The Dallas Mavericks bench celebrates a 3-pointer by forward Tim Hardaway Jr. during the second half in Game 4 of the NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics on Friday, June 14, 2024, in Dallas.Advertisement, the Celtics pretty much looked like they preferred to hoist their 18th championship trophy back in Boston. Chances are they’ll do just that Monday, maybe.Luka was a perfect gentleman with the Mavs’ backs to the wall, leading them with 29 points and finishing dead last in protests.
Lively, in particular, continued to grow. After a couple of no shows in the first two losses, he built on his Game 3 performance with 11 points and 12 rebounds. The Mavs bullied Boston on the boards, 52-31, an illustration of how they asserted themselves for the first timeMeanwhile, the Celtics spread the scoring around, as usual, but neither of their stars took charge. Jayson Tatum’s 15 points led them, and, like Jaylen Brown, he looked largely lost, as did their teammates.
The game got out of hand so quickly that Joe Mazzulla waved the white flag with a couple minutes left in the third quarter.“We had to play our ‘A’ game,” Kidd said. “It was this or go on vacation.” Of course, as Lively put it after Friday’s win, the Mavs still “haven’t done nothin’.” Even if they broke the Celtics’ 10-game winning streak and held them to fewer than 100 points for only the second time in the playoffs, the Mavs still must win three more.Unfortunately, they’ll have to play as well as they did Friday when the series goes back to Boston. The Celtics won’t play this poorly again. Even Dante Exum, who scored 10 points, noted, “not every game is going to be like that.