Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic <\/p>\n
\t\tCommercial Content. 21+. Action Network is the official betting partner of the New York Post, which edits this content.<\/p>\n
Only twice has a team won an NBA championship as a non-top-three seed. <\/p>\n
And no team has ever won an NBA Finals as a No. 5 seed.<\/p>\n
But the fifth-seeded Mavericks are dangerous behind the two-headed offensive monster of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, and Thursday\u2019s Game 1 will be pivotal to their chances of upsetting the top-seeded Celtics \u2014 who are large favorites (-225, bet365) to win the series.<\/p>\n
The Celtics seem destined to win the NBA Finals this season, thanks to their endless arsenal of offensive firepower and defensive prowess. <\/p>\n
However, that doesn\u2019t mean Dallas can\u2019t steal a few games.<\/p>\n
Much of the Mavericks\u2019 success this postseason can be attributed to taking what the defense has given them, which has been a ton of looks in the midrange. <\/p>\n
And they have been hitting those shots at an efficient clip.<\/p>\n
Between 17 feet and just inside the 3-point arc, Doncic and Irving are shooting 65.2 percent and 66.7 percent, respectively, in the postseason. <\/p>\n
While there might be some regression to those mind-boggling percentages, Doncic and Irving should continue to do damage considering what the Pacers were able to do to Boston in the midrange.<\/p>\n
Additionally, the Mavericks have been superb on the road in the playoffs, winning seven of their nine games and boasting a net rating of +4.4. <\/p>\n
Boston has been relatively hit or miss on its home floor this postseason.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Dallas will force Boston to make tough decisions, especially in Game 1. <\/p>\n
Do the C\u2019s step up and contest those midrange shots, hoping that the back-side help will cover the lob, or do they allow Doncic and Irving to continue to take those looks?<\/p>\n
Betting on the NBA? <\/p>\n
Boston could be rusty due to the week and a half off since its last game. <\/p>\n
Factor in the inevitable wrench Jason Kidd will throw into the series, and Game 1 looks like an excellent spot to take the points with the underdog.<\/p>\n
The play: Mavericks +6.5 (-106, FanDuel)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Commercial Content. 21+. Action Network is the official betting partner of the New York Post, which edits this content. Only twice has a team won an NBA championship as a non-top-three seed. And no team has ever won an NBA Finals as a No.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":108453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-108452","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108452"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108454,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108452\/revisions\/108454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}