Poll: Will the NBA Finals return to Boston or end in Dallas?
The Boston Celtics have a commanding 2-games-to-none lead in the NBA Finals, and they really didn't even play all that well last night.
Boston shot a season-worst 25.6% (10-39) from 3-point territory yet employed shutdown defense, a stellar 26-point, 11-rebound performance from Jrue Holliday and a near triple-double from Jayson Tatum to get halfway to the goal.
Only five teams in NBA history have ever erased an 0-2 deficit in The Finals and gone on to win the series - the 1969 Celtics, the '77 Blazers, the 2006 Heat, the '16 Cavs and the '21 Bucks.
There's nothing that I've seen in the first two games that would make me believe the '24 Mavs will get added to that list. I know they erased an 0-2 deficit in the first round against the Clippers, but the Clips ain't no Celtics.
Boston is so overwhelmingly more talented than Dallas and it's on full display. Before the series began, Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving were being talked up as the greatest offensive backcourt of all-time. Two games in, Kyrie has still yet to show up and Luka is a hobbled solo act on the court.
Luka is still great, but after him you can rattle off pretty much every Celtics player in the rotation that gets minutes as having more of an impact than the next most impactful Dallas player after Doncic.
Will it be a sweep? That I'm not sure of, hence today's poll question. But make no mistake about it, whether we're shipping back up to Boston for a Game 5 or popping bottles in Big D, this series is ovah.