Post Game - Celtics vs. Dallas Mavericks - Wednesday, June 12, 2024 - Game 3 NBA Finals (W 3-0)

Hi,
Well, besides the collapse on offense in the 4th quarter and a few defensive breaks I say it was a good game.
Once again, Mavs were forced to play 2 vs 5 (for the better part of the game). Obviously, when Luka fouled out it sealed the outcome of the game.
Now one more game.
15 down, 1 to go.

AK

WOW!!  The media just never ceases to amaze me.  The tone this morning on talk is quite shocking.  I could not even have imagined what I was reading on the scroll while working out this morning.  If you draw a 4-square box and up top you put Love and Hate and on the sides you put BOS and MAV, then you go back and review ALL the sports talk shows from the start of the playoffs relative to those two teams and the tone of those conversations, the media spent a MAJORITY of their time in the LOVE MAVS/HATE BOS boxes.  

What I am seeing this morning is the media has completely jumped ship and have gone to just HATE LUKA.  FIRE HIM, TRADE HIM, LOSE some EFFING WEIGHT...OMG!!!  But I digress.  I'll come back to this.  

Here's what I saw:

1.  First off, I could not have drawn this up any better if I tried on how the whole evening went down.  But when one of your ALL-TIME great NBA Leader Icons/LOGO dies that morning, you do not open up the show gushing about what all the MAV's have to do to and how they are going to win G3.  You FIRST pay Jerry West all the respect and then some more that is due him and his contributions to the game.  I almost peed and crapped myself simultaneously when ABC started off the program with this.  That's how in the tank and completely out of reality the media had become with these playoffs.  Oblivious is the word I'm looking for.  Awful.  Everyone here knows I'm not a big Jerry West fan.  But please, don't even try to wiggle out of that one.  Appalling.  Atrocious.  Embarrassing.  

2.  Happy Birthday, Jrue!  You'll remember this one for the rest of your life.  Thank you for going all out.  Thank you for calming the team down during the last run.  That's what we brought you here for.  One more game to go. 

3.  The combination of the 3rd quarter complete annihilation of DAL by Boston, then the comeback by DAL and DAL not being able to cross that over into a lead and a victory took ALL the air out of the room, out of DAL, out of the series and left DAL on an island.  That's gotta leave a mark.  Now they're beginning to think they are a bad team as currently constructed.  Let's see what Kryrie does in the offseason.    

4.  Couple of DAL players need to turn in their union cards.  Hardaway, Jr. at the top of the list.  19 minutes of shopping malls and absolutely nothing.  Add whoever else.  Kleber/Goober whatever his name is a close second.  Not So Lively needs to go back to Duke for another year or so.   

5.  Scorecard?  JT +30?  Check.  JB doing JB stuff?  Check.  BOS rout?  Well it was a quarter early.  I'll give you that one.  Doogie breakout?  Both offense and defense. Check.  Luka having a bad game?  Check.  Bring Tillman off the bench as first big?  Check.   Great insert there, Joe. 

6.  No KP again?  No problem again.  DAL and media thought that was going to be the crack in the door.  Well, it was just enough of a crack to get DAL's fingers slammed into it and crushed.  Cannot understand that all-in move by the media.  Did they look at our record sans KP?  Probably not.  Grasping for straws.  Lipstick on a pig.    

7.  Well, DAL and media, you finally got both of your guys off and....still nothing.  3rd verse same as the 2nd and the 1st.  

8.  This should be proof beyond a shadow of a doubt with the performances of JB & JB that BOS is not going to lose again in these playoffs.  

9.  Regarding Luka.  Immaturity comes to mind.  Couple that with your nutcase flat-earther sidekick and that's who you have as your leaders, DAL.  Throw in your whackadoodle minority owner and you have what you've got.  When you are exhausted after being worked over, you do stupid, mental crap.  Luka did stupid crap on defense.  Bad habits.  Bad body language.  Bitching about calls all the time.  Mazzulla and JB knew EXACTLY what they were doing on Luka.  You saw JB clap his hands after hitting the floor on Luka's 6th foul.  He'll grow up eventually.  JT did it.  So can he be.  But DAL probably won't ever make it back to the Finals.   

