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00:00The NBA Finals is now set six days away. Game number one of the 2024 NBA Finals
00:10inside TD Garden in Boston between the Celtics and the Mavericks. The Mavs back
00:16into the NBA Finals for the first time in more than a decade when they won
00:20their only Larry O'Brien trophy in franchise history back in 2011. Second
00:26NBA Finals appearance for Boston in the last three NBA seasons. Of course the
00:31Celtics, one of the most decorated franchises in all of professional sports
00:35in the hunt for banner number 18. They will have home for advantage throughout
00:41the NBA Finals. What will it mean for Boston and Dallas? Let's start with the
00:47Celtics perspective DRS because as we have shared multiple times from the very
00:51beginning of this season this was going to be the evaluation piece for Boston.
00:57This was going to be how we judged a successful Celtic season. Not getting to
01:02the playoffs, not reaching the second round, heck not even winning the Eastern
01:05Conference crown, but getting to the NBA Finals with this core and actually
01:10winning a Larry O'Brien trophy. As you will see all throughout Boston has been
01:15booked as a favorite to win the NBA Championship on opening night. A co
01:20favorite alongside Milwaukee at plus 380. A co-favorite at plus 175 to win the
01:27Eastern Conference as well. And Donnie by the time we got to February and
01:31Milwaukee trailed behind despite a winning record, the dismissal of Adrian
01:35Griffin, the hiring of Doc Rivers. The Bucks weren't really on the same peg as
01:40the Celtics pretty much since the All-Star break. It's been Boston and
01:43everybody else in the Eastern Conference and almost the Celtics and everybody
01:47else in the entirety of the association. That's what it feels like and also you
01:52know having coach on the talk about the evolution of the Boston Celtics which
01:55really wasn't much of an evolution at all. We thought they were the best team
01:58opening up the season and here they are favored to win the NBA Finals as they
02:02should be. But sometimes you like to be tested here and that's going to be the
02:06issue. We see the Dallas Mavericks face very good opponent after very good
02:10opponent after very good opponent here in the Western Conference playoffs. We
02:13haven't seen that here from the Boston Celtics and quite frankly it's not their
02:16fault. Sometimes things just go your way. You need a lot of breaks and benefits on
02:20your way to a championship run but we haven't seen that adversity hit them. We
02:25haven't seen a team rise up and test them. Well Donny did you see like that
02:28was 1-1 in a couple of those series? Yeah I understand that. Nobody thought
02:31after those 1-1 series in series number one and series number two that we
02:35were gonna see a fifth or a sixth game at that point. Obviously a fifth game but
02:38not a sixth or seventh game to get that extended series. I want to see how it
02:42plays out. Now a couple years ago in New York City running for mayor there was a
02:46campaign that was called the rent is too damn high. We take a look at the
02:49Boston Celtics at minus 220 for the finals. That rent is too damn high here. I
02:54know the Celtics are really good but damn it they are overpriced continuously
02:59here. That 220 shouldn't be that high then. And as we discussed throughout this
03:04week Donny after the Celtics wrapped up the Eastern Conference title that only
03:08four games against a banged up Indiana team that did not have its all-star in
03:12Tyrese Halliburton. The line started to trick up even to minus 230 minus 240 and
03:18we said listen the look-ahead line of the projected NBA Finals matchup before
03:23the conference finals round between the Celtics and the Mavericks was around
03:26this minus 220 price. Even if Dallas has to go to five or six in the Western
03:32Conference Finals it is going to stay around that number and of course that's
03:37where we settle. Minus 220 for the NBA Championship in favor of the Boston
03:43Celtics. But again they flip to an odds-on favorite by the time we were in
03:47the opening round of the NBA playoffs and that's with everybody still in
03:52action in the Western Conference. The Nuggets as the favorites. OKC as the top
03:57seed. Minnesota and of course now the Dallas Mavericks. So let's go to the
04:02Mavs who actually entered the NBA postseason. Third best price in the
04:06Western Conference DRS to end up winning the title of which they did. A plus 650
04:12number for Dallas and that's really where the Mavericks have been on the
04:18ascension. A strong closing stretch to the end of the regular season. They
04:23disposed the LA Clippers in round number one. They got rid of the Oklahoma City
04:27Thunder despite the Thunder being the top seed in the Western Conference in
04:31round two in a gentleman's sweep in the Western Conference Finals. Oh by the way
04:36just to keep the historic tally going 156 times now we have seen a best of
04:41seven playoff series and NBA postseason history have a team hold a 3-0 series
04:46lead. All 156 the team that was up 3-0 ended up winning the series. Absolutely
04:53and we were talking about that and we don't have to clip that clip of you
04:56saying like there's no way they can come back because quite frankly nobody's
04:59ever done it. So it's an easy stance to take Ben. You won that stance went up to
05:03send that to any freezing cold takes and also after they lost game number four
05:07we're talking about the Dallas Mavericks. I don't think anybody was panicked like
05:10yeah we're still gonna get a seven game series. We were hoping for that for
05:13content purposes and betting purposes and have a lot of fun to see that
05:16competition on the court but you were talking in waves of okay it's hard to
05:20win four games in a row. Dallas couldn't do that. Now we're just expecting the
05:23Timberwolves to win four games in a row against a team that just beat them three
05:26straight games. We knew that was a little bit far-fetched at this point but
05:29also when you're moving forward and what we expect from the Dallas Mavericks
05:32here's what's sometimes tough to lay out. Yes we know Luke is very good and Kyrie
05:37are very good but in order to probably beat the Boston Celtics which they're
05:41gonna have a chance to do that the price points aren't minus 600 minus 700 in the
05:45series right but you are gonna have to have those Hall of Fame performances by
05:48those two guys because when you are going to match up these two squads
05:51against each other there's two superstars already on the Boston Celtics.
05:55There's two superstars already on the Dallas Mavericks but if we're looking at
05:59those B and C pieces the Boston Celtics have many more of those than the Dallas
06:04Mavericks do so which is very enjoyable because if you are the underdog you need
06:08epic performances to win a series or even a few games in that series. So
06:12Luka Doncic he understands the task moving forward. It can't be 17 points 9
06:18rebounds and 6 assists. We got to get what we saw last night out of those two
06:22superstars if they think they want to win the series. That's what's going to be
06:25fun to watch you play out how high these superstars can actually take their games
06:29in the biggest moments.