6 Reasons the Mavericks will make history and defeat Celtics in Finals

2. Mavericks have thrived with Kristaps Pozingis off the floor

In the first two games of the 2024 NBA Finals, Boston Celtics forward Kristaps Porzingis killed the Dallas Mavericks; especially in Game 1. Porrzingis seemingly couldn’t miss, and his rim protection helped the Celtics tremendously.

He was blocking everything at the rim, and the Mavs couldn’t get anything going around the bucket. Ever since Porzingis went down with a torn medial retinaculum in Game 2, the Mavs have been able to attack the rim much more effectively.

It has allowed them to resurrect their lob game with Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford, and Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving have been scoring much more at the rim. The Celtics are a completely different team when Porzingis is out, and if he misses Game 5, it could yield another result.

You never like to see a player go down with an injury, but Porzingis’ injury has considerably helped the Mavericks offense and defense. The Mavs aren’t particularly great at slowing down shooting big men, and although Al Horford can knock down open shots, he isn’t as dynamic of a shot-maker as Porzingis.

Porzingis can knock down threes from multiple feet behind the 3-point line or drain mid-range jumpers over a hand, and he was exposing the Mavericks defense when they would switch in the first two games.

If Porzingis plays in Game 5, which is definitely a big possibility, the Mavs have to find a way to slow him down. If not, the Mavs could have a heyday of buckets at the rim again.