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Tuesday's takeaways: Thunder figure out Mavs; Celtics' depth shines - The Athletic

By Anthony Slater, Tim Cato, Jared Weiss, Jay King and Joe Vardon

The Boston Celtics easily handled the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1 on Tuesday, even with an off-night for superstar centerpiece Jayson Tatum. Meanwhile, the Dallas Mavericks were blown out after their superstar, Luka Dončić, struggled against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Here’s what we saw.

Thunder 117, Mavericks 95

Series: Thunder lead 1-0

Game 2: 9:30 p.m. ET Thursday in Oklahoma City (ESPN)

Thunder create distance in second half after tweaking rotation

The Thunder’s Game 1 win over the Mavericks flipped in the middle of the third quarter. Coach Mark Daigneault quickly subbed in Isaiah Joe for Josh Giddey after the Mavericks cut a nine-point halftime lead to one.

Giddey does a ton for the Thunder, but his presence crunches the floor and his jumper was off. Joe, a floor spacer, made a 3 on his first possession. Luguentz Dort, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren followed with 3s as part of a 14-4 run in Joe’s first three minutes on the floor. OKC sprinted away.

As this series moves forward, Giddey’s minutes will be important to track. He started but only played 17 minutes in Game 1 and was a minus-7. Joe was a plus-12 in his 15 bench minutes.

Cason Wallace hit two 3s and guarded well. Aaron Wiggins might’ve been the Thunder’s third-best player despite starting the night as the 10th man: 16 points in 19 minutes, plus several hustle plays. If future games are tighter down the stretch, Daigneault’s closing lineup choice will be under a microscope.

Jalen Williams seemed to wake up after three terrible quarters and what appeared to be a calf tweak. He was 2-of-11 shooting but exploded for 10 straight points in an early fourth-quarter surge to seal it. If the Mavericks get more from Dončić and Kyrie Irving — 39 points on 33 shots, nine turnovers — the Thunder will need a steadier Williams for the length of the game, not just a spurt.

Gilgeous-Alexander guided OKC in the first half, taking advantage of a tight whistle. He had 19 points the first two quarters and muscled his way to the free-throw line 11 times. Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 29 points, nine rebounds and nine assists.

The Dallas bigs struggled to defend him without fouling. The Mavericks tried to go small down the stretch. It didn’t work, but it was notable that Jason Kidd tried, even without the injured Maxi Kleber. — Anthony Slater

Luka still isn’t right

Coming into Tuesday, the Mavericks hadn’t won a Game 1 in the four series that Kidd has been head coach. The team’s defeat to Oklahoma City made it five.

On one hand, Dallas came back to win three of those four series. The team has shown an ability to adjust in the ensuing games of a close series. But there’s no on-floor adjustment who can fix the team’s primary concern stemming from Tuesday’s defeat: That Dončić, once again, was far from his usual offensive self.

He injured his knee in Game 3 of the team’s previous series, against the LA Clippers, an injury that had him briefly retreat to the locker room before returning. He hasn’t missed any major time, but Dončić admitted before Game 5 that he likely would have sat out if it were the regular season. He said again before Tuesday’s matchup that the injury probably wouldn’t be right until he rested it this summer.

Dončić has shot 46 of 120 from the field since that injury. He’s shot particularly poorly behind the 3-point line (8 of 49) despite having turned in his best ever shooting season this year, finishing with more made 3s than anyone other than Stephen Curry. He appears to be moving laterally but struggling with explosion.

There’s two options: Either teams have solved the player who has baffled defenses since he entered the league six years ago and who entered this postseason with the highest playoffs points per game average for any player not named Michael Jordan. Or his knee is affecting him, which isn’t something any Game 1 adjustment can solve. — Tim Cato

Celtics 120, Cavs 95

Series: Celtics lead 1-0

Game 2: 7 p.m. ET Thursday in Boston (ESPN)

Tatum struggles, but an unexpected hero emerges

The Celtics opening 20-point leads have become a nightly occurrence this season and that didn’t stop against a team that had all of its playmakers healthy. Miami was missing a ton of offensive firepower in the first round, so it wasn’t a shock to see the Heat fall behind so much. But with the way the Celtics second unit played in Game 1 of the second round, Cleveland may be in a similar predicament.

