The Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks will move their best of 7 series to Dallas for Game 3 of the NBA Finals. The Boston Celtics lead the series 2-0 after back to back home wins. Boston is two wins away from one of the most dominant seasons in recent NBA history. The Celtics went 64-18 in the regular season, and have gone 12-2 in the postseason. Boston comes into this game and has not lost a road game in the postseason yet.
For the Dallas Mavericks, their backs are against the wall. The Mavericks are down 2-0, and will need to win four out of the next five games to become NBA Champions. Dallas won the Western Conference despite being the fifth seed in the playoffs. The Mavericks went 50-32 in the regular season. They eliminated the Los Angeles Clippers, the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Minnesota Timberwolves to get to this round.
The Dallas Mavericks are -1.5 over the Boston Celtics.
Boston Loaded with Talent
Jrue Holiday has been a massive key for the Boston Celtics this series. The guard out of UCLA scored 26 points and ripped down 11 rebounds in the Game 2 win. In game 1, he went for 12 and 8, and held the Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving to just 12 points as well.
Jayson Tatum of course is the top scorer for Boston. He is scoring 17 points per game in this series. His biggest postseason games were Game 1 and 3 against the Pacers. He scored 36 points in each of those games.
Jaylen Brown was the MVP of the Eastern Conference. Brown is scoring 21.5 points per game in this series. He had a 40 point game against the Pacers last series. Kristaps Porzingis is also back and has scored 16 points per game for Boston.
Dallas Needs to Find It
We spoke earlier about the defense played by Jrue Holiday on Kyrie Irving. The Mavericks guard is going to need to provide more for them to win this series. He is scoring just 14 points per game. In 58 games in the regular season, he was up over 25 points per game.
Obviously, Luka Doncic is the big name on the Mavericks roster. He has scored 31 points per game in this series. Luka was the scoring champion in the regular season. He scored 33.9 points per game, and also added just shy of 10 assists and 10 rebounds per game.
The Mavericks have enjoyed what they have gotten from big man PJ Washington. The former Charlotte Hornets forward is scoring 15.5 points per game, and adding 7.5 rebounds per game. Washington has scored double digits in each of his last 7 games.
Celtics Go up 3-0
If the Dallas Mavericks are going to win a game, it will be this one. The Mavericks though just do not have enough pieces to take down Boston. The Celtics are playing great basketball right now, and seem to be in a mood to not let anyone slow them down. When push comes to shove, Boston wins this game again. Take the Boston Celtics +105 on the moneyline over the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday.
