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Key events
Celtics 25-45 Mavericks, 6:35 left, 2nd quarter
The Celtics turn up the intensity on defense and Irving has to say a prayer while practically jumping to the front row. But Gafford gets the rebound and hits one of two free throws.
Doncic made a 3-pointer. Brown rushes a shot that misses horribly. A scramble leads to a close-range shot for Doncic, who gets the hoop and a 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 around and the ball goes halfway down the net, takes a tour of the facilities, then decides the hoop is too narrow for his liking and pops back up.
Brown gets two free throws. He misses the first one. He made his second for Boston’s first point just over a minute into the first quarter.
Exum hits a 3 and this time it counts.
Brown fires back with a hotly contested 3. Maybe they should only shoot when someone is right in their face.
Celtics 21-36 Mavericks, 10:27 left, 2nd quarter
I failed to mention that Doncic is now 13. Will the mid game swoon pattern continue?
Dante Exum scores from inside. Mavericks lead by 15. Boston fondly remembers the days of Robert Parish and Kevin McHale.
Dante Exum scored from 3 points. Boston calls a timeout.
(Update: During the timeout, review showed Exum went out of bounds before taking the shot. Shifting momentum!)
If you were to watch the first quarters of all these games, you’d think Dallas was the team that took a 3-0 series lead. Tonight, however, there seems to be a much more pronounced difference between the teams.
The big factor – the big men. Dallas beat Boston 16-6. And half of the Celtics’ rebounds came from 6-foot-4 guard Derrick White.
Will we see Porzingis? Or maybe the Celtics think they are playing with house money at this point and avoid taking such risks?
Celtics 21-34 Mavericks, end of 1st quarter
Irving misses a three, but Josh Green flies to the rim for a putback.
A wild sequence gives a jump between Sam Hauser and Josh Green. Houser wins it, but the Celtics only have 2.7 seconds on the shot clock, so White has to rush the long 3. And he hits it.
Irving answers with another 3. Brown misses. PJ Washington hits another 3.
Derrick Jones starts jabbing at Tatum, who dismissively waves and walks away without a word.
Boston ends up with the ball with 1.2 seconds left, so they bring in Peyton Pritchard, whose one recent contribution was breaking down the court for a long 3 to beat the buzzer in the third quarter a few games ago. He takes the ball and goes out of bounds.
Such a quarter for the Celtics.
Celtics 18-26 Mavericks, 1:47 left, 1st quarter
Doncic misses the third of his free-kicks but Sam Hauser misses at the other end. Houser had some good shots in Game 3.
But Boston didn’t hit those shots in the first quarter. They are 1-for-7 from the 3-point line so far.
Irving scores.
Doncic stripped the ball away from Holiday, then somehow got around the strong defender to score inside.
Tatum bravely runs past Lively to stop Dallas’ run. Doncic then fakes another shot and draws another shooting foul on Horford – this one, a little cheap. Karma agrees and he misses the first free kick.
Tatum immediately comes back and hits a floater. He is already 11.
Celtics 14-21 Mavericks, 4:11 left, 1st quarter
Boston traded Horford, and it’s Xavier Tillman, not Porzingis.
Tatum regains the lead for Boston with a hard 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 do that experience one.
The rookie then does the two things he does best — a block on one end, an alley-oop dunk on the other.
Tillman gets the old-fashioned three-point play for Boston, but here comes Doncic again, and then Derrick Jones makes a dazzling step-and-windmill move to score.
Wait – Jones? From where this Where does the Dallas team come from?
Doncic drew a shooting foul, faked Tillman in the air and leaned toward him to get the payoff. In a way, that was over the rainbow. He hit his first two free throws and now Boston wants to talk. Waiting time.
A bit later than the previous two games, but Dallas again has the lead in the first quarter.
Celtics 9-10 Mavericks, 6:44 left, 1st quarter
Tatum drives and is fouled. He hits both free kicks.
Doncic dived into the lane and somehow managed to get a shot over Horford.
Brown and Doncic trade baskets. Doncic now has 6. He got off to a fast start in the last few games, then slumped. And in Game 3, foul.
Missed long shots.
Irving drives, Tatum gets blocked (perhaps with some contact). Lively rebounds, Horford definitely makes some contact.
This time, Irving drives and finishes, and the Mavs lead.
Doncic commits foul #1 on the other end and we’re in our first timeout.
Celtics 5-4 Mavericks, 9:45 left, 1st quarter
Tatum drives, but is well protected.
Instead, the first scorer for the evening is Kyrie Irving. Then Luka Doncic.
But before we see a repeat of the last few games where Dallas jumped out to an early lead, Brown makes a layup and Tatum makes a 3.
Celtics 0-0 Mavericks, 11:59 left, 1st quarter
We started.
Reminder: I’m accepting suggestions for matching movie characters with Celtics or Mavericks players.
I don’t know why, but I’m starting to imagine Doncic as Han Solo. Would Irving be Obi-Wan? Yoda? Or, given the fact that he’s switched sides several times in his career, Anakin?
The curious stat ESPN focused on: Boston has yet to lose a road game in the playoffs this year. They lost twice at home.
No wonder they are favored in this one.
Luka Doncic heads the ball. Planning a trip to Euro 2024?
Hint after 18 minutes. Allegedly.
Preamble
Kyrie Irving is Deadpool to Luka Doncic’s Wolverine, writes Andrew Lawrence in the highly recommended story linked below.
So which fifth division English football team will buy Irving?
For that matter, which movie characters are the Celtics? Maybe Jason Tatum as Batman, who always wants to prove he belongs in the superhero pantheon despite public skepticism? Or would that make him one of the Ghostbusters? Would Jrue Holiday be Reed Richards so his wife – Football Hall of Famer Lauren Holiday – would be Sue Storm? Wouldn’t Sue Bird be Sue Storm because she played for the Seattle Storm, which would make Megan Rapinoe… Okay, I don’t know enough about the expanded cinematic universes to make that work.
Breaking news: Kristaps Prozingis could play tonight. Well maybe.
Joe Mazzula says Kristaps Porzingis is available, but he “will only be used on certain occasions if needed.”
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) June 14, 2024
What “specific cases” would these be? Maybe if Boston has a chance to close things out and sweep this series in Game 4 tonight? They’d certainly like to keep him around for Game 5 … if necessary. Or game 6 … if necessary. Or game 7…
That couldn’t happen, could it? Don’t tell Boston fans that. Superstition weighs heavily on the minds of this city’s supporters, the result of more than 80 years between World Series victories, with many defeats plucked from the jaws of victory. And if you believe in karma or luck, then Boston should be nervous knowing that the only team in Major League Baseball to win after going 0-3 any kind the playoff series is… the 2004 Boston Red Sox, who ended the Curse and won the Series.
No one has ever come back from 0-3 down in a game NBA playoff series. The last team to force a Game 7 was… let’s see this…
Wait a minute…
The Boston Celtics.
Last year.
And then they lost Game 7 at home.
Sports are weird.
Bo will be here shortly. Meanwhile, here’s Andrew Lawrence on Kyrie Irving’s streak so far:
Late in Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday night, the Dallas Mavericks were on edge. They nearly overcame a 21-point deficit to come within three points of the Boston Celtics. Then Luka Doncic, the Mavs’ superstar scorer, fouled out — his first in a playoff game.
That left Kyrie Irving, Deadpool to Doncic’s Wolverine, to carry the day. And when he scored Dallas’ next four points, including an 18-foot jumper that cut Boston’s lead to one, it looked like the Mavericks might really make this series a contest. But it was not to be. Boston is just too good and too tough. the result, a 106-99 Celtics win on Dallas’ home floor, put the Mavericks in an 0-3 series hole, a gap from which no NBA team has come back. And it came just as Irving, who scored a game-high 35 points, had two quiet games to start the streak.
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 American campuses. Irving kept things low as LeBron James, Irving’s starter, won the championship he seemed eager to get out oftook to his podcast days before the finals to say how much he missed playing with “the most talented player the NBA has ever seen.”
And there are signs that Irving is a much better teammate these days. After Wednesday’s loss to the Celtics, his first thoughts were about Doncic.
“You just have to let him breathe a little bit,” Irving said of what he wanted to say to his colleague. “Let human emotions come out. Just hug him. That’s it, man. It’s easy to point the finger at him, to say, “You can be better.” That’s easy to say. I think he knows that. But, yes, I repeat I have his back, we all have his back.
You can read the full story below:
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