Kristaps Porzingis was really happy to be back on the court and his play helped elevate the Boston Celtics to a Game 1 win over the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals, 107-89.

Porzingis hadn’t stepped onto the basketball court since he was injured in the team’s series against the Miami Heat. He helped Boston jump out to a 22-point lead and get back into a rhythm in the third quarter when the Mavericks cut their deficit to eight points.

After starting the game on the bench, he finished with 20 points and added six rebounds and three blocks to his total. He was 8-of-13 from the field in 21 minutes of action.

Porzingis, who was once a member of the Mavericks, wasn’t sure he was going to be 100% going into Game 1 after being out with a strained right calf, but showed off his versatility and was able to add the extra X-factor to the Celtics’ offense.

He also had an electric block on Mavericks guard Josh Green.

Jaylen Brown, who helped lock down the Mavericks in the third quarter, finished with a team-high 22 points. He had six rebounds, three steals, three blocks and two assists in the win.

Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown, right, drives toward the basket as Dallas Mavericks forward P.J. Washington defends during the first half of Game 1 of basketball’s NBA Finals on Thursday, June 6, 2024, in Boston.  (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

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Jayson Tatum played his part with 19 points and 11 rebounds.

The Mavericks failed to see their 3-pointers fall as Boston’s defense was stifling Dallas for most of the night. The team only had nine total assists on 35 made shots.

Luka Doncic led the way with 30 points and 10 rebounds. Kyrie Irving added 12 points, three rebounds and three assists.

The Mavericks had a five-game road playoff winning streak snapped.

Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic, drives with the ball as Boston Celtics center Al Horford, left, and forward Jayson Tatum, right, defend during the first half of Game 1 of basketball’s NBA Finals on Thursday, June 6, 2024, in Boston.  (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Game 2 is set for Sunday night at 8 p.m. ET.

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The question was inevitable, even if Dave Roberts found the narrative overly convenient.

After a blistering start to the season offensively, Dodgers star Mookie Betts had cooled in recent weeks. Entering Thursday, Betts was in a one-for-25 slump. He was batting .236 with a mediocre .685 OPS in his last 32 games since April 29. His underrated power had disappeared, too, after hitting only four home runs in his previous 54 games.

So, Roberts was asked Thursday afternoon, was Betts’ workload as an everyday shortstop — the position he switched to this spring for the first time in his MLB career — affecting his production at the plate?

No, the manager claimed, adamantly.

“I think the lazy, easy answer is [that his recent struggles are] because of his workload at shortstop,” Roberts insisted. “I think this is one of those situations where the world would wait for Mookie to start not staying hot, and say that’s why.”

A few hours later, Betts quieted that narrative — for one night, at least.

In an 11-7 win that kept the Dodgers from getting swept by the Pittsburgh Pirates, Betts led the way offensively by recording two hits, reaching base four times and, most of all, smacking a three-run home run in a six-run fifth inning, helping the Dodgers pull away in what was a back-and-forth battle early on.

“Anything can happen in one game, so we got to put some [more] games together,” Betts said.

As for the idea his shortstop play was a cause of his recent slump?

“This is the best I’ve felt since I was probably 21 or 22 years old,” he said. “So that absolutely has no part. It’s just purely me.”

Thursday was the kind of highlight performance Betts provided often in the season’s opening weeks, when he batted .368 in March and April while playing full time at shortstop for the first time as a professional.

Back then, Betts’ two-way excellence was awe-inspiring. It was a testament to his defensive versatility, after spending most of his MLB career as a Gold Glove right fielder, as well as his ability to handle the increased workload that came with re-learning such a pivotal position.

“I’m at a loss for words,” Roberts said recently of Betts’ switch to shortstop. “I don’t think it’s ever been done at this level, for this level of player.”

But, as Betts’ numbers tailed off, speculation started to spur. That the demands of playing shortstop were diminishing his offensive productivity. That his countless hours of pregame defensive drills were taking a toll on his body. That his positional change was having the kind of unintended side effects some fans (and Dodgers officials) feared when he first made the switch.

Even a former MVP, the thinking went, could only handle so much for so long.

When asked about that theory Thursday, however, Roberts scoffed.

That “narrative,” Roberts said, overlooked the fact that Betts has long been prone to cold stretches as a hitter. It discounted a simpler explanation that his swing was just a little off, leading to him “missing some pitches” he would usually punish.

“I just want time to pass,” Roberts said, before putting any blame on Betts’ shortstop workload. “I trust his work. I know he’s gonna hit. He’s gotten a lot better at shortstop. And we still got a first-place ballclub. He’s still a pretty good player.”

That much, Betts backed up Thursday.

