There’s no way around it: The Boston Celtics’ Game 4 loss at Dallas Friday night was as bad as it gets.
Head coach Joe Mazzulla’s group was lifeless from the jump, seemingly folding like a deck of cards after falling behind early in action.
But even with the disastrous 122-84 setback, the Celtics remain in the driver’s seat with a 3-1 Finals lead — and a lot will have to happen for them to completely lose control of the series.
“I don’t think we came out and expected that we were going to come out and roll over on it and win,” Jayson Tatum said of the approach to Game 4. “I firmly believe we had the right intentions. We wanted to win, we wanted to play in the right way. That moment, we wanted that moment.
“But I think we maybe put too much pressure on ourselves at that moment to be perfect or think it was going to go how we wanted it to go.”
Things can go one of two ways from here: Either the Mavericks, who admittedly have nothing to lose at this point, will continue to flip the script, string together another impressive performance at TD Garden Monday night, and go back to Dallas for Game 6 with serious confidence that they can win this thing; or Boston will respond from the surprising drubbing like they have so many times this season and bring home Banner 18 on their home floor.
If the former unfolds, it will be because Mavs’ superstar Luka Doncic continues to set the tone for his squad. Doncic dropped 25 points in the first half on Friday as his team built a substantial 26-point lead, and for the first time in this championship series, he wasn’t a defensive liability and wasn’t noticeably blaming the refs for his inefficiencies.
Dallas also got plenty of help from their role players (i.e. Dereck Lively II, Dante Exum and Tim Hardaway Jr.), something that hadn’t exactly transpired in Games 1-3. It will be a taller task for those guys in a hostile environment on the road Monday evening.
The more likely scenario, however, is that Boston strikes back and officially puts the finishing touches on what’s truly been a remarkable campaign.
Here’s why:
Poor performances happen. They happen in the midst of a grueling 82-game regular season, and they’re bound to happen to good teams in the playoffs, too.
It’s all about how you respond to those lackluster outings that truly defines you — and everything the Celtics have done this season suggests that they will do just that: respond.
“We have a great group, resilient group, and we don’t like to lose,” Jaylen Brown said Sunday. “We do our best to prepare each and every night, each and every game, and we look forward to the next game on the schedule.”
Including the playoffs, Boston has now played 100 games this season. The Celtics have dropped consecutive games just four times in that span, and have never sustained more than a two-game game losing streak.
Of their 21 total losses (18 in the regular season, 3 in the playoffs), just eight have come by double digits. After their last blowout defeat, a 118-94 setback to Cleveland in Game 2 of the second round, Boston responded with a convincing victory of their own to spark the beginning of a 10-game postseason win streak.
As JJ Redick so aptly put it in a recent podcast, so much of the Celtics’ criticism this season has been based on past performances. This is a new group, with a revamped roster and a more experienced mentality from top to bottom. Their disappointing finishes in recent years are now in the rear view mirror and there’s virtually zero remaining correlation between those squads and this season’s dominant bunch.
Time and time again Boston has proven the ability to bounce back from disappointing, uncharacteristic losses. There’s no more secrets between these two opponents, either; nothing Dallas does from here on out should be a surprise to Boston. All the Celtics have to do is execute.
Boston will undoubtedly be fired up in front of its home crowd for another potential closeout game on Monday.
“This is what we all work for,” said Brown. “We are at the precipice of completing what we set out to do at the beginning of the season.
“So I think it’s not difficult to get everybody in that locker room on the same page right now. It just needs to remind everybody that it’s just one possession at a time. We do it together and we fight like our lives depends on it, and I think we’ll be all right.”
Nick Giannino covers the Boston Celtics for CNHI Sports Boston. Contact him at NGiannino@Nobmg.com and follow along on Twitter/X @NickGiannino_GT.