and makes it seem more miraculous that Dallas got here largely on defense.

Nice effort to keep the ball in front in a must-win Finals game without your shotblockers on the floor, dudes. A north-south ball screen from Sam Hauser 40 feet from the hoop and it’s an uncontested dunk. Sheesh.

In any case, Luka’s reaction is his own failure is more alarming than the failure itself. When he hits the ground and sees the call, he screams expletives at his own coaching staff that they had better challenge the call, as if he’s mad at them for his mistake. Then after the game, this is Luka’s take. Mind you, this is a player who finished second in the NBA in free throw attempts per game and argues for more calls more constantly and vociferously than any other player.

The game was a rugby match but you can’t ignore an open-court collision, sixth foul or not. You picked up five of those fouls (one was on the other end) because the Celtics were mercilessly targeting you because you are an enormous defensive liability right now. The fouls are the cost of being unable (due to physical limitations or not) to defend this team. Take some ownership here.

In any case, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst got cookin’ on a SportsCenter hit after the game. It feels a little much — Luka is the biggest reason the Mavericks made it this far — but there are few better occasional ranters in basketball media. Drop the beat.

---

There Is Knowing Your Team, And There Is Knowing Your Team

Celtics fan and GMIB reader Ryan Bernardoni made the following comment before the game, when Porzingis was ruled out, while the rest of us were wondering if Luke Kornet would get a look (he did not) or Joe Mazzulla would turn to Tatum at center for stretches (not for one second).

Late third quarter, as the Celtics started to pull away:

Incredible.

---

Rest In Peace, Jerry West

Jerry West is by any definition one of the fullest legends of the game. He died this week at age 86.

He was known to older generations as, for a long time, the greatest two-guard ever and one of the centerpieces of a dominant L.A. Lakers team through the 1960s and early 1970s. He made 14 All-Star teams in 14 seasons. Eight top-5 MVP finishes. Ten first team All-NBA honors, two more on second team. They called him Mr. Clutch even though the Lakers lost eight of the nine Finals series they made in West’s era; to me, that’s an indication of how clutch he must have been, to earn the moniker with one ring on his hand.

My generation knew him more as The Logo, as the architect of multiple historic Lakers eras — Showtime, then Shaq & Kobe — and the Grit ‘n Grind Grizzlies. He’d spent the past decade or so helping out in the front offices of the Warriors and Clippers, and sharing bon mots with coaches, GMs, journalists and players. That front office work endeared him to subsequent generations of players. Even Joe Mazzulla, one of the youngest coaches in the NBA, had a West story.

Mazzulla recalled a memorable moment from his junior year at West Virginia, where West played college basketball after growing up in the state. As Mazzulla struggled on and off the court, West gave the young player a wake-up call.

"My junior year in college, [I] wasn't living up to anyone's standards," Mazzulla said. "I get a call and it's Jerry. A lot of expletives, but he essentially told me that I was an f-up and that I was ruining an opportunity to be great at something, and just let me have it for like 10-15 minutes.

"I thought it was one of the most impactful phone calls that I had in my life."

My favorite Jerry West story has to do with Brian Cardinal’s inexplicable mid-level exception contract with the Grizzlies in the mid-2000s. The legend goes that in the summer of 2004, the Grizzlies’ notoriously goofy team owner Michael Heisley marched into Memphis GM West’s office and demanded to know why the Grizz hadn’t done anything yet in the offseason. West allegedly picked up the phone, called the agent for Cardinal (a 26-year-old white dude known as The Custodian, who’d had one decent season as a reserve for a terrible Warriors team, a definitional Purdue Boilermaker of the era), offered the mid-level exception (which was immediately accepted), hung up and asked Heisley, “There, you happy now?”

A younger generation of fans may end up remembering West for a portrayal on Winning Time that West absolutely hated. But hopefully the context that emerges over the coming months will shade that portrayal toward reality.

---

Be excellent to each other.