Dallas in 6. Because:

1. I genuinely like Dallas

2. Aussies - Green and Exum

3. Regular Simmons listener and he has been insufferable during this playoff run, particularly with regards to Tatum. Part of his charm being a one-eyed Boston fan, I know. Having his first pod drop after Dallas hoists the trophy would be a highlight of my year haha.

Really hope Dallas can get it done. Would love to see another few aussies with a ring. Especially for Exum, his NBA career looked over at one point. Rough year losing his old man as well.

Dallas in 6

Hope Dallas get it done, Mavs in 6

Boston in 4. Go Celtics!

Boston Celtics also has a few Aussies working in the support area,
Phil Coles from Terrigal is the Executive Director of Performance,
working for him is Jace Delany from Orange, who is the Director of Sports Science and Athletic Development, together with Steve Mount from Ivanhoe, Boston's Director of Rehabilitation.

Currently their job is to get Kristaps Porzingis back on court.
When you look at how well the Mavs bigs have been dominating, their success in this area is going to be hugely influential.

Celtics.

Although it would be nice to see Doncic add an NBA title to his ridiculous European trophy cabinet accumulated when he was a teenager from 16 to 19 years of age.

(If you haven't already take a look at how he won everything possible for club and country at the continental level over the first three years of his senior career.)

MAVS in 7

Boston in 6

But with Luka and Kyrie there, anything could happen. And I'd love to see Green and Exum win a title.

And we're underway. Rough first quarter for Dallas - biggest first quarter margin in a game one in Finals history, I think they said.

If keeps up like this, it could be over in four games. Only one side playing at present.

Exum might play a bit D for Dallas, just don't get a look in.

Didn't see the second half, stay reasonably even, Exum plus 7 in five minutes, probably late in game, deserves more time.

Porzingis really gave them the boost they were hoping for.

Celtics absolutely awesome in this one but the finals are about adjustments so I expect the Mavs to come back and keep this competitive.

Kyrie had a shocker even with wide open looks. It happens sometimes, but more concerning I think was the Mavs bigs couldnt have the impact they've had all playoffs and the corners were closed to Washington and Jones.

Jaylen Brown was massive in that third to counter the Mavs one good run. I reckon he'd be the most frustrating star player to watch though. Does some great things and then makes tons of rookie mistakes and misses free throws.

Back to back subpar games for Kyrie could have Luka wanting a new star teammate next season. I cant see Dallas winning the series, you need Kyrie and Luka going off for 60 points in order to keep up with Boston.

Yeah Mavs are built around their top 2 with a bunch of good role players.

If one of those guys isnt going off, you need massive performances from at least a couple of those role players and they just havent been able to deliver.

The Celtics on the other hand have elite role players like White and Holiday which means they dont need to rely on their stars so much.

Its gonna be tough from here. Basically need Kyrie going off and/or Jones/Washington/Green to be on fire from 3 just to steal a game at this point.

Mavs are favourites for Game 3.

It's been Boston then daylight all year.

It was always going to take a superhuman series from Luka or Kyrie to win this for Dallas

It was going to take a superhuman series from both Luke AND Kyrie, and Kyrie has consistently shown he'll shit the bed on the biggest stage ever since he left Cleveland. Still time to turn it around, but I expected Boston in 6 before the series began and that's how I still expect it to go down.

Maybe even less than 6?

The other Mavs just aren't getting many shots. Doncic's assist numbers drop more and more with each series. More hero ball just makes them more predictable.

Also, silly attempt to take a charge and fouls out unnecessarily in what had become a winnable game.

And then he apparently made the money gesture. As if the NBA would want it to be a sweep?!

Doncic is a gun but jeez he can be frustrating to watch. Other than a few decent efforts in the first half his defence was nearly non existent and nearly no effort in O to D transition. The constant complaining is just ridiculous.
If I were his teammate I'd be pretty dirty on him after todays game.

Watching Luka play is often insufferable. He's so damn good but geez his constant foul baiting, flopping, and whingeing is just beyond ridiculous as Hedge said. On one three point attempt he tried to flop in a stupid manner, it was nowhere near a foul and then this led to a fast break and easy points for the Celtics. I wish the refs T'd him up for his constant complaining. Luka would make the All NBA Whingeing Team year on year along with LeBron.

JJ Reddick used an interesting term I've never heard before when talking about Kyrie Irving. He called him an "Ethical Scorer", meaning that he doesn't flop or foul bait etc. He's just interested in trying to score (like most players in the 90's for example). Luka is the opposite of this. He is an "unethical scorer".

Bizarre coaching move to play Tim Hardaway Jr so much and Exum or Hardy so little. I thought Exum brought some decent energy in his two minutes, and was very suprised Kidd leaned on THJ so heavily.

I think Kidd was hoping for a THJ flame thrower game as a break in case of emergency measure.

The fact he played an 11 man rotation points to the fact he had no answers. Boston are such a balanced team it was always gonna be tough.

It's amazing that Luka was in the plus, as was Exum, agree with Luka being very frustrating to watch.

