2024 NBA Season

[Fredomago]

While I do agree that Dallas is a great team, like Lebron mentioned, Boston has four players that can play with the ball, which is going to make it a lot harder. I mean think about it, they do not have a "point guard", they have ball handlers in every position, so their offense is amazing and will not change all that quickly, it will stay to be very powerful no matter what.

I do not think that they have that much problem on defense neither, because they are capable of switching in four different positions, meaning that you can't just call for pick and roll, you have to just accept what you have. This is going to be the year Boston may finally win it, not saying they will, but I see them as favourites going into this finals.

Same with how the role players of Dallas,  Boston also have that same capabilities they can adjust and they are really good on adopting what systems they need to work on, it's an interesting finals for sure, both teams are hungry to win a title and whoever wins for sure they will compete to the highest level, there are many opinions and speculation as different fans have their own different overview about this upcoming finals, good luck to those who will bet either in a series or on the daily game basis.

[CLS63]

Boston Celtics look favourite according to the odds now. However I don't trust Jayson Tatum in the playoffs much. He can really play very badly from time to time. I see Dallas Mavericks as the favourite in the final series in the lead of Doncic and Irving.    When Irving joined last year I really had doubts about whether he would be a coherent duo with Doncic. You know how much Irving likes to play individually too. But they have made a great duo.

[livingfree]

While I do agree that Dallas is a great team, like Lebron mentioned, Boston has four players that can play with the ball, which is going to make it a lot harder. I mean think about it, they do not have a "point guard", they have ball handlers in every position, so their offense is amazing and will not change all that quickly, it will stay to be very powerful no matter what.

I do not think that they have that much problem on defense neither, because they are capable of switching in four different positions, meaning that you can't just call for pick and roll, you have to just accept what you have. This is going to be the year Boston may finally win it, not saying they will, but I see them as favourites going into this finals.

I'm still contemplating for their first game on this upcoming NBA finals. But I think that Dallas has exceeded everyone's thought about them.

Anyway, the favorites no doubt is Boston Celtics and I hope that people will stop talking about how the Celtics was able to reach the NBA finals because of the past teams they're against with and they don't have their key players.

It's part of the league to remain healthy at the end of every season if ever they reach playoffs, WCF/ECF and then the NBA finals.

[jossiel]

"Dallas Mavericks will have a hard time with the Celtics."
Why? They say for many reasons. Derrick White is a good defender and Jrue Holiday is known as one of the best defenders in the league too. Both are backcourt defenders, yes, against Luka and Kyrie. But I think they are forgetting the larger picture. They have Lively and Gafford and the Celtics have Horford only. See the difference?
Luka and Kyrie can just literally throw the ball near the rim and someone will probably catch it, either of the two. The strength of the Mavs doesn't always happen with Luka and Kyrie, it's from everyone and they had been telling it in their post-game interviews over and over again.
Lively had never missed a shot in the playoffs 16/16 if I am correct. That means most of the assists upstairs are either on point or he is just really good at catching the ball.

I agree with that.

Everyone thinks that it's with the Boston already and they don't see the attributes of other players in the Mavs line up. While no doubt that the Celtics roster is great in both defense and offense.

But there is more to offer with the Mavs roster. It's not always with Luka and Kyrie but these two have always been the contributors of the team.

Let's see if we'll get to see more from the other players as well just as you have mentioned, especially the big men that they have.

[wheelz1200]

While I do agree that Dallas is a great team, like Lebron mentioned, Boston has four players that can play with the ball, which is going to make it a lot harder. I mean think about it, they do not have a "point guard", they have ball handlers in every position, so their offense is amazing and will not change all that quickly, it will stay to be very powerful no matter what.

I do not think that they have that much problem on defense neither, because they are capable of switching in four different positions, meaning that you can't just call for pick and roll, you have to just accept what you have. This is going to be the year Boston may finally win it, not saying they will, but I see them as favourites going into this finals.

I'm still contemplating for their first game on this upcoming NBA finals. But I think that Dallas has exceeded everyone's thought about them.

Anyway, the favorites no doubt is Boston Celtics and I hope that people will stop talking about how the Celtics was able to reach the NBA finals because of the past teams they're against with and they don't have their key players.

It's part of the league to remain healthy at the end of every season if ever they reach playoffs, WCF/ECF and then the NBA finals.

It's true about staying healthy but what people are talking about is if Boston has been tested by a team that's full strength.  Pacers took them to the edge in game one amd shoukd have won it.  Once Hali went out it was a wrap but even then they couldn't blow them completely out except game 2.  Looking forward to the series but I don't see how Boston contains this version of Luka.  Dude is a menace to society.

