When the Celtics walked off the parquet with a blowout win over the Mavericks in Game 1, Brown deflected any praise for the way he and his team guarded Dallas star Luka Doncic.
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“Luka still had 30 [points] and 10 [rebounds], so I got to do a better job,” Brown said.
Brown — perhaps intentionally — left out one thing. For the first time in his career, Doncic finished a playoff game with just one assist.
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No “Where did that come from?” lob passes to Dereck Lively II or Daniel Gafford. No “How did he see that?” zipline to P.J. Washington or Derrick Jones Jr. for a corner 3. Just a connect-the-dots dime to Washington in the first quarter for a transition dunk.
The Celtics neutralized one of Doncic’s scariest superpowers: His playmaking.
Assists
Doncic made his playoff debut in 2020. Since then he’s averaged 8.1 assists in 46 postseason games, the sixth highest average over that span (third among players who played more than 20 playoff games; only Trae Young and James Harden have a higher average).
The Mavericks’ success depends overwhelmingly on Doncic’s playmaking — especially in the playoffs. In Doncic’s postseason career, the Mavericks are 7-2 when he creates 11 or more assists. They’re 1-6 when he finishes a game with fewer than 5. And they’re 16-14 when his assist total falls in between.
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Doncic’s only assist of Game 1 was essentially an Amazon delivery.
Jayson Tatum lost the ball on his pick-up as he drove to the rim trying to squeeze between Washington reaching from the corner and Gafford sliding with him to the lane. Gafford saved the loose ball to Kyrie Irving, who found Doncic in the middle of the floor. Doncic made a quick lookahead pass to Washington for a transition dunk that gave the Mavericks a 9-5 lead at the 9:13 mark of the first quarter.
Beyond that, the Celtics made it nearly impossible for Doncic to make plays for his teammates. Doncic’s ability to lure multiple defenders toward him opens up a world of possibilities for the Mavericks offense — particularly alley-oops and corner 3s.
Lobs
The Mavericks throw lobs like spaghetti at a wall. The offense leaned heavily on lobs in the regular season. They threw 182 of them, second only to the Utah Jazz (198).
In 18 playoff games, they’ve thrown 67. No other playoff team has thrown more than 15.
Dallas’s only lob attempt in Game 1 was a dud. Doncic used a high screen from Lively to draw four defenders toward the paint. He couldn’t quite get Celtics big man Kristaps Porzingis to commit, but he still hoisted a pass over him.
Lively launched himself in the air, but a bump from Porzingis made sure he didn’t come down with it. Lively got the foul call, but the Celtics snuffed out the lob.
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Threes
More than any team in the league, the Mavericks offense fed on corner 3s — a shot the Celtics are relentlessly stingy about allowing.
During the regular season, the Mavericks led the league with 924 corner 3 attempts. That was the fourth highest total since 2014 (the 2023 Mavericks are tops with 946).
The Mavericks have binged on corner 3s in the playoffs this season, averaging 11 per game. Their go-to guys in the corners have been Washington (28 of 69, first in corner 3s attempted), Jones Jr. (17-37, third), and Josh Green (13-37, fourth).
But in Game 1 of the Finals, corner 3s were as hard to come by as the lobs. The Celtics held the Mavericks to just three attempts.
One was a stepback by Irving that ricocheted of the top of the backboard. The next one was a quick catch-and-shoot by Washington off an inbounds pass that clanged off the side of the rim.
Dallas only make from the corner was a wide-open look in transition by Green with 58 seconds left and the busses warming up.
Afterward, the Mavericks insisted offense wasn’t the main problem (and after letting the Celtics fire up 42 3s, they aren’t wrong). But if they’re going to turn things around in Game 2 on Sunday, they’ll have to figure out whether the Celtics are taking their favorite options from them, or if they just aren’t looking hard enough.
Other notes
▪ Per Tom Haberstroth, dating back to 2017, Irving had made 32 consecutive free throws against the Celtics. But he has to get to the line to make them.
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He didn’t take a free throw in Game 1. That’s the fourth time that’s happened in these playoffs. He had only six other times in his postseason career with no freebie attempts prior to this season, going back to 2016.
▪ If the Mavericks keep letting the Celtics take over 40 threes per game, this series will be short — and they know it.
The Celtics averaged 42.5 3-point attempts in the regular season. They were 32-6 when they shot more than 42, and 32-12 when they shot 42 or fewer. The Celtics have a lot of ways to win, but if they hit their average from behind the arc, they’re almost a lock.
Meanwhile during the regular season, the Mavericks gave up 42 or more 3-point attempts 13 times, twice to the Celtics (both losses). And now add Game 1 of the Finals to that loss column.
Julian Benbow can be reached at julian.benbow@globe.com.