10.  OK, it looks like prakash is the first one on the bus!  I can't argue or make my points any clearer anymore.  Take a seat right behind the driver, prakash.  Grab yourself a beverage of your choice.  Buffett is a couple of rows back.  All are welcome.  

db

My new favorite thing, watching the Celtics win a finals game while on vacation with the ocean as a backdrop.
A couple of thoughts...

Did you know we have some guy named Tillman on the team? Looks like he can play a little.

Might be all the whining about an opposing coach saying Brown was our best player was silly. Brown is our best player. Sometimes lately it might be Holiday.

The secret sauce in the short playoff rotation is play your starters 40 min each, except that one 37 year old who is looking 29 again.

Anyone left who still wants to question that Mazzulla was a brilliant choice to take the reigns? Of course not.

One more win and what will always be remembered about this title is Cousy's rallying statement.

First of all, before the soon-coming madness of winning #18 strikes like a Cat 5, I'd like to start this post by thanking BobC for firing up the Game On! thread for every game and GYSO for starting what I believe is the best tee up of a post-game thread we've had in all the years this forum has been in existence.  Thanks to both of you.

One more win and let the smack talking begin and, baby, it's comin'.  It's gonna come hard and fast and I'm gonna stick the landing like an Olympic gymnast.  This has been bubbling inside me all year (and poor Worcester got a snootful of it last night on the phone).  We're not good enough to win it all because the East is weak but if we don't win it all we're failures.   All we do is shoot 3s and we're bad when we are missing but then "damn, everybody on that team can shoot 3s!"  Our offense is based upon the Js going iso but our allegedly non-existent ball movement creates open shots for all our shooters.  We're only 6 deep, except for when Sam and Payton are having good games, except that we're 15-2 in the playoff, except that all but 3 of those games were played without our starting center and we're starting a 38 year old in his place, and except now they have to eat their words for Tillman too.  Kiss my exceptional ass.  All Tatum does is stat-padding and when he does other things besides scoring he's overrated because he didn't score a lot, and Jaylen has no left hand and yet he is virtually unstoppable with either hand and is a lockdown defender.  Jaylen is overpaid while, at the same time to some, the best player on the Celtics (to Tatum haters).  We're vulnerable because we keep giving up big leads and yet their rallies always seem to keep coming up short and we win.  We had the best record in the NBA.  Ho Hum, what else do you have for me?  How 'bout a boot up yer butt, or will that give you a headache?


This game was a pair of rollercoaster bookends (how's that for a tortured metaphor?).  I was concerned in the 1st quarter when we went down 13.  If we didn't get it together soon Luka and Kyrie could have put us down 20 and the game might have been out of reach.  As it turned out we ended up the 1st only down 1.  And the 4th?!  Sheesh.  WAY too much stress there.  In the playoffs though only the W matters.  Winning ugly or lucky or any other way that gets you closer to 4 wins is as good as any other way.

Cameron Tabatabaie @CTabatabaie
about 6 minutes ago
The Celtics winning the finals against a team whose two star players can’t stop going iso and turning the ball over


The Maestro.


Cameron Tabatabaie @CTabatabaie
about 29 minutes ago
Brad Stevens didn't just bring in the top level guys to build this team: Refused to trade Pritchard Brought Hauser up through the G-League Swung a trade for Tillman


Jaylen with 30 points, but only had 6 at the half.  He was 2-6 at the half and ended up 12-22.  That's a 10-16 24 point 2nd half for the player that, in my opinion, is probably going to be the Finals MVP.  He has been magnificent on both ends.  We scored 56 points in the 2nd half and Jaylen is credited with 24 of them.  He also had 3 assists in the 2nd half, so he deserves credit for making those points happen too.  Overall he had 8 assists and only 3 turnovers.  


Adam Himmelsbach @AdamHimmelsbach
about 7 hours ago
Jaylen Brown has shot 50 percent or better from the field in 7 games in a row, and 9 of 10. Just an elite stretch of offense from him on the biggest stages.


Tillman giving us a great 11 minutes.  The OG is giving us every last drop but he's only human, he needs his beauty naps and Tillman gave Al that time off with a +9 on the court.


