DALLAS — Deficits like the one the Dallas Mavericks face in the NBA Finals are never overcome, nor do they interrupt the pride of the team trying to dig itself out of such a deep hole.
Luka Dončić scored 25 of his 29 points in the first half of Game 4, the Mavericks built one of the largest halftime leads ever in a finals game and cruised to a 122-84 win over the Boston Celtics for their first win in this series. The 38-point margin of victory is the third-largest in NBA Finals history.
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“We had to play our A game — it was this or we go on vacation,” Dallas coach Jason Kidd said.
The Mavericks trail 3-1, and no team has ever come back to win an NBA playoff series after losing the first three games (0 for 156; 0 for 14 in the finals). Game 5 is at 8:30 p.m. (ET) Monday in Boston.
WHAT A 1ST HALF FROM LUKA DONCIC 🔥
25 points, 4 assists and a 61-35 Mavs lead.
🏆 Game 4 on ABC 🏆 pic.twitter.com/YtZDjHDlKn
— NBA (@NBA) June 15, 2024
A sizable contingent of Celtics fans who flooded American Airlines Arena hoping to see their team win an NBA-record 18th title and become the first to sweep both a conference finals and NBA Finals instead witnessed a bizarre, double whammy of a performance in which Boston’s vaunted defense was shredded and its potent offense was thwarted. The Celtics’ 84 points were their fewest of the season, regular or postseason.
Another example of the general malaise: With 7 minutes, 28 seconds left in the third quarter, Boston had 16 rebounds as a team; Dallas rookie and reserve center Dereck Lively II had 12 boards.
“I thought they just outplayed us,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “Dallas is a great team and you’re going to have to earn it. There’s a lot of stuff that we can control. We’ll go back on the film and we’ll watch that, and we’ll really try to be disciplined and control it.”
Added Jaylen Brown: “These are the moments that can make you or break you. We have to reassemble.”
The Celtics had won 10 in a row and seven straight on the road but found themselves trailing 61-35 at halftime of Game 4. Only three halftime deficits are larger than those 26 points in the history of the NBA Finals. Boston trailed by as many as 48 in the fourth quarter. Brown, the early favorite to win finals MVP, had 10 points on 3-of-12 shooting. Jayson Tatum scored 15 points on 4-of-10 shooting.
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Before Game 4, Kidd predicted there would come a moment Friday night when one team — either his or the Celtics — would have to decide whether to fold. In Dallas’ case, a concession would mean the offseason; in Boston’s, a punt to Game 5 with a chance to win it all at home.
That moment came definitively with 3:18 left in the third quarter and the Celtics trailing by 36. Mazzulla pulled all of his starters and they did not return. Both teams’ starters were out of the game before the third quarter ended.
“We don’t have to complicate this, this isn’t surgery — our group was ready to go,” Kidd said. “(The Celtics) were ready to celebrate. We made a stand. We were desperate. … They let go of the rope.”
From Kidd’s perspective, he can be certain his players did not decide to unlace their sneakers for good because of the 3-0 deficit.
While Dončić cooked in the first half, he also played noticeably better defensively, finishing with three steals. Dallas seemed to switch more on the pick-and-roll to protect Dončić from being caught in mismatches, but he held his own when challenged.
After his sloppy performance in Game 3 — he was beaten repeatedly on defense and fouled out, thanks to four fouls called on him in the fourth quarter — Dončić was roundly criticized for both his defense and his complaining to the officials. Kidd asked critics to “give my man a break” in his remarks before Game 4 and predicted Dončić would be better Friday. He was correct.
“He didn’t say anything to me specifically, but that speaks a lot about him. He always has players’ backs,” Dončić said. “He always supports us. That’s a big thing, to have a coach like that.”
The Mavericks also received 21 points from Kyrie Irving and 11 points and 12 boards from Lively — who joined Magic Johnson as the only other 20-year-old with multiple double-doubles in the finals.
“I’m not comfortable. We got to win..” Lively said. “We got to have a lot more wins. We got to win a lot more of the little battles. Got to stay disciplined. We just got to replicate what we did in this game. Do it the next one.”
Dereck Lively II was huge off the bench for Dallas in the Game 4 win!
💪 11 PTS
💪 12 REB
💪 80.0 FG%
💪 1st-career 3-pointerHe joins Magic Johnson (5x) as the only players 20 or younger to record multiple double-doubles in NBA Finals history 👏👏 pic.twitter.com/s1zVD6MrhK
— NBA (@NBA) June 15, 2024
Lively’s 3 in the corner in the first quarter was his first made 3-pointer all season — regular season or playoffs. When asked about it afterward, he pointed toward the sky in honor of his mother, who died of cancer earlier this year.
“It’s for her. She helped me make it,” he said. “She’s going to help me make a lot more.”
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Before the garbage time portion of the game, Dallas’ bench held a sizable advantage over Boston’s reserves — and it held even after the backups on both teams started bombing 3s. When it was over, Tim Hardaway Jr. had made five 3s, all in the fourth quarter, and the Mavs’ bench outscored its counterpart 54-40.
Kidd turned more to Dante Exum (10 points) in Game 4 and still didn’t get much in the way of points production from starters P.J. Washington, Derrick Jones Jr. and Daniel Gafford, but the Mavericks at least had looks at corner 3s and lob dunks that had been their favorite plays earlier in the playoffs. Until Friday, the Celtics had taken those options away.
In a small twist to the series, Boston star center Kristaps Porziņģis, who missed Game 3, was available to play Game 4 but did not appear. Mazzulla cautioned that the 7-footer is “not quite there” in recovering from the tissue tear and tendon displacement near his left ankle, and said the team would only use Porziņģis in a “very specific” situation.
None of those arose, and Porziņģis never peeled off his warmups.
Maybe he’ll get a chance on Monday.
Required reading
- Jason Kidd on Luka Dončić criticism: ‘Give my man a break’
- Luka Dončić is getting a hard lesson in the extra level the NBA Finals demand
- Jaylen Brown could win NBA Finals MVP. He’d make history — but not how you think
- How Al Horford, a 38-year-old backup center, is key to Celtics’ NBA Finals success
(Photo: Peter Casey / USA Today)
Joe Vardon is a senior NBA writer for The Athletic, based in Cleveland. Follow Joe on Twitter @joevardon
