All further comment on a game that was more one-sided than a Möbius strip can be found here:
See you for Game 5.
Dallas wins Game 4 122-84 to cut series lead to 3-1
The most ironic stat of the night: Dončić was 0-for-8 from 30-point range. At closer range, he was 12-for-18 for an efficient 29 points, and he looked far more fluid than he has in the last couple of games. Will he be able to keep up that pace in what will surely be a closer encounter in Boston in Game 5?
Tatum got a bunch of points early for Boston, then didn’t see much of the ball the rest of the way while his teammates failed to find their shooting touch.
But the story was on the glass. Dallas outrebounded Boston 52-31. That’s often a telltale stat as to which team is more motivated to put forth the effort. And the Dallas defense also did the job.
“I think our energy was very high,” Dončić says. No kidding?
Celtics 77-119 Mavericks, 2:54 left, 4th quarter
We have a timeout. I wonder what the odds against a Boston comeback at this stage would be.
Celtics 77-119 Mavericks, 3:04 left, 4th quarter
ESPN is giving this game the split-screen treatment now, with an extended interview with Mavs legend Dirk Nowitzki getting the focus while the game drones on with no commentary, just the sound of Dallas’ PA announcer testing the limits of his voice by announcing yet another 3 for the Mavs.
Hardaway has 15 points in 6 minutes.
Neemias Queta enters the game for Boston and blocks two shots. A few seconds later, he dunks on an alley-oop from Pritchard. Maybe he should’ve entered the game a couple of hours ago.
Updated
Celtics 67-106 Mavericks, 8:01 left, 4th quarter
Dante Exum is having quite a game. He scores the first five points of the quarter.
His second basket starts a run of four possessions in which neither team misses. Hauser hits a 3. Hardaway hits a 3. Pritchard hits a midrange shot.
Then a belated sign of life inside for Boston – Oshae Brissett misses but tips it in.
Hardaway hits two more 3s, and yes, I’m old enough to remember when his dad played. He beams from the stands as the Celtics call their final timeout.
The lead is 39.
Updated
Celtics 60-92 Mavericks, end 3rd quarter
At last, Boston goes deeper on the bench. They’ve played most of the series, including all of this game, with an eight-man rotation.
The five on the court now: Payton Pritchard (part of that rotation), Sam Hauser (also part), Luke Kornet (not), Oshae Brissett (not) and Svi Mykhailiuk.
Kornet gets an assist on a Hauser 3. He basically handed it to him at the line.
A Dončić shot wedges itself between the rim and the backboard. On that note, he departs the game, probably for the last time. Irving also leaves.
The top scorer on the court right now is Hauser, who has 11.
Celtics 52-88 Mavericks, 3:18 left, 3rd quarter
Holiday is finding his touch again. He scores five in short order, sandwiched around an Irving basket.
Lively dunks. Has Boston had a single dunk tonight?
Lively gets the steal. He passes it away, races up the court, takes a return pass and dunks again.
Celtics call timeout again. What are they going to do differently?
Celtics 47-80 Mavericks, 5:29 left, 3rd quarter
Brown has finally given the Celtics a second player with double-digit scoring. He has 10.
Irving with a layup. Celtics call timeout. Please clear the bench now.
Celtics 47-78 Mavericks, 6:07 left, 3rd quarter
Not to belabor the point, but you’d think at some point the Celtics would just clear the bench anyway. Tatum, White, Holiday and Brown have put in some massive efforts to get the Celtics to a 3-0 series lead.
Odd stat: Pritchard’s plus/minus in this game is -4. Every other Celtic is way worse off.
If the teams aren’t in garbage time yet, ESPN is. We’ve been treated some info about Gafford’s career in marching band. Marching band in my town is so intense that you can barely do anything else with your life.
Lively has 12 rebounds now. Needs to hit more free throws to get the double-double.
Irving runs the lead to 34. He only has 13? Really? Seems like more.
White hits a 3. The lead is down to 31.
Tatum re-enters the game. Why?
Celtics 42-75 Mavericks, 8:38 left, 3rd quarter
Boston has three 7-footers on the bench – Prozingis, Luke Kornet and Neemias Queta.
Kornet is making $2.4 million this year.
And they’re not even going to see if he can do anything to stop the bleeding inside?
Hauser scores, Jones hits a 3, Brown makes two free throws, and Dončić scores again. He has 389. Celtics call timeout.