Rat10 it was actually two consecutive possessions where Luka flopped looking for a call on a three point shot and the Celtics went down and scored as a result. One was a Hauser three, the other was a Tatum dunk.

Luka is a great player, but I agree his defence is just awful. The amount of times Brown and Jrue have just cut straight to the basket for an easy layup because Luka wasn't paying attention is staggering. Against teams like the Heat, the Celtics basically never get easy baskets like that.

It looks to me like Dallas just needs to go through the fire a little more. Kyrie is the only one who has been to a Finals before and knows what it takes. Luka and the rest just need to learn the same way Tatum and Brown and Jrue and Horford have learned from many deep playoff runs.

Luka has the ability to play defence. He has been terrible in the finals but through the last couple of series he was actually at worst a neutral defender.

Boston are wearing him down, along with his list of ailments and it's showing in his defence. I think he is utterly spent.

Mavs need to get a reliable 3rd option for next season to take it to the next level. That’s the difference in this series.

When Luka fouled out, I'm surprised they didn't try Exum as an x-factor from there. There were 4ish minutes to play and it was a one-bucket game, shortened to 93-92 on the next score. At least Exum would've given them some movement on the court, and D at the other end.

It was a bit odd that Exum hardly got on court. Kidd put him on and he was flat out the whole time then provided probably the highlight of the night for the Mavs, then he benched him.

Jeez the mavs look so much better with green and Exum on court. The energy and effort just goes up a few notches.

The Mavs look so much better when Luka and Jason Kidd are on the same page.
Coach has been preaching play faster, kick the ball on ahead for a while now and thankfully Luka now feels he does not have to walk the ball up each time
And he does get the ball back particularly when faster transitions create mismatches.
Credit Jason Kidd as well for the sell.

*yawn* very sad series

Gentleman's Sweep here we come.. what an absolute dud of a finals series.

We could spice things up a bit and debate the (non existent) merit of calling them "World Champions"? GO!

Nice performance by Josh Green, it seems (not having seen it yet)

What a let down.
I'll just go back and watch the 2016 series again for about the 10th time

I feel more relief than actual elation.

I am happy, very happy, but I also look back and lament at the other years we squandered.

Some special mentions should be shared:
- Marcus Smart.
- Danny Ainge.
- Brad Stevens.

Other honorary contributors to the championship goes to :
- Brooklyn Nets.
- Philadelphia 76ers.
- Milwaukee Bucks.

Agreed it wasn't a great Finals series. The Mavs played their Finals just getting there really. But, there are some good stories!

#1 being Big Al, who at 38 finally got a ring and was still a starter and a key contributor.

#2 Jaylen Brown getting Finals MVP as redemption for falling short against GSW in '22 when Tatum was playing injured and Brown wasn't able to elevate his game to compensate. Gotta hand it to him for improving his game massively the last two seasons!

#3 Reward for a team drafting and developing their core over a long time, instead of just trying to buy instant success like the Clippers, Nets, 76ers and Suns.

Yeah, Ainge, Stevens and Smart all played important roles in the era leading to this!

Did this series put a few conspiracies to bed? About how the NBA refs favour the big names, the big markets, the TV dollars etc?

Key moment surely Luka fouling out with 4 mins left in Game 3, down 90-93 and on a 20-2 run.

If Luka stayed on, fair chance this would've got to 6 games at least. Another trip back to Dallas.

Boston are great finishers, most of the Indiana games were very close but Boston has the experience and mental strength to make the right plays at key times. Games 2 and 3 were very competitive but again, Boston takes them

Feels like the culmination of 7 years of hard work for Tatum and Brown (and Horford for 5 of those 7 seasons), they finally put the right pieces around them and they matured to lead the team to the title. Well done, very happy for Horford too

Crap finals series ever. Series aren't even close, so many 4-0 series since players just give up. All they care about is their pay check. Will never be interested in the NBA sadly.

NBLTigers, it was a terrible finals series, but the playoffs itself did have a couple of good series and some good games as well.

Wolves v Nuggets was an awesome 7 game series
Lakers v Nuggets also had some great games in it that came down to last minute heroics
Cavs v Magic was a great series if you are a true basketball fan as the defense in that series was awesome (also went to 7 games)

Whilst overall it was a below par playoffs one great thing to come out of it yet again is that its a new champion every year. Since 2019 theres been no back to back champs which is great for the league.

Raptors
Lakers*
Bucks
Warriors
Nuggets
Celtics

3 teams from the west and 3 teams from the east.

The way of super teams seems to be disappearing too which is awesome, 3 star lineups dont work anymore and it seems to be 2 star teams.

Cetics - Brown and Tatum
Nuggets - Jokic and Murray
Warriors - Curry and Klay
Bucks - Giannis and Middleton
Lakers - LeBron and AD
Raptors - Kawhi and Lowry

Also I wouldnt say teams give up - Its more that teams are now building teams to combat other teams, Wolves literally built a team that would beat Nuggets... the league is in a great place!

This is by design. 4 of those 6 teams had a supermax player.

