NBA Finals Boston vs Dallas (poll)

[GatorAZ]

This is so wrong did you watch? Tatum numbers across the board better he got screwed just like the ECF MVP his number better that whole series as well! Not sure who he pissed of but the Voters are screwing him. Damn near triple double tonight and better than Brown in both the last two series and they gave Brown two MVPs what a joke!

Tatum missed 60 shots in 5 games he was never getting it but who cares anyway. Finals MVP is probably the dumbest award there is considering it’s a two week award (or in this case 11 days) voted on by a handful of media ppl.

 

[Mainstreet]

Remember when McD tricked Boston into taking Tatum so we could get Josh Jackson? Dude couldn't even win Finals MVP. #JusticeForMcD

All the while, De'Aaron Fox was there for the taking.

In recent years, the Suns didn't make the easy picks when it comes to point guards and talent. The Suns passed on Fox, Haliburton and probably could have traded for Shai during the 2018 draft.

 

[Hoop Head]

This is so wrong did you watch? Tatum numbers across the board better he got screwed just like the ECF MVP his number better that whole series as well! Not sure who he pissed of but the Voters are screwing him. Damn near triple double tonight and better than Brown in both the last two series and they gave Brown two MVPs what a joke!

I watched every game but game 4. Stats aren't everything. Jaylen carried a larger scoring load and drew tougher defensive assignments. Jaylen had more steals, blocks, and was more consistent scoring. Tatum only score 20+ in 2 games. He shot poorly for the most part.

Jaylen was better this series and more consistent.

 

[Hoop Head]

Tatum missed 60 shots in 5 games he was never getting it but who cares anyway. Finals MVP is probably the dumbest award there is considering it’s a two week award (or in this case 11 days) voted on by a handful of media ppl.

Looking at the stats, it honestly should have gone to Luka. He led in scoring, rebounds, and assists. That was never going to happen though.

I wish it was more of a playoff award than finals but eh, whatever. Congrats to Jaylen. He silenced some doubters as Tatum was always viewed as Boston's primary star but Jaylen was as good, or better, all postseason.

 

[Phrazbit]

If Boston wins this... holy smokes, that Holiday/Lillard trade looks terrible.

Basketball is, IMO, the ultimate team sport. There is one ball and everyone plays on both sides of it. You get multiple guys who only do one thing well, multiple guys who need the ball in their hands to be effective. You might have the most individual talent, but it won't add up to much.

The obsession with star power over players who compliment each other is something that has wrecked a lot of franchises.

It will probably slip by the collective NBA memory in a few years but this is an all time bad deal.

Bucks broke up a previous title winner that just had the best record in the league. Gave Boston a key cog in a team that won a title the next season.

 

[Lorenzo]

Looking at the stats, it honestly should have gone to Luka. He led in scoring, rebounds, and assists. That was never going to happen though.

I wish it was more of a playoff award than finals but eh, whatever. Congrats to Jaylen. He silenced some doubters as Tatum was always viewed as Boston's primary star but Jaylen was as good, or better, all postseason.

Thank you for posting the truth. I think there is a lot of critique regarding Luka. and TBF he deserves the critique because he's a star player that openly talks a lot of trash on the court. so people are going to give it back to him. Luka's worst game wasn't tonight IMO, although he still scored 28. his worst game was game 3 because he made a bad decision to attempt to take a charge. if he stays in that game he can be effective in a clutch situation. In Luka's bad games by his own standards, he still finds a way to score and get others involved on offense. Luka also played hurt. Tatum and many other star players don't always reach that same level in their bad games. you don't ever see doncic have those type of games where he scores in single digits, or rarely even the teens. all that said stats don't mean anything and you can't win MVP when you lose. Doncic could have scored 50 tonight and it wouldn't have mattered if they lost.

 

[Lorenzo]

That was kind of shocking to see DAL get knocked around like that.

A bit disheartening if you're a fan of a West team.

man of all the teams in the west aside from dallas, I'm most impressed with OKC. I think they would have been an exciting matchup with Boston.

 

[Lorenzo]

Tatum is 26 and Brown is 27. This probably won't be a popular opinion, but I would take either one of them over Doncic.

shocking that I don't agree. But it's important to note that Tatum and brown both are surrounded by great teammates that are all shot makers, even from half court, and defend every square inch of the court. Tatum can struggle and go sit on the bench for long spells and his team can still win a title. I think dallas would kill to have players like Brown, white, or holiday next to doncic and Irving.

 

[Phrazbit]

Looking at the stats, it honestly should have gone to Luka. He led in scoring, rebounds, and assists. That was never going to happen though.

I wish it was more of a playoff award than finals but eh, whatever. Congrats to Jaylen. He silenced some doubters as Tatum was always viewed as Boston's primary star but Jaylen was as good, or better, all postseason.