Sam with great play on both ends with a game high +16.  Remember when Sam was considered a defensive liability?  Not anymore he isn't.

Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
about 7 hours ago
As we always say, the regular season's fine...but the playoffs is a totally different animal.... NBA - NET RATING LEADER Regular Season: Sam Hauser (+14.2) Playoffs: Sam Hauser (+20.9) Oh, wait.


Sean Grande
Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
about 7 hours ago
JRUE HOLIDAY - NBA FINALS 117 minutes +35 (Celtics high) 13 assists 0 turnovers Holiday's now played 134 minutes since his last turnover, in the 3rd quarter of Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals at Indiana.


26 assists on 38fgm is excellent.  68.4%.  Dallas was 15 on 38.









Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
about 9 hours ago
Playoff road games anyone? In their last 28, the Celtics are now a ridiculous 21-7. The New Big 3 Celtics were 17-30 The Original Big 3 Celtics were 31-49 The Bill Russell Celtics were 40-38


Sean Grande
@SeanGrandePBP
The Celtics will enter Friday night 8-1 in their last 9 Game 4's on the road.

The lone loss, by a half-second last year in Philadelphia.











15 down and 1, ONE, to go.  Do it for The Cooz.





Bob


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We Celtic fans are obviously on top of the world. The second best feeling for me is seeing Shaq and all of the E-ndless S-elf P-romtion N-etwork “experts” have to eat crow due to their Celtics hatred.
We have obviously been the best team since the opening tip of the season yet these so called “journalists”, who many are actually not, they’re entertainers IMO allowed their petty grievances override what should have been their impartiality. Personally, I despise that network, the only thing I watch on that station is pro and college football. Not a single second of any of their studio shows, pre or post game shows, their ridiculous “embrace the debate” bs, I don’t even watch Sportscenter, I get my scores and highlights from the internet. Ok ladies and gents off I’m off my soapbox for now but I reserve the right to climb back on it at my discretion.

What a great win! They had to make us sweat, but once made the key plays when it mattered.

Those minutes Tillman gave us were huge. Another brilliant yet quiet move by Brad Stevens. The guy can play D. That's why Brad got him. When we needed him he stepped up. Kudos to the X man and to Brad.

The J's were just tremendous. JT carried us the first half and JB the second half. D White is just so clutch, once again hit one of the most important shots of the game. Jrue just makes smart plays and big plays. Give CJ credit, he has the team focused and prepared. Just love this team.

No doubt Luka is wearing down. Kyrie was great last night, but this maybe his only big performance. Jrue and D White will put the lock down on him.

15 down, one to go!! Lets not waste anytime. We have them rattled, lets finish it tomorrow.

Go Celtics!!!

Hondo was still at Ohio State in 1959. Otherwise, perfect, brilliant reporting Bob. Adore the sarcasm. May I say it now: F23k the media. Disrespectful sons of b&%ches.

Love that Cousy quote.

I really liked the gyso post referencing Marc D'Amico and the collection of sports media that picked the Mavs over the Celtics.

Everybody is scrambling to cover their tracks.  Listen to all the excuses and finger pointing.

Celtics fans know something that was overlooked when the 'know it all's' picked the Mavs.  We have discussed it numerous times.

Defense wins championships.  A team that builds their identity on defense is really hard to beat.  When a great offense is layered on top of a great defense the result can only take you to the ultimate prize.

The Celtics tortured the Mavs last night.  We have witnessed several games during this playoff run where the Celtics beat the other team more than once in the same game!

There really was no way possible for Luka and Kyrie to be better than Jayson and Jaylen.  No way possible.  The reason has been staring everyone in the face.  Their paring cannot play defense.  No player in the NBA can truly be great if they can only play on one side of the ball.    That is the reason why the talking heads were dead wrong.  Our pairing of the Jays have removed all doubts about who is the best.

None of the results that we have seen would be possible without embracing the real value of playing team basketball.  In so many respects, the Celtics great regular season run as well as their stellar 12-2 run to capture the ECF has been completely ignored by the Celtics haters.  Every player on this team has sacrificed for the good of the team.  

As the Celtics prepare for game 4 tomorrow night, they have no good reason not to squash the Mavs on their homecourt in game 4.