The stars are incentivised to stay with their teams instead of creating super teams.

You'd have to say the Celtics are better placed to go B2B than any other those previous teams were. Everyone bar Kornet and Tillman is signed for next season. Hard to see who will beat them if they stay healthy

The Celtics are in a pretty good position LV. Their biggest risk is the centre spot though, because Horford, as good as he is, can't keep holding down the fort forever. KP was great during the regular season, but his body did not hold up to the physicality of the playoffs very well. So there is a big question mark there.

Best team won, unlike last season where they bizarrely handicapped themselves at the beginning of each playoff series.

I feel more relief than actual elation.

I am happy, very happy, but I also look back and lament at the other years we squandered.

Some special mentions should be shared:
- Marcus Smart.
- Danny Ainge.
- Brad Stevens.

Congrats to the Celtics. Easily the best team all season.

Agree with Big Fudge, teams these days need 2 x star players who can carry the offense on their own at times and then elite role players. New salary cap rules make it so hard to get any kind of help if you're paying 3 guys super max type money (ahem, Suns).

Mavs had good role players like Washington, Jones and Gafford, but the Celtics supporting cast of White, Jrue and Horford are elite at their roles.

Mavs were always going to need Luka and Kyrie to be at the peak of their abilities and unfortunately Luka was only good and Kyrie was for the most part pretty terrible,

Smart franchise work to get the Celtics there after a solid build up. Being able to add White, Porzingis and Holiday is incredibly clever. White seemed to be involved in so many critical moments for the Celtics.

Obviously wish it was a better series though; Nuggets would've been a lot more interesting. Doncic's assist numbers went down and down, finishing under 6 APG in this series. Maybe his support cast missing shots, maybe him lazily deferring to the outside shot more than he should've? The Mavs looked best in each earlier series when the role players were able to contribute.

At least Green finished shooting well for that game. And I think Exum was underplayed. He had a patch in that game where he was doing good things but it coincided with a Celtics run which seemed unrelated to him.

Unfortunately for the league, Boston should be able to return the same rotation for 2024/25. Only one not fully contracted is Hauser and he has a team-friendly team option.

Kornet and Tillman are free agents but otherwise, yeah.

Denver came into Boston and snapped the Celtics 20 game home win-streak. Jokic would've been a tougher matchup for them than Doncic. Would've been interesting but likely the same result- title #18 for the Green.

I agree LV - Jokic doesn't have the brain fades like Luka does, and doesn’t continually play to the refs or complain - he just gets the job done.

Luka might have got the Mavs to the finals but he lost it for them once his brain went awol.

Yeah Celtics can bring back the team next season. Issue will obviously always be Porz injuries and that may become more critical with Horford aging. He's shown he can still contribute at this age, but sometimes those guys look really good until they dont, and the Celtics ability to bring in any replacement will be limited. Evening retaining Tillman and Kornet may be difficult as they'll be over the second apron. The good news for them is Stevens has proved he knows what he's doing as a GM.

hoopie - I dont think Luka lost it for them, he still had a good finals series... Kyrie played sub par and should be shouldering more of the blame than Luka. And as mentioned above the role players for Boston were simply better than that of the Mavs.

As for LV saying the Celtics are better placed to go B2B than Nuggets, they definitely are as the Nuggets depth got depleted this season just gone which was a big factor. However the Celtics will face tougher teams next playoffs as you would think the Sixers are going to load up and the Bucks if healthy are no easy beats.

Celtics have a better chance to go back to back purely because its much easier for them to get back through the finals. Whoever comes out of the West just has far more competition.

The Bucks and Sixers will almost certainly be better next season, but they still have issues that need resolving even if healthy.

The Knicks might be able to rely on health to be better, but they too will have a hard time keeping their team together due to cap reasons. They are probably still a good piece away even if they're fit. The good news is they have some assets that can be moved and like the Celtics did last season, it might be time to pull the trigger.

The Pacers should get some benefit of natural progression of most of their squad and a pre season to work Siakam into the schemes.

The Cavs are a mess and any other teams need a lot of work.

None of those teams is as good or likely to be as good as Nuggets, Wolves and Thunder, without mentioning teams full of old vets like the Lakers and Warriors.

I just want to point out with Kyrie, that it was more that the Celtics guards made life hell for him, than Kyrie played badly. He's not young anymore, he's a small guard and its tough when you have to try to score at the rim with Jrue, White and Brown hounding you. I think he was always going to struggle.

The other problem Dallas had is the same problem the Celtics had previously: not enough finals experience. Doncic and their role players just hadn't felt the pressure of the finals before and I thought it showed up in their turnovers and poor shooting.

The other problem they had was the physical pressure Brown in particular brought to Doncic. I thought Brown fighting over all those screens and just putting a body on Doncic all the time had a tremendous impact on Luka's stamina. Its actually the main reason I think Brown deserved the MVP.

Kidd also didn't challenge the Celtics with a bunch of different looks like Spoelstra always does. Mazulla must've enjoyed only having to play checkers for once!