Doncic, Dallas plot Game 2 fightback

NEW YORK — The 2023-2024 National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals between the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks are underway. Rightly or wrongly, this seven-game series is widely considered as the pinnacle of basketball, eagerly anticipated by millions of people worldwide.

Logic would dictate that the popularity of a North American league like the NBA would pale in comparison to a truly global competition like the FIBA Basketball World Cup. Thanks to the NBA’s carefully crafted brand strategy, that simply isn’t the case, with the possible exception — at least for basketball-crazy Filipinos — of the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

Less than a year ago, the Philippines took center court globally as it hosted basketball royalty from across the globe.

It was a privilege for our country to host two of the main superstars currently battling it out in these Finals — American Jayson Tatum of the Celtics and Slovenian Luka Doncic of the Mavericks. Although they were unable to take their respective country’s teams to the FIBA Basketball World Cup Finals, here they are on what Doncic has referred to as “obviously a bigger stage” when compared to Euro basketball.

You have to admire their dedication, patriotism, and love for the game. They gave up rest during the NBA’s offseason to play for their respective countries and yet still had the endurance to take their teams to within four games of NBA glory.

Make that within three games for Tatum and the Celtics, who routed the Mavericks in Game 1 by employing a suffocating defense worthy of the team’s standing as the regular season’s second best defensive team with a defensive rating of 110.6.

The Mavs have found success all season by employing the pick-and-roll to generate mismatches and either allow Doncic to score easily or find open teammates.

But the Celtics prevented him from facilitating the Mavs’ offense by sticking to a tenacious one-on-one defense, grinding the Mavs’ ball movement to a halt and limiting Doncic to one assist after averaging 8.4 per game in the postseason.

This is Doncic’s first career playoff game with just one assist and an AST Percentage of 4.3, far from his 35.5 AST Percentage through this postseason. Look for Doncic to be more aggressive in Game 2.

“What makes our team really special is that we don’t have guys that we hide on defense. Bigs, guards, we switch and take on the challenge of individual defense. We’re not showing because that can compromise our defense,” Tatum said.

Tatum’s game has matured significantly over the years, especially after learning some hard lessons from the NBA Finals loss to the Golden State Warriors in 2022.

He has been open about how he often thinks about the championship that got away from them. This time, he played controlled, which the Celtics needed in the face of a serious Mavs run in the third quarter. And he isn’t about to take this second chance at a championship for granted.

Doncic, on the other hand, was pensive for most of his postgame interview, sticking to brief, direct answers to the questions of reporters starved for soundbites.

For a question on the Celtics’ defensive strategy, he said, “They mostly played one-on-one (defense). They didn’t send a lot of help.”

‘What makes our team really special is that we don’t have guys that we hide on defense. Bigs, guards, we switch and take on the challenge of individual defense. We’re not showing because that can compromise our defense.’

For a question on what it was like to lose Game 1 in previous rounds against the Oklahoma City Thunder and Los Angeles Clippers, he replied, “I don’t remember.”

“Either you lose or you win. It’s first to four (wins). We have to focus on the next game.”

For a question on whether the team remains confident, he replied, “Of course.”

His mood is understandable, having lost the first NBA Finals game of his career.

But if we go by how he responded to what he called a bad game in a Game 5 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference Finals, we may be in for a treat from Doncic and the Mavs in Game 2 scheduled for Sunday evening (Monday in Manila).

This series is particularly interesting because of all the rich side stories: Boston fans’ passionate disdain for Kyrie Irving, Kristaps Porzingis’ impressive return to the playoffs after missing more than a month with a calf strain (and playing against his former team no less), Eastern Conference Finals Most Valuable Player Jaylen Brown’s quiet dominance as a bonafide superstar, Al Horford’s latest attempt at finally securing a ring after a 17-season career, Mark Cuban’s journey to what he hopes is another Dallas championship after selling his majority stake in the team — the list goes on and on.

So even if it feels like an 18th Boston championship is a done deal, there is still so much to look forward to in these NBA Finals.

Michael Yu is a freelance writer based in New York City. He is the former Human Resources head of NBA Asia and senior Human Resources director at the NBA Headquarters.