Post Game - Celtics vs. Dallas Mavericks - Friday, June 14, 2024 - Game 4 NBA Finals (L 3-1)

This let down was understandable. Let’s hope that there is no hangover. During the regular season funks got extended to more than one game.

Go Celtics, help me celebrate on Monday.

It’s not that the Celtics squandered a chance to win an NBA title, it’s how they did it that’s become the real concern for Game 5
By Gary Washburn/Boston Globe, Updated June 15, 2024, 3 minutes ago


DALLAS — Hard to believe after Friday’s putrid Game 4 performance that the Celtics are actually ahead in these NBA Finals. Not since the 2010 Celtics scored 67 points in a potential closeout game at Staples Center has a Boston team looked so listless and inept with a chance to win a championship.

They were done midway through the second quarter, when the Mavericks went on a 44-16 run for a 25-point lead. By then, the Celtics made it clear they didn’t want this game bad enough, knowing they had four games to win one and perhaps the lure of clinching their 18th title at home Monday in Game 5.

But what the Celtics have done with their embarrassing, 122-84, loss at American Airlines Center is give the Mavericks life, adding suspense to a best-of-seven series that had little after they won the first three games.

It’s not that coach Joe Mazzulla planned for this type of effort and performance, but it happened. The Mavericks were the more desperate team. Rookie center Dereck Lively hit his first career 3-pointer during an early Dallas run. Derrick White countered with an airball on a 3.

Nobody played well. The Celtics were punished on the boards. They couldn’t hit threes and they couldn’t hit twos. Now they return to Boston with a 3-1 edge in the series, but perhaps not the psychological edge because the Mavericks finally saw its bench produce while the duo of Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic shredded a Boston defense that just wasn’t interested in guarding.

Both were able to drive to the basket with ease for layups and floaters. The Celtics perhaps believed the Mavericks were done, that they would lay down after trailing, 3-0, and on the brink of getting swept. Instead it was the Celtics who relented, reverting to their style of “playing with their food.”

The Celtics trailed by as many as 48 points in the third quarter, completely letting go of the rope and forcing Mazzulla to pull his starters with three-plus minutes left in the quarter. They needed to be benched. They were awful. Jayson Tatum missed layups or was stripped at the rim. Jaylen Brown looked two steps slow. Jrue Holiday missed a handful of layups.

White airballed another 3-pointer in the second half. And the Celtics faithful who traveled from Boston, snapped up the tickets on the secondary market and wanted to see history, actually witnessed one of the worst playoff losses in Celtics history. Only two previous Celtics teams lost by more points in the postseason.

What this loss does is create that slight doubt, that slight anxiety that maybe the Celtics have been figured out. The Mavericks played stifling defense in the fourth quarter of Game 3 but the Celtics made enough key buckets to hold on. On Friday, the Celtics couldn’t score in the paint and couldn’t hit even open threes.

Mazzulla was more complimentary of the Mavericks than critical of his own team, but he did think Dallas played harder. How in the world could the Celtics allow the Mavericks to play harder with so much on the line? Nobody had that answer.

“I mean, I don’t know, always in situations like this, it always goes back to us,” Mazzulla said. “But you have to give Dallas credit. They played well. They played really, really well. And that’s the reason why they’re in this, is because when they play like that. So I thought they just outplayed us. I don’t know. I thought Dallas played really [hard] — , because you have to give them credit. It’s not about us. It’s about our opponent and having respect for them.

“And you have to give them credit for how well they played, and that’s the most important thing. So it’s less about us and more about how they played. They played well. They played hard. We have to be more disciplined in how we defend and attack them.”

Adjustments will be necessary.

Mazzulla and his staff have two days to cool down Irving, make things tougher on Doncic, and limit the bench players who are now brimming with confidence.

The Celtics could have played one of their better games and still lost with the way Dallas performed, but they didn’t have a chance to find out because they didn’t offer their best.

Sweeps in the NBA Finals are extremely difficult. The last time an Eastern Conference team swept an NBA Finals series was 1989.

It’s not that the Celtics lost Game 4, it’s how they lost that is a concern. The Celtics still have the advantage. No team has come back from 0-3 and Boston is the better team, but they were so listless in Game 4 that they lost a considerable amount of momentum gained from such an impressive playoff run and winning the first three games of this series.

They’ll have to work hard to regain that and can’t just depend on being home to take this series.

“We learn from it. We take it. We don’t dismiss it,” guard Jaylen Brown said. “We’re going to learn from it. We’re going to see how and why, exactly where the game was won and lost. And then we take those experiences and then we come out and we play like our life depends on it. Because it does.”

The Larry O’Brien Trophy will be shipped to Boston for Game 5, and the Celtics have the precious opportunity to clinch in front of a title-hungry city. They’ll have to play with the ultimate passion, no arrogance and with all the sense of urgency.