[livingfree]

While I do agree that Dallas is a great team, like Lebron mentioned, Boston has four players that can play with the ball, which is going to make it a lot harder. I mean think about it, they do not have a "point guard", they have ball handlers in every position, so their offense is amazing and will not change all that quickly, it will stay to be very powerful no matter what.

I do not think that they have that much problem on defense neither, because they are capable of switching in four different positions, meaning that you can't just call for pick and roll, you have to just accept what you have. This is going to be the year Boston may finally win it, not saying they will, but I see them as favourites going into this finals.

I'm still contemplating for their first game on this upcoming NBA finals. But I think that Dallas has exceeded everyone's thought about them.

Anyway, the favorites no doubt is Boston Celtics and I hope that people will stop talking about how the Celtics was able to reach the NBA finals because of the past teams they're against with and they don't have their key players.

It's part of the league to remain healthy at the end of every season if ever they reach playoffs, WCF/ECF and then the NBA finals.

It's true about staying healthy but what people are talking about is if Boston has been tested by a team that's full strength.  Pacers took them to the edge in game one amd shoukd have won it.  Once Hali went out it was a wrap but even then they couldn't blow them completely out except game 2.  Looking forward to the series but I don't see how Boston contains this version of Luka.  Dude is a menace to society.

Luka is unstoppable.

Let's see how they're going to stop him. That slowmo kind of offense, and then with some passing which they won't know who's free outside of the paint.

I like that type the way he plays. Quite buff and has ball handling and shooting. I guess that they're going to lock him down with some double team but they shouldn't be confident with that.

Everyone from the Mavs has shooting as well from the outside like Washington.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

Boston Celtics look favourite according to the odds now. However I don't trust Jayson Tatum in the playoffs much. He can really play very badly from time to time. I see Dallas Mavericks as the favourite in the final series in the lead of Doncic and Irving.    When Irving joined last year I really had doubts about whether he would be a coherent duo with Doncic. You know how much Irving likes to play individually too. But they have made a great duo.

They should be the favorite, they are the best team, with the best record in the regular games, and then they dominated their opponents in the playoff. They also have the winning records against the Mavericks so we shouldn't be surprised as why they are the favorite in this series. They have the best duo in Tatum and Brown but I think Luka and Kyrie is not far behind. And as far as defense in the back court, the Celtics have Jrue Holiday and Derrick White earned spots on the All-Defensive 2nd Team so they will be match against the back court tandem of Kyrie and Luka.

But then the Mavs have Lively, Gafford in the center position. KP is coming off a injury so we really haven't seen him that much in the playoff and we don't know if he will be back at his form. Al Horford is too small to man the center position against this two. And I'm seeing that either Lively or Gafford might average double doubles in this series. But still I think the Celtics has the deeper bench here, and Tatum finding his rhythm.

But I'm predicting that the Celtics might win the NBA championship this year with a 4-2 score.

[MK-74]

Last night the champion of the West was determined. Dallas beat Minnesota and went to the NBA Finals.

We watched a great game last night. Doncic and Kyrie played really well and won the game.
Both players scored 36 points.

Boston Celtics vs Dallas Mavericks will play in the finals, my prediction is Dallas Mavericks will win the cup because Dallas is better.

[OgNasty]

The Pelicans deferring taking the Los Angeles Lakers first round draft pick to next year from the Anthony Davis trade in order to try and bait the Lakers into drafting Bronny in the first round is pretty funny. It takes away any excuse the Lakers might have had for not drafting him to keep LeBron happy. Sabotage level petty.

[dwyane36]

Last night the champion of the West was determined. Dallas beat Minnesota and went to the NBA Finals.

We watched a great game last night. Doncic and Kyrie played really well and won the game.
Both players scored 36 points.

Boston Celtics vs Dallas Mavericks will play in the finals, my prediction is Dallas Mavericks will win the cup because Dallas is better.

Honestly, before the Western Conference Finals series started, I expected the Wolves to beat the Mavs easily. But as you can see, I underestimated them, and it looks like the Wolves players also underestimated them. As for the final series, it's not easy to make any predictions yet, although the Celtics look like favorites, especially if we consider the results of the games between these two teams during the regular season.

[Yaunfitda]

Last night the champion of the West was determined. Dallas beat Minnesota and went to the NBA Finals.

We watched a great game last night. Doncic and Kyrie played really well and won the game.
Both players scored 36 points.

Boston Celtics vs Dallas Mavericks will play in the finals, my prediction is Dallas Mavericks will win the cup because Dallas is better.

Honestly, before the Western Conference Finals series started, I expected the Wolves to beat the Mavs easily. But as you can see, I underestimated them, and it looks like the Wolves players also underestimated them. As for the final series, it's not easy to make any predictions yet, although the Celtics look like favorites, especially if we consider the results of the games between these two teams during the regular season.

