The NBA Finals are set with the Mavericks facing the Celtics.
Here's a look at the top 10 best and most important players as Boston takes on Dallas for an NBA Championship.
10. Al Horford
The old man is back in the Finals. If Kristaps Porzingis is out or on a minutes limit, Al Horford will have his hands full trying to contain the pogo sticks the Mavericks have in Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford.
Horford has to spread the floor effectively. If he can be a stretch five, Dallas will have to go to Maxi Kleber to match, and while Kleber is good in that role, it means Dallas is trying to play Boston's way instead of its own style.
Horford can't be a liability on switches or from 3 or Dallas will pick on him relentlessly.
9. P.J. Washington
P.J. Washington wasn't Ray Allen against the Wolves like he was versus the Thunder, but he made enough plays to help carry the Mavericks.
Washington's big value in this series will be on defense; the Celtics won't dare him to hit shots like Minnesota and Oklahoma City did.
If Washington can slow down Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, though, the Celtics' offense will stall out.
If he can find small gaps to hit corner 3s against a Boston team that can get caught in variance games, that goes a long way as well.
A formula for the Mavericks to win includes at least one game where Washington shoots the lights out.
8. Jrue Holiday
Jrue Holiday had a good offensive series against the Pacers. That's a testament to how bad Indiana's defense is because Holiday tends to struggle, especially on open shots in the playoffs.
He'll have opportunities in this series, too; Dallas will dare him — like other teams have — to make open looks out of stilted ball movement.
If he can't, it's a drain on Boston's efficiency.
But Holiday is also basically tailor-made to battle Kyrie Irving for seven games. He's strong (though not strong enough to defend Luka Doncic, and the Celtics need to work to avoid that matchup in the post) and fast enough to contain Irving.
If he takes Irving out of the series, that goes a long way for Boston because Dallas will have to pick and choose who to contain offensively among Boston's egalitarian offense.
7. Dereck Lively II
Lively is that good. His rim running next to Doncic unlocks something new for Dallas.
Lively's defensive numbers aren't as good, but the offense absolutely burns when he's on the floor.
The Celtics still mess around defensively with Payton Pritchard and Luke Kornet. If they do that in the Finals, Lively's going to tear them to pieces with lobs and cuts.
This is a big rebounding series for Lively as well. Tatum will guard him on pre-switches consistently, and that means Lively will have an opportunity to crash the glass.
Boston's bench lineups aren't as strong, and Lively has been the biggest reason that Dallas has been dominant. He can be a huge swing in this series — as he's been in the last three.
6. Derrick White
When Derrick White has great games, the Celtics win. And White has a lot of great games.
His defense on Irving is crucial. He can deter and force him to reset the offense.
White is also a tremendous help defender, able to help down in key situations and recover to the outside on closeouts.
He has a penchant for key 3s and there will be a game in this series in which we'll argue that White — not Tatum or Brown — won the matchup for the Celtics.
White is a knockdown shooter who makes very few mistakes, something the Mavericks haven't really faced in these playoffs.
His ability to control tempo helps in getting the floor unbalanced against Dallas' propensity to pack the paint.
5. Kristaps Porzingis
Porzingis absolutely destroyed the Mavericks in the game he played against them this season. The Celtics are just a different beast when he's available.
He hasn't played in over a month, and calf strains are notoriously fickle. If he goes back out, the series shifts considerably towards Dallas.
But when healthy, he provides a weapon that no team — especially the Mavericks — can counter. Lively and Gafford's rim protection will fail because of Porzingis' ability to spread the floor the way that Rudy Gobert, Chet Holmgren (as a rookie who missed 3s) and Ivica Zubac can't.
His rim protection and ability to switch are just as important. The Celtics' ability to negate pick-and-roll leverage with Porzingis' versatility and rim protection is key. The Mavericks will try to slip picks, but Boston is great at negating that with help and recovery.
