The Celtics are in no danger of making their sixth Eastern Conference final in eight years.
If there is a surprise, the Cavaliers are tenacious enough: without the ace Mitchell, without the pillar Garrett Allen, even LeVert is injured, and in the second quarter today, he can still rely on Mobley's high post strategy and three-point rain to lead in Boston Garden for a while.
It wasn't until the 37-year-old Horford made a three-pointer and blocked the third block in the half, that Tatum scored seven points in two minutes, and the Celtics turned the corner.
Then came the third quarter, Horford and Tatum continued to combine: Tatum pushed the counterattack, the old man Horford talked about the boyhood, and Garland also fell down himself, allowing Horford to dunk on a counterattack.
After Tatum grabbed the ball and counterattacked, he missed a three-point shot in the next round, and Horford and the Cavaliers grabbed the rebound and rolled to the three-point line, and passed back to Tatum for a basket; Tatum then fed Horford another three-pointer, bringing the difference to 10 points.
Horford was so wild that the Celtics were in the blood.
After that, I thought it was a fun one. Tatum looked for Horford to cover, faced Mobley, didn't pull the ball, didn't jump sideways, didn't turn around, just a simple pull-up jump shot, and scored.
This ball is mediocre, but it is rare to find this: Tatum shoots every day, and is too used to doing a few more moves to get rid of himself a little cleaner; Shoot neatly like today, less.
"It's better to fight like this earlier!"
Today, Tatum had 25 points, 10 rebounds, 9 assists, 4 steals and 1 turnover on 9-of-16 shooting, with a perfect performance on both offensive and defensive ends. The important thing is to shoot 56 percent from the field – for the first time in three weeks, he has shot more than 44 percent from the field in a single game.
Today he counterattacked and received the ball, and kept breaking through and dunking all the time; The left flank faced Mobley and stepped back and threw his hand; In the face of Garland, he started to push down and retreat and make a strong shot. Plus in the face of Mobley, there is no forward action of the stop-and-go shot. Plus that over-cover three-pointer in the fourth quarter.
"It's better to fight like this earlier!"
The Celtics made it through the Eastern Conference semifinals without any injuries (look at the Heat, Cavaliers and Knicks) and continued to wait for Porzingis to return; Holiday played with confidence; Tatum has regained his form in the past three games, and Jalen and White have been fine since the playoffs; In White's first half today, Holiday in the second half, Tatum and Horford took over to open up the difference, Jalen didn't score much today but had a career playoff game-high 7 assists, especially on the weak side after receiving Tatum's long pass and feeding Horford, it was very delicate: for him who has always dribbled too much and is dangerous, it's good news.
The most visible today is probably Horford. The third player in history to have 20 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists in a single playoff game at the age of 37 — something that Skyhook and LeBron have done before — as well as three blocks in the first half and six three-pointers who "if you don't guard me, I'll shoot you."
Horford is the second player to play in an active playoff game. No matter how far the Celtics go next, he will at least surpass Jordan's 179 playoff games and catch up with Dennis Johnson.
Tatum: The fifth East Final.
Jayron: It's the sixth East final.
Horford: I'm also the sixth time — it's good to be in shape before the Eastern Conference final!
In other words, this is the sixth time Horford has played the Cavaliers in the playoffs and the first time. It can be regarded as crossing a threshold of fate.
Previously, Horford had been eliminated from the playoffs 14 times in his career, five times against the Cavaliers (with LeBron).
Tianwang Mountain, the Lone Ranger defeated the Thunder, 3 to 2.
Luka Doncic played the best playoff game of the season, with 31 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists, but the first sentence of the report written by Cliff Blounthorn after the game:
"Luka Doncic stopped worrying about the whistle and played seriously – it worked."
Luca said this after the game: "I just play seriously and focus on basketball. Sometimes I forget my love for basketball. I focused today and played with a smile. ”
He doesn't talk to the referee anymore and pays attention to his body language.
Today he made the first pass out of bounds, and instead of running back with his head down and pretending that nothing had happened, he raised his hand to apologize to his teammates; After being copied by Dort in the fourth quarter, he didn't go to the referee, but retreated as soon as possible, made up for it, forced Alexander to pass the ball to Dort in the bottom corner, and then forced Dort to pass the ball, and Owen took the opportunity to break the ball.