Celtics 38-70 Mavericks, 9:39 left, 4th quarter
Tatum is drawing defensive duty inside. He just picked up his third foul. Gafford hits both free throws.
Horford with the 3.
Dončić has to shoot from the hip from about 40 feet with the shot clock running down. That’ll hurt his percentage.
Horford fouls Gafford, who hits two more free throws.
After another Brown miss, Dončić fires down the court for an alley-oop to Gafford, who just had the best 90-second spell of his career, surely.
And then he blocks a 3-point attempt from Tatum, who immediately fouls him.
A couple of misses, and Washington hits a 3. The lead is 32.
Updated
I keep getting blank emails in my inbox. Apparently, the Dallas performance tonight has left everyone speechless.
Stats:
Dallas is shooting above 50% – 52.3, to be exact. Only 5-of-15 from 3-point range, but inside, they’re just dominant.
Speaking of which – the Dallas rebounding edge is now 29-13. A stat correction, though, robbed Lively of his 10th rebound.
Boston’s shooting? Look away – it’s 29.7%. And Tatum is a reasonable 4-for-9. The rest of the team is 7-for-28. At least they’re hitting free throws.
And perhaps to underscore Boston’s lack of an inside presence – the Celtics have two blocks, both by Tatum. That’s really not his job.
The Celtics have three players on the bench listed as centers. Porzingis, who seems unlikely to appear tonight, is one. Are the other two so ineffective that they can’t get into this game?
Celtics 35-61 Mavericks, halftime
Tatum hits more free throws. He has 15 of Boston’s 32 points.
Pritchard clobbers Kleber. OK, that’s gratuitous – it was a simple reach-in foul. Kleber hits the free throws.
Dončić scores again. That’s 25.
Holiday makes a 3 to end his drought.
And Kleber hits at the other end.
Anyone mind if I spend the second half practicing bass? Big gig coming up in a couple of weeks with a lot of new songs.
Celtics 30-54 Mavericks, 1:27 left, 2nd quarter
Tatum makes a pair of free throws.
Irving misses a 3, and Boston gets the rebound. Just kidding. Lively gets it, of course. And he’s fouled just as he whips the ball back out to the perimeter. He hits 1 of 2.
Brown misses, then fouls Green, conceding the matchup of names that are also colors. But Green misses two shots before hitting the third.
Holiday misses his fifth shot of the night. Still hasn’t made one.
Lively has 10 rebounds in the first half. He’s not even a starter.
Celtics 28-52 Mavericks, 3:47 left, 2nd quarter
Boston can’t get a shot away. Clock violation.
The Mavericks call timeout because they want this game to last forever. If only it could last long enough to erase an 0-3 series deficit.
Celtics 28-52 Mavericks, 4:01 left, 2nd quarter
Tatum is called for an offensive foul. In the NBA? Really? Shaquille O’Neal scored half his career points that way. If that call starts a new precedent, great, but I doubt it.
Dončić gets the better of Hauser, and Horford scoots out of the way to block a phantom passing lane while letting the Dallas megastar score despite Hauser’s desperate foul.
Irving follows up with a nice roll on a layup.
Hey! A basket for Boston! It’s Sam Hauser from the corner.
Then Dončić pulls up against Hauser and drains it. That’s 23.
Is it worth mentioning here that Dallas fell behind by more than 20 in the second half in Game 3 but nearly clawed all the way back?
The difference tonight, though, is that Dallas had to win that game. And they didn’t. Boston surely wouldn’t tank this game, but they won’t have that dangerous edge of desperation.
Tatum has 11, but he’s been stuck on that for a while. Brown has 8. The rest of the team has combined for one 3-pointer, a 2-point shot and a free throw. Game 2 hero Jrue Holiday has 0 points and 0 rebounds.
This timeout seems even longer than most.
Celtics 25-45 Mavericks, 6:35 left, 2nd quarter
The Celtics are turning up the intensity on defense, and Irving has to fling up a prayer while practically leaping into the front row. But Gafford gets the rebound and hits one of two free throws.
Dončić clanks a 3-point attempt. Brown rushes a shot that misses horribly. A scramble leads to a close-range shot for Dončić, and he gets the hoop and the foul. The free throw puts him at 16 for the game.
Make it 18. Celtics call timeout.