I think we based if on the strength on how the Wolves beat the defending champion in the Nuggets. We thought that the the Nuggets are going to win in that fight, but the Wolves, specially ANT was a different animal in that series, coming back from a 20+ deficit and then winning at the homecourt of the Nuggets? That was a incredible run by the Wolves. But against the Dallas, it was a totally different Wolves, losing 2 game at home was the first sign that the Mavs could pull through this series and they are lucky that they didn't get swept by the Dallas team. But still, learning experience for the Wolves and hopefully they've learned their lessons here and could be back next season proving that it's no longer a fluke.

[LogitechMouse]

Boston Celtics look favourite according to the odds now. However I don't trust Jayson Tatum in the playoffs much. He can really play very badly from time to time. I see Dallas Mavericks as the favourite in the final series in the lead of Doncic and Irving.    When Irving joined last year I really had doubts about whether he would be a coherent duo with Doncic. You know how much Irving likes to play individually too. But they have made a great duo.

Well, no surprise because many expected the Celtics to win it all this season hence, the odds are favoring them.
On Stake, the odds-on Celtics to win in Game 1 is 1.40 while the Mavericks has 3.05. For me, it is very attractive especially if you are a Mavericks fan.

Historically speaking, if the winner of Game 1 is the home team, they win the whole series around 77%-80% of the time. Now if the road team wins in Game 1, historically speaking, there's a 55% chance of them winning the whole series. It's quite high TBH, so this Game 1 is a good start to build their momentum all throughout the series. Just for context and I just saw it on Facebook. Irving is 0-10 ever since stomping on the infamous "Lucky" logo on Boston. Anybody who remembers that incident back when he's still a net?

The Pelicans deferring taking the Los Angeles Lakers first round draft pick to next year from the Anthony Davis trade in order to try and bait the Lakers into drafting Bronny in the first round is pretty funny. It takes away any excuse the Lakers might have had for not drafting him to keep LeBron happy. Sabotage level petty.

If that happens, it means Le-GM will stay as a Laker then... or not

I watched a video on YouTube referring Laker fans who hate Lebron because of how manipulative he is. I mean it's true because he's the main reason why the 2020 Laker roster got separated only just because they got swept by the Suns in first round. The question now is, will the Lakers really pursue Le-GM, or they will move on from him and will let him go.

[malcovi2]

Luka is unstoppable.

Let's see how they're going to stop him. That slowmo kind of offense, and then with some passing which they won't know who's free outside of the paint.

I like that type the way he plays. Quite buff and has ball handling and shooting. I guess that they're going to lock him down with some double team but they shouldn't be confident with that.

Everyone from the Mavs has shooting as well from the outside like Washington.

There were videos showing double team isn't effective against him because creates an opportunity for him to pass it to the open man or lobs it either to Gafford or Lively. If he can't score, he gets an assist. It's the reason why they are saying he is unstoppable on the court.

[OgNasty]

I’m seeing videos on social media seemingly showing Anthony Edwards being pretty upset with Karl Anthony Towns for asking him to pass the ball. It seems like that team has some issues and I wonder if we haven’t seen the last of KAT in a Timberwolves uniform. That would certainly be an offseason shakeup.

[Japinat]

I’m seeing videos on social media seemingly showing Anthony Edwards being pretty upset with Karl Anthony Towns for asking him to pass the ball. It seems like that team has some issues and I wonder if we haven’t seen the last of KAT in a Timberwolves uniform. That would certainly be an offseason shakeup.

KAT hasn't been a factor in that series, so I understand how KAT feel. However, KAT also is heavy defended, he had some games where he shooting a very low percentage, I guess he also need to pass the ball and play like a real team like the Dallas. A lot of things to be done for the wolves, but they should consider what they had achieve a big success already as they aren't even expected to beat the Suns and the Nuggets but they did surprised us.

[Dave1]

I’m seeing videos on social media seemingly showing Anthony Edwards being pretty upset with Karl Anthony Towns for asking him to pass the ball. It seems like that team has some issues and I wonder if we haven’t seen the last of KAT in a Timberwolves uniform. That would certainly be an offseason shakeup.

If I'm not mistaken, there we're videos of Edwards saying that Towns shouldn't  get into foul trouble. I guess that's part of the communication, I mean in Game 4 Towns is committing a lot of useless fouls and they almost blew that game.

Not sure though were KAT will land, it seems that they've just build their chemistry. And I'm assuming that the team will take this experience on a positive note and be back next year and maybe they can get over the hump and go to the finals.

[danherbias07]

I’m seeing videos on social media seemingly showing Anthony Edwards being pretty upset with Karl Anthony Towns for asking him to pass the ball. It seems like that team has some issues and I wonder if we haven’t seen the last of KAT in a Timberwolves uniform. That would certainly be an offseason shakeup.

