Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown vs Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic: A Finals Preview
Celtics or Mavericks? Who has the better duo and who has the better chance of winning the 2024 NBA Finals this year? Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have been together their entire careers, and the duo knows nothing but playoff success.
They just haven’t broken through yet to win an NBA Championship. Tatum and Brown have been to six Eastern Conference Finals and are now appearing in their second Finals appearance in three years. The Duo they are facing this time around may prevent them from being the last team standing once again. Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic have been transcendent in their first playoff run together. Luka finally has a team that is capable of winning the Finals, and he has the perfect running mate for him in Irving.
Tatum has gotten a lot of scrutiny from the media, mostly for not performing at a high level in big games and clutch moments. Tatum is considered to be Batman to his counterpart Jaylen Brown, but it has been Brown who has “saved” Tatum multiple times this postseason.
The Celtics have a great supporting cast this year, maybe the best one they have had during the Tatum and Brown era. The Celtics at one point had Irving, Brown, and Tatum all on the same team, but where each player was at that point in their career, it just wasn’t fit for a championship run.
This postseason Tatum is averaging 26 ppg, 10.4 rebounds, and 5.9 assists, on 44.2 percent from the field and 29 percent from behind the arc. These stats on the surface seem great, but it’s when Tatum has done it that has been the issue, whether it’s the big moment or the big game, he has struggled. His “robin” Jaylen Brown has been extremely efficient this postseason averaging 25 ppg, 6.1 rebounds, and 2.6 assists while shooting 54.1 percent from the field, and 36.8 percent from three-point range. For them to have a chance in this year’s NBA Finals the Celtics are going to need more efficient play from Tatum.
For the first time this postseason, it feels like the Celtics are going to be playing another legit Finals-contending team. No one considered the injured Miami Heat, the injured Cleveland Cavaliers, or an Indiana Pacers team that went to two game 7s prior to their series against Boston, as real title contenders.
The Dallas Mavericks are a strong, deep, skilled team that has been battle-tested throughout the postseason. The Mavericks have the best player in the series (Luka Doncic) and have a guy in Kyrie Irving who has been there and done that. Kyrie ever since he left Lebron in Cleveland had been searching for another star to play alongside that had a similar play style to Lebron. He attempted to do it in Brooklyn, with Kevin Durant, but too many things went wrong for that team, and it never reached its full potential.
Kyrie has finally found his Lebron-like teammate and that is what makes Dallas so scary. Irving is averaging 22.8 ppg, 3.0 rebounds, and 5.2 assists while shooting 48.5 percent from the field and 42.1 percent from behind the arc. When Irving can defer to a superstar that can do it all and allow him to focus on scoring in the flow of the game rather than trying to force things he is arguably the best Robin to any Batman. Irving’s skillset makes him impossible to guard. Irving is a quick, shifty, great handling, finisher at the rim and this is what makes Dallas so dangerous because Doncic is quite the opposite.
Luka controls the pace of the game by never letting a defense speed him up. Luka plays at his pace, which can at times be slow and methodical. For teams to have to plan for the shifty Irving and the slow-paced Luka, it can give opposing defenses nightmares to prepare for.
Heading into the Finals with two completely different narratives will make it even more interesting to see how the series plays out. Tatum is going to have to play at a very efficient level, and the injured Porzingis will have to come back and play much better prior to his injury for the Celtics to change the narrative and win this series. If he can’t figure out how to do that, the Mavericks are going to win this series in six games, maybe less.