With Kristaps Porziņģis out, Luke Kornet was huge (four points, 10 rebounds, two blocks) stepping into the rotation. The Cavs will have to take Kornet away from the rim if they are going to score consistently in this series.

Tristan Thompson got the backup center minutes instead of Georges Niang, so will Cleveland try to space the floor as much as possible next game? The Cavs need to do something to get Darius Garland going, since Donovan Mitchell (33 points) and Evan Mobley (17 points, 13 rebounds) can’t play much better offensively than they did in Game 1.

On the other end of the floor, Joe Mazzulla had the ideal scenario. Thought Tatum struggled to score (18 points on 7-of-19 shooting), Jaylen Brown and Derrick White stepped up and were on fire (32 and 25 points, respectively).

If there is anyone you can trust to find his way into the series, it’s Tatum. The Celtics want him to pace himself and steadily find his rhythm so that he doesn’t overexert himself. Their hope is that he picks up momentum as they inch closer toward the conference finals. — Jared Weiss

Derrick White’s shooting ignites Celtics

During a news conference last week, a reporter asked White if he had come back to Earth after a big game against the Miami Heat.

“I don’t think I left Earth,” White responded.

Maybe that’s because he has been flying in outer space all along. After averaging 26.3 points per game over the final three games of the first round, White drilled seven 3-point attempts in Game 1 of the second. He finished with 25 points on 9-of-16 shooting, including a 7-of-12 effort from downtown, while allowing Boston to keep a double-digit lead for most of the second half.

Tatum didn’t have an efficient offensive game. The Celtics defense didn’t always operate at top intensity. Mitchell went off for 33 points on 12-of-25 shooting. Boston still held a comfortable lead for much of the game largely because White buried outside shot after outside shot.

Once a questionable shooter, he now has full confidence. Based on his performance all season, he should. It will take a mighty defensive effort to slow down the Celtics offense if White can stay in his rocket ship for the rest of the postseason. — Jay King

Cavs rightly kept shooting, but shots again weren’t falling

So apparently there is more to it than merely shooting a bunch of 3s.

In their series opener with the Celtics, the Cavs actually reached the magic number of 40 3-point tries (they attempted 42, having hit 40 midway through the fourth quarter).

They were blown out anyway.

The backstory to this is, of course, in mid-December, when things seemed so bleak for Cleveland because of a slow start and both Garland and Mobley were about to miss two months, the Cavs shocked the NBA by reeling off the best record in the league from that time through the All-Star break. They did it by spacing the floor and firing an obscene amount of 3s, and slowly slipped away from that style as the season wore on and Mobley returned to the lineup.

Cleveland doesn’t have much choice but to play that way so long as Jarrett Allen is out — he missed his fourth consecutive playoff game with a rib injury. But it didn’t work against Boston.

For one, the Cavs continued their woeful outside shooting from the last series, making just 11 of their 3s (after shooting about 28 percent from deep against the Magic). Second, the Celtics play small, with basically three guards, Tatum and one big. They lead the league in 3s and were 18-of-46 on Tuesday.

The one-in, four-out style is a perfect fit for this Boston group. Just stand on the perimeter and bomb away until defenders dare to get out there. When they do, Tatum, Brown, White and Jrue Holiday can put it on the floor and drive past their man.

We won’t know what kind of series this will be until Game 3, when we see how the Cavs do at home. The last playoff game this franchise won on the road was actually here, in Boston, six years ago — Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals. There is no reason to suspect that streak will end Thursday, barring a lack of focus on the Celtics’ part or a sudden change in Cleveland’s shooting percentage.

That’s why Game 3 is the litmus test. In the meantime, Mitchell became the fourth player in NBA history to score at least 30 in six consecutive Game 1s. His 33 points follow the 89 he scored in Games 6 and 7 against the Magic. Mobley’s 17 points and 13 boards were nice, but the Cavs didn’t get enough from their bench or Max Strus (2-of-8 shooting). — Joe Vardon

(Top photo of Jalen Williams: Joe Murphy / NBAE via Getty Images)

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