Boston Celtics vs Dallas Mavericks Game 2 preview: Three things to watch for, injury news, odds

BOSTON — The Celtics put up a big offensive number and won Game 1 of the 2022 NBA Finals by double digits. The Warriors won four of the next five games and took the series.

The Dallas Mavericks dropped Game 1s in their first-round series against the Clippers and then in the next round against the Thunder. However, the Mavericks bounced back to win both series.

“We lost Game 1 in Round 1, Round 2. So we’re not really worried about it,” P.J. Washington said. It’s one game at the end of the day. We’re looking at ways to get better, and we’re going to try to capitalize on those in Game 2.”

All of that is to say, don’t expect Game 2 of the 2024 NBA Finals to look like Game 1, which ended up being a comfortable 18-point Boston win. Let’s break down Game 2, including three things to look for.

Betting odds for NBA Finals 2024 Game 2

Boston -7
214.5 under/over

The crew over at NBC Sports Betting has their five best bets on the board, and that includes Boston -4 to win the first half:

Boston’s defense will continue to make life difficult for Doncic and until the Celtics fear anyone else on the Mavs, they can smother Luka. Boston moves the ball on offense like few clubs in the entire Association. The result is open look after open look. No reason to expect that to change in Game 2.

Injury news, updates

There are no changes, both teams came out of Game 1 relatively healthy.

Kristaps Porzingis confirmed that he is good and will play in Game 2, although he almost certainly will come off the bench again. He said that an extra day off between games (Thursday to Sunday) is good for him.

“That was, again, a good sign for myself and now having two days in between and preparing my body again, getting even probably better conditioning now for next game will be huge,” Porzingis said.

Three things to watch for in Game 2

1) Doncic, Irving must beat one-on-one coverages

For three playoff rounds — and, frankly, for his entire career — Luka Doncic was able to manipulate the defense by coming off a pick, getting past his man, then either scoring or drawing help then making the right pass to the corner for a 3, or throwing a lob…


Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/boston-celtics-vs-dallas-mavericks-235243377.html

Author : NBC Sports

Publish date : 2024-06-08 23:52:43

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