The Boston Celtics dominated the competition on their march to the NBA Finals despite Kristaps Porziņģis missing over a month with a calf strain.
Just imagine what they could have done with him.
Porziņģis put on an absolute show in Boston’s 107-89 blowout win over the Dallas Mavericks in Game 1, finishing with 20 points, six rebounds and three blocks in 21 minutes of action. He sparked the Celtics to an NBA Finals record 17-point lead through one quarter by scoring 11 points on 4-for-5 shooting along with three boards and three blocks. Porziņģis scored 18 of his 20 points in the first half, becoming only the ninth player to score 18 first-half points in his Finals debut dating back to 1977.
It shouldn’t come as a shock, then, that Porziņģis’ MVP odds skyrocketed after his strong showing. He entered the series +5000 to win the award, which was sixth behind Jayson Tatum (-120), Luka Dončić (+200), Jaylen Brown (+700), Kyrie Irving (+1400) and Derrick White (+3000). Now, he has the fourth-best odds at +550 following his dominant performance.
Porziņģis winning the MVP would buck a significant trend, as only one player over the past 20 years won the award outside the top three favorites. That was Golden State's Andre Iguodala in 2015. The odds-on favorite has won it eight times, the player with the second-best odds four times and the third-best odds once.
Porziņģis was clearly the main story in Game 1. Simply put, no one knew exactly what to expect, how impactful he'd be or how much he'd play in his return from a lengthy layover. He answered those questions in spades, and the MVP markets understandably took notice.
Evan Abrams contributed research for this article.
