BOSTON – The Mavericks have been cultivating the game of rookie Dereck Lively II behind the scenes throughout this season.
He’s been working on the corner three-pointer in practices, individual workout sessions and elsewhere, far from the cameras and snooping reporters. He finally unveiled it in Game 4 of the NBA Finals, when he made the first triple of his career.
He vowed there would be more.
And while the Mavericks’ season came to a close Monday night in Game 5, which Boston won 106-88, the Mavericks may have been watching a terrific example of a big man that started his NBA career glued to the paint, but grew into a feared three-point shooter, Celtics center Al Horford.
The Florida product didn’t shoot a three-pointer in his first two NBA seasons and made only 10 of them in his first seven years.
In the eight seasons since leaving Atlanta in 2016, Horford has made 753 three-pointers and shot it at a 38.5 percent rate. His rebounding – he once was one of the best in the league – suffered a little. But the offensive diversity that he added more than made up for it.
On Monday, Horford hit his first two three-pointers, the second of which was early in the third quarter and put the Celtics up 75-50. He finished with nine points and nine rebounds and was credited by Finals’ MVP Jaylen Brown for allowing the Celtics to “lean on him more than we probably should have.”
So, the question becomes: can the Mavericks figure out a similar career path for Lively, understanding that at the beginning of his career, the 20-year-old’s best asset at this stage is as a force in the paint, same as Horford’s was?
Lively is an elite rim-attacker in the pick-and-roll. He’s a great offensive rebounder. And he protects the rim at the other end.
All of those things require a big man to hang near the paint.
Obviously, three-point shooting requires one to distance himself from the paint.
So where does that leave Jason Kidd and the coaching staff?
“Yeah, I think there’s a balance,” he said before Game 5. “There’s always development with one’s individual game. It’s almost a year since we had him in the draft. And so to be able to see where he has improved, not just in his strength but also the other areas.
“And he can shoot. You know, he has the ability. He has a nice stroke out beyond the arc. And so in due time, he will be one that’s going to probably shoot a lot of threes.”
That will separate Lively from one of his mentors, former Maverick Tyson Chandler, who works a lot with Lively in practice sessions. Chandler never ventured much out of the paint.
But in this era, players like Rudy Gobert, who stay almost exclusively in the paint, are in a major minority. It’s a perimeter game, although these things tend to go in cycles.
So at some point, Lively will find himself in the corner more and more offensively.
Now, however, is not that time.
“Right now, his strength is offensive rebounding, the vertical game, and then being able to guard the ball and also protect the rim,” Kidd reiterated.
And for now, Lively agrees.
“At this time, why would I want to take a three if I got Luka (Dončić) and Kai (Kyrie Irving) coming off a screen to get a wide-open three,” he said. “They’re going to shoot it better than I am. But . . . I’m definitely going to shoot threes in the future.”
It will be part of the next step in Lively’s evolution.
Celtics in the history books: The Celtics are the sixth different NBA champion in the last six seasons. The only other instance with six different NBA champions in a six-season span was 1974-75 to 1979-1980.
Guard Jrue Holiday is the only Boston player to have multiple NBA Titles. He now is a two-time champion, having won a ring with Milwaukee in 2021. Every other player on the roster won a title for the first time.
Center Al Horford won his first championship to cap his 17th NBA season. He is the fourth player to win his first title in his 17th season or later, joining Juwan Howard (18th year), Kevin Willis (18th) and Mavericks’ coach Jason Kidd (17th, with the Mavericks in 2011).
Boston’s 16-3 playoff record this season was impressive, an 84.2 winning percentage.
It’s the ninth-best playoff win percentage and second-best since the first round expanded to a best-of-seven format in 2003. Golden State remains the leader when they went 16-1 (94.1 percent) in the 2016-17 season.
The Mavericks finished their playoff run with a 13-9 record.
Joining royalty: Jayson Tatum now has scored the most playoff points of anybody age 26 or younger (2,711 in 113 games).
He passed Kobe Bryant (2,694 in 119 games). LeBron James is third on the list at 2,578 points in 92 games.
Tatum had 31 points, eight rebounds and 11 assists in the Game 5 clincher.
Briefly: Among the celebrities at the TD Garden on Monday were Patriots quarterback Drake Maye, actors Jack Hardlow and Donnie Wahlberg and former Mavericks/Celtics Jason Terry and Grant Williams . . . Teams that win the first three games of a best-of-seven playoff series now have a series record of 157-0, including 15-0 in the NBA Finals . . . When Celtics’ backup guard Payton Pritchard canned a 49-foot shot just before the halftime buzzer sounded, it was the longest NBA Finals shot made in the play-by-play era (since 1997-98) . . . Josh Green finished the Finals with a bang, setting career playoff highs of 14 points and four three-pointers made.
X: @ESefko
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