Celtics 25-39 Mavericks, 9:35 left, 2nd quarter
It’s just that kind of night for Boston. Pritchard gets a good look, and the ball goes halfway down the net, takes a tour of the facilities, then decides the hoop is too cramped for its taste and leaps back out.
Brown gets two free throws. He misses the first. He makes the second for Boston’s first point since just past the one-minute mark in the first quarter.
Exum hits a 3, and this time, it counts.
Brown hits back with a tightly contested 3. Maybe they should only shoot when someone’s right in their face.
Celtics 21-36 Mavericks, 10:27 left, 2nd quarter
I neglected to mention that Dončić has 13 already. Will he keep up the pattern of a midgame swoon?
Dante Exum scores inside. Mavericks lead by 15. Boston thinks fondly of the days of Robert Parish and Kevin McHale.
Dante Exum scores from 3-point range. Boston calls timeout.
(Update: During the timeout, a review showed Exum stepped out of bounds before shooting. Momentum change!)
Updated
If you were to watch the first quarters of all these games, you’d think Dallas was the team that was up 3-0 in the series. Tonight, though, it seems like a much more pronounced difference between the teams.
The big factor – the big men. Dallas has outrebounded Boston 16-6. And half of the Celtics’ rebounds were gathered by 6-foot-4 guard Derrick White.
Will we see Porzingis? Or might the Celtics figure they’re playing with house money at this point and avoid taking any such risks?
Celtics 21-34 Mavericks, end 1st quarter
Irving misses a 3-pointer, but Josh Green flies up to the rim for the putback dunk.
A wild sequence yields a jumpball between Sam Hauser and Josh Green. Hauser wins it, but the Celtics only have 2.7 seconds on the shot clock, so White has to rush a long 3. And he hits it.
Irving answers with another 3. Brown misses. P.J. Washington hits another 3.
Derrick Jones starts yapping at Tatum, who dismissively waves his hand and walks away without a word.
Boston ends up with the ball with 1.2 seconds left, so they bring in Payton Pritchard, whose one recent contribution was a dash up the court for a long 3 to beat the buzzer in the third quarter a couple of games ago. He gets the ball and steps out of bounds.
That kind of quarter for the Celtics.
Celtics 18-26 Mavericks, 1:47 left, 1st quarter
Dončić misses the third of his free throws, but Sam Hauser misses at the other end. Hauser had a few good shots in Game 3.
But Boston hasn’t been hitting these shots in the first quarter. They’re 1-for-7 from the 3-point line this so far.
Irving scores.
Dončić swipes the ball from Holiday, then somehow maneuvers his way around the stalwart defender to score inside.
Tatum bravely drives past Lively to stop the Dallas run. Then Dončić does another shot fake and draws another shooting foul on Horford – this one, a little cheap. Karma agrees, and he misses the first free throw.
Tatum promptly comes back and hits a floater. He has 11 already.
Celtics 14-21 Mavericks, 4:11 left, 1st quarter
Boston subs for Horford, and it’s Xavier Tillman, not Porzingis.
Tatum reclaims the lead for Boston with a tough drive. At the other end, Lively hits a 3.
Wait – Lively? Has he hit a 3 this year? (Checks stats.) Looks like he didn’t even attempt one.
The rookie then does the two things he does best – a block on one end, an alley-oop dunk at the other.
Tillman gets the old-fashioned three-point play for Boston, but here comes Dončić again, and then Derrick Jones pulls off a dazzling stepover-and-windmill move to score.
Wait – Jones? Where did this Dallas team come from?
Dončić draws a shooting foul, faking Tillman into the air and leaning into him to get the call. Somehow that was behind the arc. He hits his first two free throws, and now Boston would like a conversation. Timeout.
A little later than in the past two games, but Dallas has the first-quarter cushion again.
Celtics 9-10 Mavericks, 6:44 left, 1st quarter
Tatum drives and is fouled. He hits both free throws.
Dončić lumbers into the lane and somehow gets his shot up and over Horford.
Brown and Dončić trade baskets. Dončić already has 6. He has started quickly in the last couple of games, then fallen off. And, in Game 3, fouled out.
Long shots are missed.
Irving drives, Tatum gets the block (maybe with some contact). Lively gets the rebound, Horford definitely makes some contact.
Irving drives and finishes this time, and the Mavs lead.
Dončić commits Foul No. 1 at the other end, and we’re at the first timeout.
Celtics 5-4 Mavericks, 9:45 left, 1st quarter
Tatum drives but is sturdily defended.