I couldn’t disagree more. Giving finals MVP to a player who’s team lost in 5 would be insane, especially when they went down 3-0 with that player playing selfish and borderline toxic basketball.

Luka is a great player, no doubt, but much of this series was a broad display of his shortcomings.

 

[Lorenzo]

I couldn’t disagree more. Giving finals MVP to a player who’s team lost in 5 would be insane, especially when they went down 3-0 with that player playing selfish and borderline toxic basketball.

Luka is a great player, no doubt, but much of this series was a broad display of his shortcomings.

I don't agree. This series was a predictable display of Boston being better than Dallas. It played out exactly as most people expected. doncic's individual failures became a toxic narrative after game 3. Doncic is a top 5 player in the NBA and by far the mavs best player. he carries them day in and day out. In doncic's bad games he still out performs most other players on the court. I understand that he has his fair amount of haters. I would not like him if I weren't a fan of dallas. But as a mavs fan I cannot blame him in this instance. he deserves a lot credit for what he did in these playoffs. His playoff performance this year ranks right up there with Dirk's 2006 and 2011 runs in mavericks history. blaming him for the mavs shortcomings would be toxic. I wasn't trying to get off topic, but that's one of the main reasons I brought up Nash earlier in this thread. In 2004 dallas let Nash walk because Cuban thought his playoff performances did not justify matching the suns contract offer. that is the toxic management that we saw for many years by cuban and that is why dirk only had one ring in his tenure IMO. Never blame your top guys when things go wrong.

 

[Cheesebeef]

I couldn’t disagree more. Giving finals MVP to a player who’s team lost in 5 would be insane, especially when they went down 3-0 with that player playing selfish and borderline toxic basketball.

Luka is a great player, no doubt, but much of this series was a broad display of his shortcomings.

Yeah… that seems really out there. Luka’s defense or lack thereof was a reason Boston handled Dallas as easily as they did. And Dallas basically got the snot kicked out of them twice and then were down by 20 or more in the other two games they lost. And in the key Game 3 at home, his stupid ass fouled out of the game in crunch time.

And it’s not even like Luka was amazing on offense. He put up decent numbers, but they were well below his season averages. So he was good, but not even close to great on offense, which is where he’s supposed to make up for his woeful defense.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Thank you for posting the truth. I think there is a lot of critique regarding Luka. and TBF he deserves the critique because he's a star player that openly talks a lot of trash on the court. so people are going to give it back to him. Luka's worst game wasn't tonight IMO, although he still scored 28. his worst game was game 3 because he made a bad decision to attempt to take a charge. if he stays in that game he can be effective in a clutch situation. In Luka's bad games by his own standards, he still finds a way to score and get others involved on offense. Luka also played hurt. Tatum and many other star players don't always reach that same level in their bad games. you don't ever see doncic have those type of games where he scores in single digits, or rarely even the teens. all that said stats don't mean anything and you can't win MVP when you lose. Doncic could have scored 50 tonight and it wouldn't have mattered if they lost.

Dude… Luka is great, but the idea that he should have been MVP of a series his team got shellacked in, where he was good, but not great on offense and terrible on defense is pretty far from “the truth.”

 

[Lorenzo]

Dude… Luka is great, but the idea that he should have been MVP of a series his team got shellacked in, where he was good, but not great on offense and terrible on defense is pretty far from “the truth.”

I don't think that Doncic deserves the MVP by any means. I am coming to his defense for some of the bashing that he got after game 3. even with the dumb fouls. I don't think Hoop Head meant that either (that he deserves the MVP). I could be wrong, but I took the post as statistically he was the MVP of his team and argument could be made for the series. but statistics don't mean everything. I think Hoop Head said clearly that Brown deserves the MVP award.

 

[Superbone]

Dude… Luka is great, but the idea that he should have been MVP of a series his team got shellacked in, where he was good, but not great on offense and terrible on defense is pretty far from “the truth.”

There is only one who has ever gotten MVP in a loss and he just passed away, the great Jerry West. No way does Luka deserve it in this series. Only a diehard Doncic fan would think so.

 

[nashman]

I watched every game but game 4. Stats aren't everything. Jaylen carried a larger scoring load and drew tougher defensive assignments. Jaylen had more steals, blocks, and was more consistent scoring. Tatum only score 20+ in 2 games. He shot poorly for the most part.

Jaylen was better this series and more consistent.

Nah disagree, Tatum averaged more points in the series all while making a bunch of assists and rebounding like a beast not sure what you see. Brown plays some D and shoots, Tatum rebounding and assists far outway the occasional showboat dunk from Brown but whatever. Agree to disagree Tatum pissed off some voters or something.

 

[clyde2tw]

Jrue Holiday was the most steady core performer behind Celtics title run.

