The Dallas Mavericks, led by Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, eliminated the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference Finals on Thursday night, setting up a meeting with Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics in the 2024 NBA Finals.
The meeting is an interesting one as the Celtics have been on the brink of an NBA Championship for a few years now, coming up short in 2022 against the Golden State Warriors. The Mavericks, meanwhile, are making their first NBA Finals appearance since 2011.
With both teams ending their conference finals series in pretty quick fashion, it means there will be some time off before they finally take the court and the NBA announced the full NBA Finals schedule with Game 1 taking place on Thursday, June 6 in Boston:
A champion will be crowned…
The #NBAFinals schedule ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/lO5wxsAgWl
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) May 31, 2024
Both teams will have plenty of rest time between games. There will be at least two days off between all but one game, as Games 3 and 4 in Dallas will have just one day off. If necessary, Game 5 will be in Boston on June 17, Game 6 will be back in Dallas on June 20, and if the series goes seven games, the final contest will happen on Sunday, June 23, in Boston.
The Celtics won both regular-season meetings between these two teams, though the first contest took place before the Mavericks acquired key pieces PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford at the trade deadline. Overall, Dallas is simply playing at a much higher level now than it was at any point during the regular season.
Boston is favored as the Celtics had far and away the best record in the NBA this season. Tatum and, especially, Brown have been outstanding throughout the postseason with the latter winning the Eastern Conference Finals MVP. But the team also has some outstanding role players with Derrick White and Jrue Holiday providing two-way play. The injury status of big man Kristaps Porzingis will also be closely watched.
The Mavericks have some similarities with Doncic and Irving being the leaders and producing night after night for this team. But what has taken them to a new level has been those role players such as Washington, Gafford and Derrick Lively playing at an extremely high level. The storyline of Irving returning to Boston, where he played for two seasons, will be an intriguing one as well.
This series is set up to be extremely entertaining, featuring some of the NBA’s brightest stars.
Trae Young leaving Klutch Sports decreasing odds Lakers would trade for him this offseason?
The Lakers are hoping to find themselves in the NBA Finals next season and will be exploring a number of options this summer to get to that position. One possibility is a trade for a big star with Atlanta Hawks point guard Trae Young being someone linked to the team.
However, some in the NBA believe that Young’s leaving Klutch Sports, which represents LeBron James and Anthony Davis, decreases the odds of the Lakers trading for him. The report also notes that some within the Lakers organization may not be so keen on going after the point guard.