When the Mavericks switch, Porzingis can post-up smaller defenders like Irving in ways that Karl-Anthony Towns and Gobert could not.
4. Kyrie Irving
Kyrie is Kyrie.
His defense has been the best of his career in these playoffs.
That said, he still struggles with size and athleticism, which the Celtics have a great deal of.
Irving will have a 30+ point game, at least, in these Finals. He has the deepest bag of maybe any player in NBA history. His tough-shot-making ability is second to none.
This is personal for Irving. He took real heat from Boston for his decision to reneg on a preseason declaration he would re-sign in 2019.
Irving's ability to act as a secondary playmaker doesn't matter as much in this series, due to the fact that Boston doesn't want to commit extra resources and because of the presence of White and Holiday.
Again, Irving will still get his, but the ability of the Celtics to manage it and not have breakdowns defensively — which makes things worse — helps.
Irving's shot making is especially important if the Mavericks can get themselves into clutch situations. That's where Boston tends to get tight, and the Mavericks will have a huge edge then.
Irving likely winds up having to guard White a lot; the Mavs will have to hide Doncic on Holiday.
If Irving is the best player in the series, the Mavericks absolutely win the title.
3. Jaylen Brown
Brown is not far off from the No. 2 player in these rankings at this point. The whole season I've felt that Brown was the best player on the Celtics.
Tatum is the best player in a vacuum based on skill and performance, but Brown vibes extremely well with this iteration of the Celtics. He has great chemistry with Porzingis and he scores off the attention that Tatum draws and the quick plays that White creates.
Brown's matchup is good in this series. He's 12-of-19 from the field against Doncic over the last two seasons.
The Mavericks may try to cross match with Washington or Derrick Jones Jr. on him, but that will leave Doncic or Irving chasing the Celtics' guards around screens or on crossmatches against Porzingis.
Given that the Mavericks want to switch everything, keeping the right matchups off both Brown and Tatum will be difficult.
Brown is shooting better from the field and from 3-point range than Tatum. He's live for MVP at +550.
2. Jayson Tatum
Tatum is not a top-five player in the NBA.
That's tough, given his success. He's in his second Finals in three years after his fifth conference finals of his career. He's averaging 26-10-6 for the best team in the league that just went 12-2 to reach the Finals after 64 wins and one of the best regular season's of all-time.
Also, he's a much, much better defender than Doncic; Tatum is a borderline elite-level defender.
But Tatum doesn't shape the game the way Doncic does. He doesn't control the flow of the game and dictate matchups. Defenses are willing to live with Tatum; he doesn't cause unease or panic.
He's a great scorer and a good passer. He's also sacrificed a lot this season in order to win a title. He's taken a smaller role to make the team better, which is what you should want.
But it also makes it impossible to put him above Doncic.
1. Luka Doncic
This isn't hard, and I didn't have to think about it long. If you want the biggest reason to take the Mavericks in the Finals, the easiest answer is "they have the best player."
Doncic is a one-man army and the constant pressure he puts on defenses cracks their principles and forces them out of their comfort zone, which is where mistakes are made.
Want to switch so you can stay home on shooters like the Celtics do? He's going to bludgeon you with ISOs against your weak spots over and over.
Going to blitz him so you can get the ball out of his hands? He's going to throw dime after dime so players just have to make easy plays or shots.
Play drop coverage to try and contain him? He'll just lob it up to Lively or Gafford. The Mavericks finally getting rim runners has fundamentally reshaped everything.
There's no answer for Luka. He's going to get the shots he wants, the passes he wants and the plays he wants. Dallas has to decide if it wants to try and win despite Doncic or despite all of his teammates' easy opportunities.
For whatever reason, Doncic has struggled with Brown in regular-season matchups the last two seasons. Brown has size and length.
Doncic excels against larger, slower players or smaller, weaker ones. It's why he tears up Holiday and White; those matchups won't be favorable for Boston.
But Doncic will have a harder time with both Brown and Tatum.