Instead, the first scorer of the evening is Kyrie Irving. Then Luka Dončić.
But before we see a replay of the last couple of games, in which Dallas has leapt to an early lead, Brown makes a layup and Tatum hits a 3.
Celtics 0-0 Mavericks, 11:59 left, 1st quarter
We have begun.
Reminder: I’m taking suggestions for matching up film characters with Celtics or Mavericks players.
Not sure why, but I’m starting to think of Dončić as Han Solo. Would Irving be Obi-Wan? Yoda? Or, given the fact that he has switched sides a few times in his career, Anakin?
The curious stat on which ESPN is focusing: Boston has not yet lost a road game in the playoffs this year. They lost twice at home.
No wonder they’re favored in this one.
Luka Dončić just headed the ball. Planning a trip to Euro 2024?
Tipoff in 18 minutes. Allegedly.
Preamble
Kyrie Irving is the Deadpool to Luka Dončić’s Wolverine, Andrew Lawrence writes in the highly recommended story linked below.
So which fifth-division English soccer team will Irving be buying?
On that note, which film characters are the Celtics? Maybe Jayson Tatum as Batman, always out to prove that he belongs in the pantheon of superheroes despite public skepticism? Or would that make him one of the Ghostbusters? Would Jrue Holiday be Reed Richards so that his wife – Lauren Holiday, a soccer Hall of Famer – would be Sue Storm? Wouldn’t Sue Bird be Sue Storm because she played for the Seattle Storm, which would make Megan Rapinoe … OK, I don’t know enough about extended cinematic universes to make this work.
The actual news: Kristaps Prozingis can play tonight. Well, maybe.
Joe Mazzulla says Kristaps Porzingis is available, but he will “only be used in specific instances, if necessary.”
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) June 14, 2024
What “specific instances” would those be? Maybe if Boston has an opportunity to close things out and sweep this series in tonight’s Game 4? Surely they’d want to save him for Game 5 … if necessary. Or Game 6 … if necessary. Or Game 7 …
That couldn’t happen, right? Don’t tell that to Boston fans. Superstition weighs heavily in the minds of that city’s supporters, the result of going more than 80 years between World Series victories, with many a defeat snatched from the jaws of victory. And if you believe in karma or luck evening out, then Boston must be unnerved knowing that the only Major League Baseball team to come back from an 0-3 deficit to win any playoff series is … the 2004 Boston Red Sox, who went on to end the Curse and win the Series.
No one has ever come back from 0-3 down in an NBA playoff series. The last team to force a Game 7 was … let’s look this up …
Wait a minute …
The Boston Celtics.
Last year.
And then they lost Game 7 at home.
Sports are strange.
Beau will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s Andrew Lawrence on Kyrie Irving’s series so far:
Late in Game 3 of the NBA finals on Wednesday night, the Dallas Mavericks were on the brink. They had mostly clawed back a 21-point deficit to get within three points of the Boston Celtics. Then Luka Dončić, the Mavs’ superstar scorer, fouled out – the first time he’d ever done so in a playoff game.
That left Kyrie Irving, the Deadpool to Dončić’s Wolverine, to carry the day. And when he went on to score Dallas’s next four points, including an 18ft jump shot that cut the Boston lead to one, it looked as if the Mavericks might actually make this a competitive series. But it was not to be. Boston are simply too good and too tough. The result, a 106-99 Celtics victory on Dallas’s home floor, puts the Mavericks in a 0-3 series hole, a margin from which no NBA team has ever come back. And it came just when Irving, who scored a game-high 35 points, had two quiet games to start the series.
This NBA season has been notable for Irving’s deafening silence in the face of endless opportunities to speak his mind. Forget the wars going on around the world and the protests on US campuses. Irving kept things low-key when LeBron James, the championship-winning running mate Irving seemingly couldn’t wait to get away from, went on his podcast days before the finals to say how much he missed playing with “the most gifted player the NBA has ever seen.”
And there are signs Irving is a much better teammate these days. After Wednesday’s loss to the Celtics, his first thoughts were for Dončić.
“You just got to let it breathe a little bit,” Irving said about what he wanted to tell his co-star. “Let the human emotions come out. Just give him a hug. That’s it, man. It’s easy to point the finger at just him, say, ‘You could be better.’ That’s easy to say. I think he knows that. But, yeah, it’s reiterating that I have his back, we all have his back.”
You can read the full story below:
