The Oklahoma City Thunder have solidified their position as the clear favorites to win the NBA Finals, with odds hovering around +135 to +140 at most shops. This reflects their dominant regular-season, where they currently hold the best record in the league.
When we played them a month ago, I was just blown away by how good they were. Every team has a different set of circumstances. The Celtics sure aren't used to being an afterthought and they kind of were before the season with Jayson's injury and the departures of Kristaps and Al Horford.
The Celtics were fairly clear about their strategy in defending the Spurs superstar: Give up threes rather than twos and hope he can't shoot you out of the game. The strategy makes some sense - Wembanyama is solid, but he's only making 35 percent of his 3-point attempts this year. Joe Mazzulla loves to try to manipulate the math in his favor, and when part of the equation is a 7-foot-4 center that can do a little bit of everything offensively, the numbers become more difficult to square.
Nearly 10 months removed from a bleak night in New York when the Celtics lost both Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals and their superstar to a torn Achilles, Jayson Tatum returned to action on Friday, and his return - which overshadowed an impressive 120-100 victory by the Celtics over the Mavericks - was everything the team could have hoped.
I'm looking at Jaylen Brown, and I'm saying I would give it to him. The MVP doesn't always go to the best player. If that's the case, Michael Jordan would have won it about 10 times, okay? The fact of the matter is sometimes it goes to the most valuable individual [during] that particular season - taking all things into consideration in terms of what you bring it to the table, what you have to work with, and what you're working against.
With or without Tatum, even if Tatum doesn't come back, the Celtics are the scariest team in the Eastern Conference. The reason being is that there are no expectations. People thought this was going to be a gap year without Tatum.
Boucher didn't see game action in the final 23 games in his last season with Toronto, and it wasn't because of poor play. The 33-year-old was Toronto's leading bench scorer at 10.0 points per game while chipping in 4.5 rebounds, and was having one of his best shooting seasons, converting at 36.3 per cent from three-point range (3.9 attempts) while hitting at a 63.3 per cent clip from inside the arc. Among Raptors regulars, his +4.9 net rating was second.
We wouldn't be in the position that we're in right now if he didn't help us win games... His care factor's really high and he wanted to do whatever it takes to win. That's what I'll remember him for.