Well, folks, sorry about that.  Clearly I didn't plan for that outcome.  I hope with the timing of that performance we haven't let the cat out of the bag and become completely unraveled.  The media is going to have a field day(s) until Monday.   Let's see how we react to total adversity and how tired we are of losing and what "how ever long it takes" means.  Won't be watching much of anything until then.  Keep the faith.  

If there is any good news from a shellacking like that, it is we've been beaten badly/inexplicably like this before during the regular season and bounced back quickly.  My only question is, what was the plan with KP last night?

db

The plan was that he would get on the floor when they were winning big at the end so that he could be a part of the “big” win. Joe had no intentions of really ever playing him yesterday. His name would not have had a DNP in the box score. It was just a “feel good” thing never with the intentions that he would help the team. It is just as well, I really wonder how Dallas would have defended him? Very roughly my guess. Fosberg said after the game that he had hardly any lift when he was out there shooting, some what would have been the use is putting him in a position of injuring himself more.

Let’s face it, nothing was going to help that team last night, for some reason, they did not show up. They might as well have been on the plane at 8 o’clock instead of on the floor for the tip off. Not one of them really showed up last night.

Disappointing? Yes, because this follows them forever. Upsetting, yup. But we are coming home, this is where the game should be won, period. Lose Monday and I will be really wondering if a GSW ghost is. Following them. But, I believe they will win, I hope they will win, they better win

Very disappointing, but let's face we were due for a clunker.

10 playoffs wins in a row is impressive, but we just didn't have it last night. We looked a little tired and certainly flat. Holiday was just horrible in the first half, probably the worst I've seen him play. I think he had five turnovers. This is not Jrue. Jaylen couldn't get anything going either. PP disappointed me. He got it going during garbage time, but when we needed him in the second quarter he didn't come through. JT tried to keep us afloat, but he couldn't get good looks.

Dallas just got it going, and when momentum builds it can turn into avalanche. The one thing that does concern me is that the Dallas big men (Lively and Gafford) looked tough on both ends. This is worrisome as we don't have the Zinger. They killed us on the boards. We have to do better on Monday.

I think we will respond on Monday. The old adage is true whether you win or lose by one or 30 it only counts as one win or loss. The two days off I think will help get the bad taste out of our mouths.

Let the Nattering Nabobs of Negativism (extra credit to anybody who can correctly identify who the original author of that statement is) begin their backstroking babbling about how we went from being one of the best playoff teams in NBA history back to being a bunch of posers because we didn't sweep the team with the 6th best regular season record twice in a row on their home court.

Does anybody think Jaylen Brown is going to go 3-12 again?

Does anybody think that Pritchard is going to go 5-14 again?  Does anybody think he'll even take 14 fgas again this series?

80 fgas.  Do people see that as our norm?


Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
about 7 hours ago
We'll call it a night here. Anyone thinking the Game 4 loss somehow damages the legacy of the 2024 Celtics if they win Game 5? The '08 Celtics won their last game by 40, and finished with a playoff scoring margin of +5.2. The '24 Celtics just lost by 40 and are still at +7.5.



Sean Grande
Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
about 7 hours ago
The Celtics, owners of the best offense in NBA history, managed just 0.875 points/possession in Game 4. That's their worst offensive efficiency, regular season or playoffs, since the 2nd night of the 2021-22 season...284 games ago.


Last night was our first playoff loss since May 9th, our first road loss in the playoffs.  That's one loss, total, in 36 days.


Series often boil down to who wins pivotal Game 5.  It still does, but more so for Dallas than for us.  If we win Game 5 it's #18.   If Dallas wins Game 5 they still have to win the next two. I know where the smart money is going on this series, this score notwithstanding. This team has had an annoying habit all year of needing to get embarrassed by a team that shouldn't even be on the same floor as them for them to go on an angry NBA Revenge Tour streak. I think Dallas just poked the bear.


Bob


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I love it , in the short time of possibly ten minutes, I read Jason Kidd taking a shot at Celtics, Joel Embid saying that he hates them (on national tv), and a dear friend who has worked for the Celtics since he was a kid and has a pretty damn good job with the now commenting on facebook to his friends that anyone throwing the C's under the bus will have their name removed from ticket lists!! (just joking I a sure, but he is a true Celtic thru and thru and hears it all) So, let the bitching begin. I will admit, I turned it off last night, it bothered me alot to see ALL of them collapsing at one time. Today is another day, Monday is two days away and I believe that things will end then. period. It is funny how the mud gets slung isn't it?

Thankfully, flights home yesterday were a mess of delays and cancellations. In the air from mid second half through the end.

Delta saved the day by making it impossible to watch this stinker.

Now if our luggage catches up to us today, it will be perfect.

On to the Monday game, and, hopefully, a home court clincher.