Andrew Schlecht
@AndrewKSchlecht
Luka's 6 fouls
1. Fouls Tatum
2. Frustration foul/bad steal attempt
3. Offensive Foul
4. Fouls Payton Pritchard after he gets past him
5. Gets locked up with JB
6. Blocking call defending JB

https://x.com/i/status/1801114090292617581


Bob
MY NOTE:  The 4th foul, on Payton, might have been a little ticky-tack but the others are legit.  That 4th foul on Payton came with 9:26 left in the 4th, so there was plenty of time for Luka to calm down and manage his fouls, plenty of time for Jason Kidd to settle Luka down and, maybe, switch his defensive schemes to help him out more.  I'm sure the Mavs fans will be screaming bloody murder on the Comments From The Other Side thread but at least half of these fouls were just Luka being frustrated, stupid and therefore, avoidable.


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https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/40279206/2024-nba-finals-predictions-celtics-mavericks-series-mvp
Stephen A. Smith picked the Mavs to win in six games.
Go figure.
Really surprised that Tim Legler picked the Mavs in SEVEN. He usually is not one for hyperbole, hard to believe that he actually thought that the Mavs would win a game seven on our home court.

Luka and Kyrie are the best backcourt ever in the history of the NBA - a recent quote from an NBA media commentator...

Jayson and Jaylen are incompatible. They have to be broken upfor the Celts ever to win anything.  Repeated ad nauseam by most analysts...

JB is way overpaid. The entire world of sports commentators...

Joe M is a dodo bird. Perk...

Ok, you idiots. Time for you all to STFU..

It is just so ridiculous that the media is so anti Celtics. I really hope we crush the Mavs tomorrow, but I’m sure the media still won’t give us any credit.

willjr wrote:https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/40279206/2024-nba-finals-predictions-celtics-mavericks-series-mvp
Stephen A. Smith picked the Mavs to win in six games.
Go figure.
Really surprised that Tim Legler picked the Mavs in SEVEN. He usually is not one for hyperbole, hard to believe that he actually thought that the Mavs would win a game seven on our home court.

willjr

Listening to Tim break down why the Mavs lost again was amusing. Every point that he made should have been realized before he picked them to win.

Afterall, this series was not a matchup between equals. This is not 1975 where the 60-22 Washington Bullets get sweep in 4 by the 48-34 GS Warriors.

I am in total agreement with you dboss. I did watch Sportscenter last night (which I usually never do) specifically to hear what the ESPN talking heads would have to say. I really enjoyed them tripping over their pre series comments. I wonder if crow is anything like revenge…best served cold.

Cousy speaks

Most of the modern media is lazy (IMO) and doesn't do the work to keep up with how players and teams evolve.  Unfortunately, what was then is no longer what is now.

Examples:

When Hardaway Jr. came into the game, they gushed over the tools in his belt, saying he is such a talented and versatile player.  I think it was Doris.  No, TH Jr. has nothing left.  19 minutes of zero, zip, nada.

When Exum snuck in for the slam dunk, they likewise gushed over how that is what he brings, again saying similar superlatives.  Sorry, those were his only points in the game and his only minutes in the game.

The emperor has no bench?  Players 3-5 also are somewhat suspect.  How did the media miss all that?

Our team just came through a very tough and close series with Indy.  Many of the games were won in crunch time.  We worked through the stress of crunch time and our team never panicked or gave up.  Didn't we get any credit for that or did the entire group of media "experts" just use the old results and just go with that obviously obsolete information?  I think you know the answer.

Did I hear that there was a minor earthquake centered somewhere near Dallas around midnight last night?  That was most likely caused by the impact of all the media members jumping off the bandwagon and hitting the ground at the same time.

Celtics will win game four.

Wow wow wow

Dbrown I give you credit, you said sweep, I picked 5 and I think I’m going to be wrong. We match up so well vs this team, we kicked their a$$ fairly well even without Zinger.

Good points gyso on media coverage. Pacers did us a favor, iron sharpens iron, they got us poised for clutch time and they played at a much faster pace than Mavs. Pacers 4-5 Siakim and Turner are far better than anyone at same position on Mavs. Pacers are actually harder to defend. Gafford and Lively can only score on lobs or dunks, have no basic post or scoring ability at all. This team is so flawed, so many offensive liabilities.