Betts led the game off with a single, sparking a four-run first inning that was highlighted by Freddie Freeman’s three-run blast, his eighth homer of the year.

The Pirates (29-33) eventually came back, tagging Dodgers starter Walker Buehler with four runs (three earned) in a start marred by bad defense — the Dodgers committed three errors and several other playable miscues Thursday, in what Roberts said was “by far” their worst defensive performance of the year — and a game-tying two-run homer from Nick Gonzales in the bottom of the third.

But then, Betts helped the Dodgers (39-25) surge back in front for good.

Dodgers starting pitcher Walker Buehler delivers during the second inning Thursday against the Pirates.

(Gene J. Puskar / Associated Press)

In a six-run fifth inning that also included a solo home run from Teoscar Hernández (his 13th of the season, fifth-most in the National League), an RBI double from Kiké Hernández and a run-scoring error on a stolen base attempt, Betts provided the exclamation point.

In a 1-and-1 count against Pirates reliever Ben Heller, Betts squared up a sinker over the heart of the zone. The three-run blast traveled 410 feet, clearing the wall in straightaway center. And as Betts rounded the bases, coolly celebrating his 10th homer of the season with a point to the team’s dugout and bullpen, the futility of his recent struggles quickly faded from memory.

“Mookie came to life,” Roberts said. “For him to catch a barrel, go deep to center field, that was a really good sign.”

Of course, as Betts himself noted, it will take more than one big game to negate the shortstop narrative completely.

The 31-year-old is still taking as many daily pregame grounders as any infielder on the team. He is still learning the intricacies of being an everyday shortstop (something that was apparent Thursday on a second-inning throwing error and a couple other misplayed grounders). He is still trying to prove that he can not only handle shortstop on an everyday basis, but sustain elite-level production with the bat in the process.

“I was talking to [teammate Gavin] Lux during the game,” Betts said, “and I was like, ‘This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.’”

But, in the Dodgers’ view, it’s not beyond his capabilities, either. For now, his role as an everyday shortstop remains unchanged.

“I gotta clean up a lot of things,” Betts said, bemoaning his defensive miscues but not his long-term outlook at the position. “Back to the drawing board. Back to working. But, you know, a win is a win.”

Pat McAfee caught flack earlier this week when he referred to Caitlin Clark as a “White b—-.”

The punter-turned-media mogul was defending Clark’s impact on women’s basketball when he made what he says was a “massive f— up.”

McAfee said it was only hours after Monday’s show that he saw the criticism he received for his monologue, which prompted many on social media to accuse him of being “racist” or “sexist.”

That includes feminist group UltraViolet, which called for McAfee to be fired from ESPN.

“Pat McAfee’s apology for his racist and sexist comments about Caitlin Clark and other WNBA players is insufficient. The simple reality is that even if McAfee meant what he said as a compliment – he should know that referring to any professional athlete with a misogynistic or racial epithet is never a compliment and shouldn’t be done,” the group said in a statement.

“But it’s about more than just the specific words he chose to describe Caitlin Clark. His entire segment, which he has said he stands behind and doesn’t apologize for, was used to downplay the contributions of other WNBA rookies including Angel Reese, and perpetuate a dangerous narrative rooted in misogynoir that the WNBA, a league dominated by Black women for years is being ‘saved’ by Clark, when both profits and viewership have been on the rise prior to the start of this season.”

The group also said McAfee’s allowing “conspiracy theories” to be “spread” by Aaron Rodgers on his show “demonstrate[s] that McAfee simply does not have the necessary judgment that sports fans deserve.” 

Pat McAfee opened his Monday show with a segment about Caitlin Clark, and how the WNBA has a “cash cow” thanks to her superstardom. (Getty Images)

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“Not only does McAfee deserve to be fired, but Disney needs to ensure that ESPN commits to a culture where commentators will no longer be allowed to spew sexist and racist remarks,” the group continued. “That should be the minimum standard that sports fans should expect from their commentators and that ESPN and Disney should expect from their hosts. It is hard to ask for anything less when we recall that ESPN is the same network that suspended Jemele Hill for calling President Trump a white supremacist.”

Pat McAfee brought his show to ESPN last year. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

McAfee said he sent a personal apology to Clark through the Indiana Fever’s public relations team and heard back that “it was all good.” 

“I meant it as a compliment. Those were my intentions. A lot of people didn’t take it that way. Caitlin Clark did not feel disrespected, but a lot of people said I was disrespecting her – that’s the complete opposite of what I was trying to do.” 

Clark is averaging 15.4 points, 6.4 assists, and 5.1 rebounds on 35.7% from the floor (29.7% from deep) in 11 games this season.

Fox News’ Paulina Dedaj contributed to this report.

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