Luka Doncic scored 25 of his 29 points in the first half, Kyrie Irving added 21 and the Dallas Mavericks extended their season emphatically Friday night, fending off elimination by beating the Boston Celtics 122-84 in Game 4 of the NBA finals.
The Mavs stars were finished by the end of the third quarter, and for good reason. It was all Dallas from the start, with the Mavs leading by 13 after one quarter, 26 at halftime and as many as 38 in the third before both teams emptied the benches.
The final margin of 38 points was the third largest ever in an NBA Finals game, behind Chicago who beat Utah 96-54 in 1998 and the Celtics who beat the Los Angeles Lakers 131-92 in 2008.
Before Friday, the worst NBA Finals loss for the 17-time champion Celtics was 137-104 to the Lakers in 1984. That was worse. Much worse, sometimes. Dallas’ largest lead in the fourth was 48 – the largest deficit the Celtics have faced all season.
The Celtics still lead the series 3-1 and Game 5 will take place in Boston on Monday.
The loss — Boston’s first in five weeks — shattered the Celtics’ franchise record, 10-game playoff winning streak, and took away their chance to be the No. 1 team in history of the NBA to win both the Conference Finals and the Finals in 4. -0 sweeps.
Jayson Tatum scored 15 points, Sam Hauser 14 while Jaylen Brown and Jrue Holiday each finished with 10 for the Celtics.
Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 15 points, all in the fourth quarter, and Derek Lively II had 11 points and 12 rebounds for Dallas. It was Lively who suggested it would be a good night for the Mavs early on. He made a 3-pointer – the first of his NBA career – midway through the first quarter, a shot that gave the Mavs the lead for good.
And they left there and fled. And I kept running.
It was 61-35 at halftime and Dallas also left a ton of points unclaimed in the first 24 minutes. The Mavs entered the break having shot just 5 of 15 from 3-point range, 10 of 16 from the foul line — and they were in complete control anyway.
Boston’s weaknesses were numerous, some of them historic:
• The 35 points represent the Celtics’ lowest total in a half, any half, in Joe Mazzulla’s two seasons as coach.
• The 26-point halftime deficit was Boston’s second-largest of the season. The Celtics trailed Milwaukee by 37 at halftime on Jan. 11, one of only eight instances in their first 99 games this season where they trailed by double digits at halftime.
• The halftime deficit was Boston’s largest ever in an NBA Finals game, and the 35-point tally was the second-worst for the Celtics in the first half. They made 31 against the Lakers on June 15, 2010, Game 6 of the series which the Lakers won with a victory in Game 7.
Teams with a halftime lead of 23 points or more, even in a season where comebacks seemed easier than ever, were 76-0 this season as of Friday night.
Make it 77-0 now. Doncic’s jersey number, coincidentally.
The Celtics were surely thinking about how making a small dent in Dallas’ lead to open the second half could have made things interesting. Instead, the Mavs put things away quickly; a 15-7 run in the first 4:32 of the third pushed Dallas’ lead to 76-42.
Whatever hope Boston had of pulling off a huge rally and capping a sweep was long gone. Mazzulla retired all starters simultaneously with 3:18 left in the third and Dallas leading 88-52.
The Mavs still have the steepest climb possible in this series, but the first step had been taken.