Not good chemistry. I think they won most of their games because of their strong defense and offensive power. When it comes to brotherhood, the Mavs have the upper side against them. Honestly, that's what made them win their games even in the Wolves' home. They trust each other and they are not blaming them if they shoot it or miss it.
In the last quarter of Game 5, I saw Exum making some stupid decisions dribbling the ball to the inside and almost turning it over, thankfully Kyrie saved the ball. Yet, I didn't see anyone getting mad at him because of what he did. I was mad as a fan when I saw it but the team was just silent about it.

Truly, chemistry will play a big role in this Finals game. The talents are almost identical the height have some difference but overall, when all the stars are defended well, the roleplayers will be the key to winning the series.

[Viscore]

I’m seeing videos on social media seemingly showing Anthony Edwards being pretty upset with Karl Anthony Towns for asking him to pass the ball. It seems like that team has some issues and I wonder if we haven’t seen the last of KAT in a Timberwolves uniform. That would certainly be an offseason shakeup.

Not good chemistry. I think they won most of their games because of their strong defense and offensive power. When it comes to brotherhood, the Mavs have the upper side against them. Honestly, that's what made them win their games even in the Wolves' home. They trust each other and they are not blaming them if they shoot it or miss it.
In the last quarter of Game 5, I saw Exum making some stupid decisions dribbling the ball to the inside and almost turning it over, thankfully Kyrie saved the ball. Yet, I didn't see anyone getting mad at him because of what he did. I was mad as a fan when I saw it but the team was just silent about it.

Truly, chemistry will play a big role in this Finals game. The talents are almost identical the height have some difference but overall, when all the stars are defended well, the roleplayers will be the key to winning the series.

It's okay for the Mavs to make mistakes in game 5 since they are up with a good margin, so there's only a little chance for the Wolves to come back and win. For the Wolves, it was the opposite; they are probably frustrated because they are in a do-or-die game since they allowed the Mavericks to beat them three straight times. They also have good chemistry; it's just that the Mavericks were the better team in that game. Either the Wolves were overconfident or they underestimated the Mavericks, which is why they can't easily accept the loss.

I think ANT should humble himself because he is too cocky to beat Irving in a one-on-one game. Remember, he gassed out in the last quarter when he was the one guarding Irving. He asked for it, so he tasted how tough it is.

[Maslate]

Kleber, Powell, Lively, and Gafford... they are a key to dominate the Celtics in the paint this series.

They certainly are a problem especially the 2 big men who have earn big minutes during the WCF. I just watch a video about how fans of Celtics really hate Kyrie, I think this is going to be fun as in game 1 it will be in TD Garden where the fans will certainly come to support the home team. As to the betting odds now, Celtics are heavily favored, but I like the Dallas as they went through a tougher challenge compared to the Celitcs. 

@OP maybe it's time to change the poll now.

I think the Celtics matchup pretty well against the Mavericks. They’re also a little more familiar with Kyrie’s game than most. I think this series will come down to if Luka can keep performing magic or not. I’m leaning towards Boston though.

I agree and think it would be nice to see a poll on who will win the Finals.

I don't see Luka getting limited in the NBA Finals, if he was able to carry his team before and beat the Suns to advance in the WCF, just unfortunate they loss to the Warriors but Luka still are very productive in that game.

in the 5 games they played, you can see an impressive stats of Luka.
https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/2022-nba-western-conference-finals-mavericks-vs-warriors.html
https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/luka-playoff-stats-vs-warriors

game 1 20 PTS - game 2 42 PTS- game 3 40 PTS - game 4 30 PTS - game 5 28 PTS

That was the time when the Warriors beat the Celtics in the NBA finals, and you see, it was Luka who had carried his team, but now he has Irving and some effective role players, honestly, I haven't seen Dallas as good as they are now.

And there's another great things for Jason Kidd, if Dallas win, he'll be a champion as a coach too, not just a player.

[Fredomago]

Luka is unstoppable.

Let's see how they're going to stop him. That slowmo kind of offense, and then with some passing which they won't know who's free outside of the paint.

I like that type the way he plays. Quite buff and has ball handling and shooting. I guess that they're going to lock him down with some double team but they shouldn't be confident with that.

Everyone from the Mavs has shooting as well from the outside like Washington.

There were videos showing double team isn't effective against him because creates an opportunity for him to pass it to the open man or lobs it either to Gafford or Lively. If he can't score, he gets an assist. It's the reason why they are saying he is unstoppable on the court.

That's the problem if you put a double with Luka, he's an high I.Q player and those recievers both inside and outside will surely kill that free shots, especially if you have Irving and Washington plus Lively and Gafford very young talents with a full-pack skills, I like to see if how Boston will counter that and what will be the plan this coming game 1.

We will see who's going to have a good game plan and how they will execute the system, good luck everyone!