 

[Phrazbit]

I don't agree. This series was a predictable display of Boston being better than Dallas. It played out exactly as most people expected. doncic's individual failures became a toxic narrative after game 3. Doncic is a top 5 player in the NBA and by far the mavs best player. he carries them day in and day out. In doncic's bad games he still out performs most other players on the court. I understand that he has his fair amount of haters. I would not like him if I weren't a fan of dallas. But as a mavs fan I cannot blame him in this instance. he deserves a lot credit for what he did in these playoffs. His playoff performance this year ranks right up there with Dirk's 2006 and 2011 runs in mavericks history. blaming him for the mavs shortcomings would be toxic. I wasn't trying to get off topic, but that's one of the main reasons I brought up Nash earlier in this thread. In 2004 dallas let Nash walk because Cuban thought his playoff performances did not justify matching the suns contract offer. that is the toxic management that we saw for many years by cuban and that is why dirk only had one ring in his tenure IMO. Never blame your top guys when things go wrong.

I've been beating this same drum on Luka for several years. IMO, the narrative isn't new.

He's one of the best players in the league, no question, he's also the one superstar that no one else even hints that they want to play with.

He's a phenominal individual talent... I also think he's toxic and it will be extremely hard for Dallas to build a real title contender around him.

If the Suns drafted him insteand of Ayton, expect he'd have rapidly driven Booker out of town and the team would be built around him and whatever we got from trading Booker.

As I said earlier, I think Luka probably will mature... be less confrontational with the refs, take his own conditioning more seriously, make his "team" not entirely about himself. But he isn't there yet.

For much of this series Boston's primary strategy was to target Luka as a defender, and they obliterated him in the process. He might have been Dallas' best offensive player, but he was their worst defender by a wide margin.

 

[CardNots]

Looks as though Boston wanted to close out their amazing season at home. Celebrating a championship at home is a plus. They dominated every team they faced, congratulations are in order even from me

 

[Russ Smith]

Tatum missed 60 shots in 5 games he was never getting it but who cares anyway. Finals MVP is probably the dumbest award there is considering it’s a two week award (or in this case 11 days) voted on by a handful of media ppl.

Also Brown guarded Luka quite a bit and also Kyrie and did a nice job on both.

Luka sure picked a bad time to have a stinker game. his final numbers were ok but he was really bad in the first half when the game was still viable, another horrible defensive game but he really struggled offensively too.

Kyrie looked so old in this series, most NBA teams don't have the guard defense Boston does, clearly Kyrie can still play, but I also think he got exposed a bit. Because of his off court stuff, he hasn't really played that many games, he hasn't played even 60 games since the 18-19 season(regular season).

This year he played 58 and then got all the way to the finals and he visibly wore down because of it IMO

Happy for Jrue, happy for Al Horford always thought he was a good guy.

 

[Brian in Mesa]

Lakers now trail Boston again. Hopefully this motivates some change. Rob Pelinka needs to do something positive or be replaced, IMHO.

 

[CardNots]

Lakers now trail Boston again. Hopefully this motivates some change. Rob Pelinka needs to do something positive or be replaced, IMHO.

I’m good

 

[Crimson Warrior]

man of all the teams in the west aside from dallas, I'm most impressed with OKC. I think they would have been an exciting matchup with Boston.

Perhaps, but every team in the West must feel like their a mile away from a championship after that series! (maybe)

What's for sure is the 2024 - 2025 season should be a lot of fun for both our teams! The I-35 rivalry is on! haha.

Hope you're otherwise well Lorenzo and that your Summer will recover from a difficult start!

 

[ajcardfan]

Perhaps, but every team in the West must feel like their a mile away from a championship after that series! (maybe)

What's for sure is the 2024 - 2025 season should be a lot of fun for both our teams! The I-35 rivalry is on! haha.

Hope you're otherwise well that that your Summer will recover from a difficult start!

Meh... Just last year everyone was talking about Denver's dynasty. The Celtics are not a slam dunk to repeat.

 

[CardNots]

man of all the teams in the west aside from dallas, I'm most impressed with OKC. I think they would have been an exciting matchup with Boston.

I thought OKC was in play until they met a good defense. Exciting matchup with Boston? Not so sure…

 

[AzStevenCal]

Meh... Just last year everyone was talking about Denver's dynasty. The Celtics are not a slam dunk to repeat.

I've thought they were the best team for 3 years now and they came up short twice already so yeah, there's no guarantees. Teams such as Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Denver should all bounce back plus there's half a dozen young teams that are getting scarier by the day. And then there's the hasbeen wannabees - Golden State, LAL and maybe even Phoenix and the Clippers that could turn back time and with a lucky addition or two, get right back into the mix. But if I were a betting man, I'd have Boston trying to repeat against OKC.