The Celtics had a chance to clinch their 18th NBA championship Friday night time.
As a substitute, they have been handled to a Texas-sized blowout by the hands of the determined Dallas Mavericks.
The Luka Doncic-and Kyrie Irving-led Mavs routed the Celtics 122-84 to forestall an NBA Finals sweep and ship the sequence again to Boston for Recreation 5 on Monday.
“That was a butt-whupping,” Celtics backup Sam Hauser mentioned. “That’s it. They just beat us. Not much to it, honestly.”
It was the third-largest level differential ever in a Finals recreation and simply the worst recreation of the season for the powerhouse C’s, who hadn’t misplaced since Could 9.
What went fallacious? Celtics stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown provided their opinions after the sport.
“I think this is the most stagnant that we’ve been this series and the worst job of owning our space on the offensive end and doing what we wanted to do instead of what they were forcing us to do,” Tatum mentioned. “We did a great job of that the first three games, and this one, we didn’t.”
“Give credit to Dallas,” Brown added, repeating a well-liked chorus from Boston’s postgame information conferences. “I think they played hard physically, and then they dominated the glass. I think that was the key that put a lot of pressure on us. And then we didn’t make shots tonight, and I think that’s where we allowed them to play free, once we get them multiple opportunities to make shots. And then also we didn’t hit shots on the other end.”
Dallas outrebounded Boston 52-31, together with 13-4 on the offensive glass. The Mavs shot 50.5% from the ground and 40.5% from 3-point vary — in comparison with 36.3% and 34.1% for the Celtics, respectively — and outscored the Jap Convention champs 60-26 within the paint.
Two days after combining for 61 factors in an exciting Recreation 3 win, Tatum and Brown went a mixed 7-for-22 and 2-for-9 from three. No Celtics participant scored greater than 15 factors.
The Mavericks led by as many as 48, and in a show of give up hardly ever seen within the NBA Finals, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla pulled his starters earlier than the tip of the third quarter.
“Close-out games are hard,” Brown mentioned. “Close-out games are tough. They always have been like that, and you’ve got to have extreme focus. You’ve got to come out and meet their intensity to finish things out. We didn’t do that tonight. Give credit to Dallas. I thought they played extremely well. … We’ve got to be better and we’ve got to have some of our guys step up. That’s what it takes.”
The Celtics nonetheless are in control of the best-of-seven sequence, and their prior championship runs adopted an identical sample. In 2008, 1986 and 1984, Boston misplaced a possible close-out recreation on the highway earlier than profitable the title at dwelling. No crew in NBA historical past has misplaced a playoff sequence after profitable the primary three video games.
Tatum expects TD Backyard for Recreation 5 to be “as loud as it’s ever been in my seven years of being a Celtic.”
“(We’re) excited to go back home,” he mentioned. “Celebrate Father’s Day on Sunday and compete for a championship on Monday. It should be a lot of fun.”
Title perspective
Veteran Jrue Vacation provided a easy evaluation of what occurred in Recreation 4, whereas dismissing the concept the Celtics softened up pregame and believed their very own hype.
“I think winning is hard. I think winning at any game is hard. But winning Game 4 of the NBA Finals is pretty damn hard. So no, I think they came out desperate and I think they punched us in the mouth,” Vacation mentioned. “And we couldn’t kind of recover the way we wanted to.”
Vacation, who coughed up 5 turnovers and was a team-worst minus-38 within the loss, is the one participant on Boston’s roster with a hoop. Nonetheless, he didn’t have a lot to supply when requested what the Celtics should do to clinch Monday night time.
“I don’t know. I don’t know, even though I’ve done it,” he mentioned. “You’ve got to do it together as a team. Everybody has to be clicking and being, again, the more desperate team. We’ve just got to go back home. I think locking into tendencies, locking into the game plan, and I think we’ll be.”
Vacation did say the Celtics have to be the extra determined crew, a typical chorus for gamers and coach Joe Mazzulla this postseason. Mazzulla mentioned post-game Dallas’ effort was “a lot better,” and his gamers agreed.
“Yeah, I felt like we came out determined,” middle Al Horford mentioned. “They were the better team. They were the team that was playing harder. He’s right.”
Off the rim
Dallas coach Jason Kidd had a special view of the Celtics’ preparedness. He mentioned Boston performed like a crew that believed it had already secured the championship. “We don’t have to complicate this,” Kidd mentioned. “This isn’t surgery. Our group was ready to go. They were ready to celebrate.” … The win snapped a 13-game private shedding streak for Irving towards the Celtics. He’s now looking for his first win at TD Backyard since Could 2021. “When we go to Boston, there’s going to be a bunch of (fans) yelling a whole bunch of crazy stuff still,” Irving mentioned. “But I think we’ve been able to grow and face kind of this adversity head on.”
