With a decisive victory over the Boston Celtics in their opening game of the NBA Finals this year, the Dallas Mavericks maintained their tenuous chances of winning the championship on Friday night.
No NBA club has ever come back from a 0-3 deficit in a best-of-seven series heading into Friday’s game against Dallas. Luka Dončić, who had faced harsh criticism for his lackluster defense thus far in this series, improved that aspect of his game while retaining his typical brilliance on the attacking end, scoring 29 points—25 of which came in the first half—as his team defeated the opposition 122–84.
“We needed to give it our all,” Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd stated. “We have to do this or take a vacation. The team did an excellent job, in my opinion, of letting the game flow and not pushing. There was a flow. We just hadn’t been able to capitalize on the fact that we had done this in the first three games.
Because of how unfair the game was, both sides had benched the majority of their starters by the time the fourth quarter arrived. The final margin of 38 points was the third-largest in NBA Finals history, only surpassed by Chicago’s 96-54 victory over Utah in 1998 and the Celtics’ 131-92 victory over the Lakers in 2008. In the fourth quarter, the Mavs had a 48-point lead at one point.
The Celtics’ 10-game postseason winning streak, which was a franchise record, was broken by the loss, which was Boston’s first in five weeks. Additionally, the team lost the opportunity to become the first team in NBA history to win both the conference finals and the finals in 4-0 sweeps.
“Being prepared does not ensure a surefire victory,” Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla stated. “I felt that our procedure was excellent. We had a wonderful shootaround, I thought. I thought yesterday’s filming was fantastic. The guys seemed to have the best of intentions when they spoke. I simply felt Dallas outplayed us and that it didn’t go our way. They simply exerted more effort in their games.
For the Celtics, Jayson Tatum finished with 15 points, Sam Hauser with 14, Jaylen Brown with 10, and Jrue Holiday with 10. The Mavericks’ Kyrie Irving scored twenty-one points and Dereck Lively pulled down twelve rebounds.
The Celtics will try to capture a record-tying 18th NBA title when they play Game 5 of the series on Monday in Boston. That task appears a little more difficult in light of Friday’s performance.
“In Boston, we have to play the same way,” Dončić remarked following the match. “We have to remain focused and execute the same actions we did today because their fans will be noisy.”
Despite having multiple injuries during the playoffs, Dončić looked to feel better after the triumph. When asked about his physical state, Dončić smiled and said, “Amazing.”