Biggest takeaways from the NBA Finals Game 1 between Celtics and Mavericks

Copy Link

Email

Print

Reactions

Like

366

Fire

Wow

Celebrate

The 2024 NBA Finals tipped off with a dominant Game 1 win by the Boston Celtics over the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday.

The series couldn't have started any better for the Celtics, who used a 23-5 run over the final six minutes of the first quarter to build a comfortable lead. Boston's defense continued to give Dallas fits throughout the half, limiting the Western Conference champion to 42 points, its second-lowest first-half point total of the 2024 playoffs.

The 21-point lead the Celtics enjoyed at halftime started to evaporate in the third quarter as Luka Doncic & Co. were able to cut their deficit to single digits, but Boston's ability to…