Luka Doncic shares initial thoughts on facing the Celtics in the NBA Finals. Originally published on NBC Sports Boston
The 2024 NBA Finals match between the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks will feature many stars.
The team includes two All-NBA First Team players in Celtics forward Jayson Tatum and Mavericks guard Luka Doncic. Celtics guard Jaylen Brown and Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving are also All-NBA caliber players. Both teams have strong supporting casts around their stars.
That being said, it's no surprise that the Celtics are the favorites to win the Larry O'Brien Trophy.
The Celtics had the best regular season record in the league with a 64-18 record, seven more wins than any other team, and easily won the Eastern Conference playoffs with a 12-2 record. The Celtics had home-court advantage in the Finals, but also won eight straight playoff games on the road.
Doncic understands the challenge that awaits Dallas in the Finals.
“They're the best team in the NBA,” Doncic said in a news conference Thursday after the Warriors eliminated the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference finals.
“They're by far the best they've had so far and have great weapons on offense and defense. We're going to have to work really hard and play great basketball to beat them.”
Doncic averaged 35 points, 15 rebounds and 12 assists per game in his two regular season games against the Celtics, but the Celtics won both games fairly comfortably, 119-110 at Dallas on Jan. 22 and 138-110 at Boston on March 1.
Doncic and Irving will likely combine for 50-65 points per game in this upcoming series, and the real question for the Mavericks is whether their role players can step up and be a consistent threat on offense.
Game 1 of the NBA Finals will be held at TD Garden on Thursday, June 6. NBC Sports Boston will have pregame, halftime and postgame coverage of every Finals game.
