Celtics

Don’t worry, Celtics fans. OK, maybe worry a little bit.

Friday’s outcome was such a thorough and ruthless dissection that what would have been considered irrational thoughts before the game started sounding awfully rational afterward.

By Chad Finn

June 15, 2024

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The rational thing to do is dismiss it, punt it, burn the game-tape, and shrug it off as the last worthless evening the Celtics will have this season.

Yes, that’s the rational thing to do, and those of you that can do it are the best kind of Celtics fans.

Usually, I applaud you. I am the champion of the rational fan.

But right now, after what we saw Friday night, after all of that, it’s tempting to lean toward the irrational. It’s pretty close to irresistible, actually.

The Celtics had a golden chance to become a champion of a different sort Friday night.

They had a chance to make history as the first team to sweep the conference finals and the NBA Finals, to improve their overall record to 80-20 this season, to claim a place by any measure objective or analytical among the greatest single-season teams in professional basketball lore.

They had a chance to lock down their legend.

Then they went out and lost by 38 points. Which was about, oh, 50 points closer than it felt.

The Dallas Mavericks walloped, throttled, pounded, and, yep, also spindled the Celtics in Game 4 of the NBA Finals, 122-84.

The pummeling was so thorough and the outcome decided so early – the Mavericks led 70-38 with 9 minutes, 30 seconds left in the third quarter – that one adjective is not enough to describe what Luka Doncic (29 points, 25 in the first half) and his fellow Mavs did to take apart the Celtics.

Derrick White came up with the most succinct description when asked how he would sum up the game. “A simple way,” said the Celtics guard. “An [expletive]-kicking.”

The Celtics should still be fine. Presuming they play to their capabilities in Game 5 Monday at TD Garden, they will secure the franchise’s 18th banner and first in 16 years.

But until they go out and do it, “should” is the operative word.  It has to be.

As exceptional as they have been this season, as often as they have demonstrated that their old familiar flaws should be referenced in the past tense, Friday’s outcome was such a thorough and ruthless dissection by the Mavericks that what would have been considered irrational thoughts before the game started sounding awfully rational afterward.

The Celtics were so bad in so many ways. They shot like the basketball was encased in asphalt, hitting 11 of 37 attempts overall and 5 of 19 3-pointers in the first half, when the game actually carried some suspense.

They got outscored in the paint 60-27 over the full game, with rookie Dereck Lively (11 points and 12 rebounds, including 5 offensive, in 22 minutes) making the Celtics look lethargic and wholly uninterested in boxing out.

The Celtics fell into lousy habits, individually and as a team.

Jaylen Brown, who was the clear MVP of this series through three games, made just 3 of 12 shots and had more turnovers (2) than rebounds (1).

Jayson Tatum started OK, with 11 points in the first quarter, but was repeatedly flummoxed by the Mavericks’ interior defense as the game progressed.

Holiday, White, and Al Horford combined for as many points in the first quarter as Xavier Tillman (3).

The more the ball refused to go in the basket, the more it stopped moving before the shot.

Most damning of all, the Celtics didn’t play hard. They were repeatedly outhustled for loose balls. The play that bugged me more than anything else we saw Friday occurred with 7:03 remaining in the second quarter and Dallas leading 40-25.

Irving dived to beat Tatum to a loose ball in the corner, teetered along the sideline like he was might topple out of bounds, and with a clear sightline as Horford and Sam Hauser loitered in no-man’s land, found Doncic underneath for a layup and a plus-one, with Brown picking up his third foul.

The lead rose to 18 points, and it became clear that the Celtics were taking too casual of an approach to contemplate a real comeback.

The Mavs eventually built their lead to 48 – 48! – and it all felt like a flashback to the Celtics teams that came up short in recent seasons. Watching it was enough to make your retinas ache.

I suppose that before we become too pessimistic, it’s best to listen to Jrue Holiday, who is as grounded as any accomplished athlete to come through this city in recent years and, as a champion with the 2021 Bucks, knows how emotions and perceptions fluctuate in the pursuit of a championship.

Holiday, who almost unfathomably was a minus-38 in Game 4, was asked afterward where he sees the series. “I think the series is,” he said, “we are up 3-1 going back to Boston.”

Holiday’s statement was obvious, and yet a welcome reminder that the Celtics are still in control of this series.

No team has rallied to win a playoff series after falling behind 3-0 in NBA history – the tally stands at 156-0.

Someday some talented, resilient team will seize the moment and become the NBA’s version of the 2004 Red Sox.

But as we experienced last year when the Celtics dug out of a 3-0 hole against the dastardly Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals, only to lose Game 7 when Tatum rolled his ankle in the opening seconds, that climb back is exhausting.

In Game 4, we witnessed Doncic and Kyrie Irving (21 points in 31 minutes) at their best. It’s easy to forget that for significant portions of the first three games in this series – including the Celtics’ gritty Game 3 victory in Dallas – we have witnessed them perform at something far less than their best.

Maybe the Friday night letdown – and celebrating what they didn’t yet have – was human nature. Maybe these Celtics, subconsciously, want to win the thing in Boston. Maybe they realize that they have not lost more than two in a row all season, and have no intention of doing so now.

But this right here does not require a maybe: They had best come to play from the opening tap.

TD Garden is sure to be rocking, but after this debacle, even the rational fans among us are going to require some reassurance.