Five intriguing matchups to watch in NBA conference finals

The NBA conference finals get underway Tuesday night.

Out East, the juggernaut Celtics, who pounded teams by 11.34 points per game in the regular season — the fifth-largest points differential in NBA history — will square off against the upstart Pacers who've ushered in the Tyrese Haliburton era by ending their five-year postseason drought.

Out West, the Mavericks, who turned their season around with key trade deadline acquisitions, will face the red-hot Timberwolves, who stunned the defending champion Nuggets in the last round. 

Like in most contests, styles make fights, and there's no shortage of matchups that could determine the two teams that advance to the NBA Finals.

Anthony Edwards vs. Kyrie Irving

Barely minutes after Minnesota ousted Denver, Edwards shared his excitement about going toe-to-toe with Irving, one of the most gifted scorers in NBA history. Having held opponents to 38.9 percent shooting in these playoffs, Edwards has emerged as a lockdown defender, but none of his previous matchups had Irving's skillset. On the flip side, Irving has taken on the challenge of playing defense, which he did admirably against James Harden and Jalen Williams in the first two rounds.

All that said, the player who makes more clutch buckets will win this matchup. 

Luka Doncic vs. Jaden McDaniels

After clamping down on gifted scorers such as Devin Booker and Michael Porter Jr. in the last two rounds, McDaniels will be tasked with his toughest assignment yet: guarding Luka Doncic. In the previous two rounds, Terance Mann and Luguentz Dort did the best possible job on the Slovenian star, holding him to subpar shooting nights on several occasions. However, Doncic answered the bell in back-to-back Game 5s —  the swing game in a tight series — before closing out his opponents in six. In both instances, Doncic's assigned defenders were seemingly worn out as the series progressed. McDaniels better prepare to expend much energy guarding Doncic, the 2023-24 NBA scoring champion.

Interestingly, McDaniels held Doncic to 4-of-11 shooting when they last matched up on Jan. 7.

Jayson Tatum vs. Pascal Siakam

The Celtics beat the Pacers 3-2 in their regular season series, but only one of those games featured Indiana's midseason acquisition, Pascal Siakam. The Pacers continued to play at a breakneck speed after adding Siakam, but the Rick Carlisle-led team finally had a high-level defender with postseason pedigree. That's exactly what Siakam brings to this matchup against Jayson Tatum.

In the previous two rounds against the Bucks and Knicks, Siakam led the Pacers in scoring (21.1), rebounds (7.5) and minutes (34.9) but was also the team's best defensive player. He has previous experience of excelling in his match-up against Tatum. During the 2020 Eastern Conference Semifinals, Siakam held Tatum to 42 percent from the field in a hard-fought series that went seven games. The veteran Cameroonian can draw from that experience in this series.

Tyrese Haliburton vs. Celtics backcourt 

The Celtics have, hands down, the best defensive backcourt in the NBA in the form of Jrue Holiday and Derrick White. As such, Tyrese Haliburton will have his work cut out trying to navigate around them and getting his teammates easy buckets. Unlike most modern-day point guards, Haliburton doesn't rely heavily on pick and rolls, meaning he'd have to work extra hard to get mismatches against Boston's weaker defenders. 

That said, Haliburton poses a huge threat with his deep shooting (he's making 3.5 threes a game in the playoffs) and his ability to excel off the ball in a very Stephen Curry-esque manner. Haliburton's off-ball skills are why the Pacers have smartly asked Siakam and TJ McConnel to initiate half-court sets. 

Rudy Gobert vs. Dallas' athletic lob threats

Through the first two rounds, the Mavericks guard tandem of Doncic and Irving had a field day setting up Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively with lob dunks. With so much of the opponent's defensive strategy focused on stopping the star guards, the Mavs have smartly created easy scoring opportunities for their two athletic bigs, who've shared the workload, clocking 42.5 minutes.

Sadly for Dallas, that strategy of setting up Gafford and Lively for lobs could backfire against a Timberwolves defense anchored by Rudy Gobert, who historically matches up well against athletic bigs who don't rely on post skills (unlike Nikola Jokic). As such, the Mavs could be forced to look elsewhere when Doncic or Irving's shots aren't falling. The bigs won't be able to bail them out.