Jaylen was a beast and literally took Doncic out of the game. I was glad in 2nd half Joe made an effort to get Jaylen going downhill against Luka. Thought we didn’t exploit that match up enough first 2 games of series. Hunt him down, get Jaylen on him, find/create that match up, wear down Luka. It all worked, Jaylen put on a clinic against him, don’t let him off easy. If Tatum catches him, he took apart Luka too.

Our defense can slow these guys down, make things difficult. They still haven’t cracked 100 against us. We shot terrible in game 2 and relaxed, got lazy in 4th last night. Joe could have called a TO sooner, but we outtoughed and outplayed them both ends at clutch time, Luka having a hissy fit and showing extreme frustration. He cracked. A lot of media is calling out the golden boy Luka right now for losing it in the heat of the action.

Our team is so much deeper, plays so much more together, love our overall demeanor and the purpose we play with. White hits big 3’s every 4th quarter, Jrue does everything. Great to finally see Tatum go for a routine 30 in a variety of ways; he’s so talented, that was long overdue and about time he showed up full throttle at the party. Because Zinger was out, we were forced to go to J’s more and they came thru with both going for 30. Jaylen is so dynamic, reminded me of Kobe, his attack mentality. Totally took over in the clutch, what a highlight dunk, momentum instigator!!!!

Kudos to Al giving us what we needed in paint and Tillman coming thru bigly on defense and hitting that 3!! We did it again without Zinger. On the verge of sweeping!!! Undefeated on the road, on a 10 game winning streak in the playoffs!!! Who does that? Wow wow wow

cowens/oldschool,

I just don't see this team giving anything away anymore.  I've been trying to locate/justify this feeling and where it comes from.  The players just exude calmness at every turn.  Even when they let up on a lead.  It's like they have ALL, and it requires all, passed through a mental gate/door in their minds of some kind and it shows on every play, every possession, every word...everything.  A lot of it comes from Jrue.  Some from the calmness and resolve of the coach because he is wired that way.  JT and JB are still figuring it out because they have not won it yet.  Jrue has.   

I have to go back to the 2008 team where after a while of watching them during the season, watching the game, I just knew they were going to win.  This somewhat carried over to the playoffs as you recall we almost played the maximum number of games but I give that to the team that went from worst to first in one season.  They have a lot of ground to cover and did it all in one year.  I knew they were going to win.  This current team knows they are going to win before they even step in the arena and on the court.    

Same with this team.  Yes, for the love of God media, it's taken forever divided by zero for this to finally come to fruition, but I'm also seeing something else with this team and what it may be capable of doing.  But that's for another thread.  

First things first.  Tonight and taking care of business.  Our team has seen all the punches.  We've answered every bell.  It is time to go claim what we've come to claim.  Since I almost got my rout prediction in G3, I'm pushing this to G4.  It is only fitting that this team have tonight's game over by halftime.  DAL needs a final taste of their own medicine for what they did on the road in the playoffs a couple of years ago with Chris Paul's team.  Mazzulla has peaked this team at the absolute perfect time.  I simply see no other alternative.  This result will be the definite eff you to all the media we have been looking for and other naysayers regarding the Boston Celtics.  They will finally have to step down of their POC pedestal and use those two words in the same sentence they have mortgaged their careers upon hopefully never having to say....

db

Cameron Tabatabaie
@CTabatabaie
NBA says Horford’s turnover should have been a Dallas foul, and that White was trying to foul Hardaway Jr









Bob
MY NOTE: So, one call should have gone Boston's way with a foul on Dallas (should have gotten fritos?) and another one that they claim is "inconclusive". Bottom line, we won, we deserved to win, the refs didn't steal it from anybody.


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Tatum also got fouled on 2 dunks, one a fastbreak, so obvious all the announcers said it was a foul; and on another spin move Kyrie clearly caught him on the arm from behind as Tatum was dunking.

I saw Horford get shoved from behind, then somehow they changed the call. NBA wants more games, we have to beat the Mavs and the refs. F@(k those mofo’s. Keep on attacking Jaylen please!!!!