When he doesn't talk to the referees and ignores his teammates and gets angry with himself, he's Luka Doncic again.
Thunder's defense today: Dort obstructs Luka; Owen holds the ball and hits it up; Forcing others to attack with the ball, Chet waited for them on the inside.
The Mavericks' defense today: change the defense frequently, take away the three-pointers, and let the Thunder shoot two-pointers one by one.
Alexander had 30 points and eight assists on 12-of-22 shooting, while Luka had 31 points and 11 assists on 12-of-22 shooting. The two trump cards are not much different.
But when Luka was able to focus on playing, his big picture came into play.
The Thunder finally changed the starter, Giddey went off, Isaiah Joe opened up the space, and once started 8-2, "shoot everything", and the defensive end let go of Jones Jr. on the weak side; Luka then fed Jones Jr. three times in a row, and Irving also deliberately found a pinch at the top of the arc to feed Jones Jr.'s inside cut.
"It's not PJ Washington today — it's Jones Jr!"
Later, Jones Jr.'s blocking became a new threat, and there was even a wonderful scene where Luka was caught → passed to Jones Jr. → stuffed to the basket for Gafford to win. The whole team is alive.
Off topic: Irving's hand-to-hand passes, porcelain screens, two saves, and a team-high interference of 6 shots today. He played today, just like the Timberwolves did yesterday when they wanted Conley to play.
Carlisle coach Quakid's 2011 quote that "the best technical metric for judging a playmaking defender is not scoring or assisting, but the team winning" — and it was apt to apply to Irving. By and large, in this season's playoffs, when taking over without the ball, Irving was a far lead in imitating coach Kidd.
Dallas had 20 points and 17 rebounds on 7-of-8 shooting in 48 minutes. The top of the arc gives Owen and Luka cover, automatically presents the opportunity, and then cuts in comfortably; Running and counterattacking is to run wildly to find an empty catch. Chet, on the other hand, had 13 points and 4 rebounds in 38 minutes today: he and Jaylin were too tired.
A terrible situation is:
Jalen Williams, the second leader of the Thunder, who shot 54% from the field and 43% from three-point range in the regular season, shot 5 of 16 three-pointers in this series. What's even more bizarre is that after shooting 2-of-11 in the first three quarters and 5-of-19 in the last game, today is 2-of-8 shooting in the first three quarters.
And, as far as the naked eye can see, he is very hesitant.
Jalen's position is listed as the No. 4 and No. 2 positions, which is not weird to say: he is a small wing player with Leonard's size, wide shoulders and long arms, to put it bluntly, he is a defender skill, can pass and shoot, but is not fast enough; Playing the No. 2 position, he has a power advantage; In the No. 4 position, he has a low center of gravity and skill; But he's not an athletic genius. When the space is stretched, he can calmly eat his opponent with a dislocation; But against a defense like Dallas, which changes frequently and has a dense muscle, it is not so comfortable to eat in a misposition. In addition, he is not a reckless man, so he hesitates.
As a result, the Thunder could only rely on Alexander, one mid-range shot after another.
In the last game, Alexander proudly said after the game that it is possible to win round by round, indeed: but at that time, Dallas himself made free throws, and Luka was still busy complaining to the referee. Today, Alexander is facing a "basketball-only" Luka.
Today, Luka fed Jones Jr. in the first quarter, counterattacked to find Levry, found Gafford in the third quarter, and deliberately found Alexander to pinch himself in the fourth quarter to assist Washington, with clear thinking.
Most remarkably, he hit 12 shots today and ate five assists from his teammates — two on two-pointers and three on three-pointers.
In the regular season, Luka made 18 percent of his two-pointers and 30 percent of his three-pointers from teammate-aided assists — 29 percent of his two-pointers and 60 percent of his three-pointers came from teammate-assists.
He began to find a match, playing high pass cutting with Irving many times, quickly passing to the wing and then receiving the ball to start, and speeding up the backcourt, reducing the habit of "slow dribbling, staring at Dort, and then a difficult step back three".
Even at the end of the game, chased an Alexander raid.
"Play seriously, just focus on basketball, play with a smile".
Now, the Mavericks have got match point.
Both Luca and Alexander said that the mentality of the team will not waver and that the sixth game will be intense, and I just want to add one detail:
In Irving's previous career, he won all of the match point promotion battles in which "just win this game and end this series". All.