The Celtics were very lucky that it took Dallas 3 games to learn how to play 48 minutes of excellent defense against us. They likely will not forget that. I think the game(s) ahead will be more difficult now, but absolutely within grasp.

It's not on the coach, it's on our players. In Abby's pregame interview with Joe, he intimated as much about 4th games at 3-0 being psychologically challenging. I don't have it recorded so I don't recall his exact wording.

I don't care for this now common habit in all sports to celebrate vociferously etc. with every good play. Dallas does it more than us, so that's in our favor. Keep it in check until it's over. Steady, quiet and lethal. JT's kisses are okay just skip the bravado crap.

Go Celtics

Theses opinions are my own and I intend no offense to anyone. I purposely do not listen to any of the talking heads and more often than not turn off the audio while watching the Celtics play. Thank you to all this forums posters.

Margins! Margins! Margins!

I guess the only team that took note was the Mavericks.

I am glad that this was a blowout and not a closely contested game with the Celtics losing.  The Celtics should have some incentives to show up for Game 5.

I know when the Celtics watch game film, they will be shaking their heads collectively.  It  would be like watching a tennis match on fast forward.

The matchup zone has raised its' ugly head!

I hope the C's end this Monday, but doubt it will be easy because Dallas has figured out they can score in the paint. Even in a 3-ball age, lockdown team DEFENSE wins games and Al will be key. Go Celtics!

For now, Joe will work his tail off today and tomorrrow, a new wrinkle maybe???? Kind of hard, but I believe they will wake up Monday, hope so, because I sure hate shutting down a game because it disturbed me so much to watch. Someone has to shut Lively up, you would think he was in the running for an MVP trophy, got his mouth wagging all the time. The one thing I do like, Boston has taken the high road for the most part, all interviews have been respectful. Too bad someone never taught JKidd to do the same.

I think the key will be KP.  Without him, we are a replica of last year's team.  DAL has a copy of all 7 2023 ECF's.  Get KP out there, quit being cute and trying to time his comeback and end this tomorrow ala G6 2008.  Nobody has had an answer for that lineup with KP in it.  Not even close.  

Bygone, I too have turned off the talking heads over the weekend and into tomorrow.  As you say correctly, this is on the players.  It is also on Mazzulla to get KP back even if it is for a short while to rattle DAL.  We know the crowd will do its job.  Time for the players and coach to do theirs.  Monday is G7.  

db

dbrown4 wrote:I think the key will be KP.  Without him, we are a replica of last year's team.  DAL has a copy of all 7 2023 ECF's.  Get KP out there, quit being cute and trying to time his comeback and end this tomorrow ala G6 2008.  Nobody has had an answer for that lineup with KP in it.  Not even close.  

Bygone, I too have turned off the talking heads over the weekend and into tomorrow.  As you say correctly, this is on the players.  It is also on Mazzulla to get KP back even if it is for a short while to rattle DAL.  We know the crowd will do its job.  Time for the players and coach to do theirs.  Monday is G7.  

db

Agreed dbrown, I have confidence in Mazzulla, I think he'll come up with a new wrinkle, and if KP comes back even for short stretches it should inspire everyone else to play their best. KP's smiling attitude, determination, and hustle deserves a lot of credit for our success this year. Brad was awesome assembling this team.

Bob, our only Greek-American VP, Spiro Agnew, first voiced "Nattering Nabobs of Negativism," much to the embarrassment of all us yogurt, feta, baklava, and falafel eaters.

I'm going to blame G4 mostly on Coach Joe, say 70%.  Not sure what his game plan coming into that one was or what the deal was with announcing KP was ready but then pulling the plug.  Plus he let several cats on of the DAL bag with Hardaway going off even though in trash time. Not to mention giving DAL life while on the stretcher and unconscious.  Regardless, let's remove that game plan from the play manual and have no resemblance to that tonight in any form.  

The rest is on the players.  Looks like they got caught in a tornado with no life lines whatsoever.  We've been here before so I'm not going to go off and be nervous about tonight.  The truly great thing about playoff series basketball is much to everyone's chagrin, there is no momentum between games.  During the game?  Absolutely but it is usually short lived with a quick TO.  Our guys have forgotten G4, watched all the game film ad nauseum, learned from it, and have moved on to G5.  

DAL punched us in the mouth.  BFD.  You're still a 5th/6th Seed team from the West.  There's a reason for that.  Several to be exact.  None of which are positive and will be re-exposed tonight.  We'll see a different team and hopefully it will closely resemble G6 Finals in 2008.  

db

worcester wrote:Bob, our only Greek-American VP, Spiro Agnew, first voiced "Nattering Nabobs of Negativism," much to the embarrassment of all us yogurt, feta, baklava, and falafel eaters.

Worcester,

Correct, although the words themselves were written for him by then-White House writer William Safire.


Bob


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