There’s a word that suits the Celtics and Pacers after playing 1 game in the East Finals.
BOSTON — Words. Talk. Chatter. Noise. Throughout an NBA season and playoffs, you might hear or read hundreds of thousands of words about your favorite or even your least favorite team.
News. Analyses. Opinions. Long-form breakdowns. It all adds up.
We’re going in the opposite direction here and taking a minimalist approach. As in, one word. That’s it. One each to describe the four remaining teams still battling in the NBA conference finals.
Time for National Basketball (Word) Association.
Boston Celtics
Nonchalant
adjective
Feeling or appearing casually calm and relaxed; not displaying anxiety, interest, or enthusiasm.
If there’s one criticism of the Celtics that has stuck so far this postseason, it’s that they lack urgency. And with it, consistency, and outward passion of purpose.
Some of it’s understandable, given the talent and depth of their roster and the wide swath they cut through the East in the regular season. Boston never was tested (beyond getting bumped from the In-Season Tournament) and it almost always has two or three players engaged enough on a given night to get the job done.
While it’s possible to stack up 16 playoff victories this way, as long as there are four, five, six or however many to go, doubters will check Jayson Tatum’s, Jaylen Brown’s, Derrick White’s and the rest’s faces and pulses in search of complete victories and commitment.
Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum's clutch buckets help Boston nab a nail-biting OT win in Game 1 of the East Finals.
Indiana Pacers
Neophyte
noun
A beginner or novice; someone who has recently become involved in an activity and is still learning about it.
Inexperience is the point here. There is no denying what the Pacers have accomplished to be still playing deep into May. “The uninvited guests,” coach Rick Carlisle called his club after they advanced to this round after beating New York in Game 7 Sunday at Madison Square Garden.
These are heady days for a team that missed the playoffs the past three seasons and had a different coach and mostly different players when it did last qualify. It has the most potent offense in the playoffs so far (122.2 points per 100 possessions), but the mountain it is trying to climb is steep: Knock off the East’s No. 3 seed (Bucks), the No. 2 seed (Knicks) and now, try to topple the No. 1 seed.
Playing as fast as the Pacers prefer can lead to problems, as in the 22 turnovers they committed in their Game 1 overtime loss Tuesday, good for 32 of the Celtics’ 133 points. Every situation now is a learning opportunity, but these are heavy and fast post-graduate lessons.
Minnesota Timberwolves
Centered
adjective
Placed or situated in the center; emotionally stable and secure.
You can go by the descriptive dictionary version of this word or, for basketball purposes, focus more literally on the Timberwolves’ roster construction. Why settle for one or two centers when three, four or more can help a team move toward its playoff ambitions?
Rudy Gobert is, once again, the Kia Defensive Player of the Year and the cornerstone of Minnesota’s top-ranked defense all season. Karl-Anthony Towns is one of the game’s deepest-shooting big men. Naz Reid is the Kia Sixth Man of the Year winner. Employing and deploying all three bucked the sport’s trend toward smaller, quicker, outside-in stylistics, and specifically worked to topple the defending champion Nuggets, built around three-time Kia MVP Nikola Jokic.
The challenge now for the Wolves comes from a Dallas team configured differently. With this opponent, big men finish alley-oops rather than toss them. The primary tormentors, Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, are out front. Sweeping Phoenix in the first round suggests Minnesota is up for this task, but an overreliance on 3-pointers in Game 1 Wednesday wasn’t it.
Dominated in the paint, the Timberwolves lack energy in Game 1 following a grueling 7-game series with the Nuggets.
Dallas Mavericks
Transformed
intransitive verb
To become transformed, changed
By January, the Mavericks were 26-22 and sputtered in eighth place in the West. After that, they finished 24-10 and climbed offensively and defensively, from No. 10 and No. 23 before Feb. 1 to No. 7 in both categories. What changed?
On Feb. 8, Dallas acquired center Daniel Gafford from Washington and forward P.J. Washington from Charlotte, changing its rotation and the trajectory of its season. Neither came cheap, costing players, a first-round Draft pick and other considerations. But there’s no quibbling with the results.
Paired with rookie Dereck Lively II, Gafford has given the Mavs a pair of lengthy, vertical rim-runners as finishers for Doncic’s uncanny passing. Washington has given them much-needed size and strength up front, and while his numbers are no better than they were with the Hornets, they matter more.
This new look, playing out of the No. 5 seed, bumped off the Clippers and the Thunder in six games each. The Timberwolves got introduced to it Wednesday, not having faced these Mavericks since Jan. 31.
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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
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