Luka Dončić and the Dallas Mavericks are now a loss away from being swept by the Celtics in the NBA Finals after losing Game 3 at home, 106-99, on Wednesday night.
Dončić, who wasn’t happy with the officials after the game, had a simple message for his team when asked what they can do now being down 3-0 and having their hopes of winning a championship all but dashed by Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics.
The Boston Celtics are one win away from hanging their 18th banner inside TD Garden.
In a wild Game 3 filled with scoring runs, big games from the stars of both teams and a surprise fouling out of Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic, the Celtics prevailed 106–99 to take a commanding 3–0 series lead in the 2024 NBA Finals.
Entering the game in a 2–0 series deficit, Dallas came out desperate and had its collective foot on the gas early in the ball game. Behind a hot start from Doncic and Kyrie Irving, the Mavericks took a double-digit lead, 22–9, with 5:48 to go in the first quarter.
But just as the Celtics have done all series long—and all season long—they met the Mavericks' initial run with one of their own. Despite struggling to score in the first two games of the series, Boston star Jayson Tatum came to play on Wednesday night, as all superstars do, in the absence of center Kristaps Porzingis. He led the charge as Boston punched back. The Celtics closed the quarter down 31–30, and entered halftime down 51–50 despite an offensive barrage of Doncic and Irving, who paced the Mavericks with first-half scoring.
But the second half is where the fun began.
The Celtics have been a poor third-quarter team all season long, but Jaylen Brown came out on fire after halftime, hitting jump shot after jump shot, overcoming a slow shooting start that saw him score just six first-half points. Brown scored 24 second half points, and put on a show in the third quarter in particular, where he concluded the frame with an emphatic slam.
Boston's 35–19 third quarter spurt, to go along with a strong start to the fourth quarter, saw its lead balloon to as many as 21 points.
The Mavericks were on life support, but they weren't done yet. A 20–2 spurt that left the Celtics' players absolutely stunned cut the 21-point lead all the way down to three.
However, with 4:12 to go and the Celtics clinging to a 93–90 lead, Brown crossed half-court and drove to the basket with Doncic riding his hip. The Mavericks star, who already had five fouls, stepped in front of Brown for an obvious block. The play was challenged by Dallas and ultimately upheld, but Doncic's disqualification loomed large in the closing minutes of the contest.
Boston closed on a 13–6 run of its own with Doncic out of the lineup, and Irving's offensive heroics for Dallas simply weren't enough.
Tatum (31 points) and Brown (30 points), who have been much maligned by the media throughout the course of their careers, coexisted when it mattered most on the biggest stage and kept pace with Irving (35 points) and Doncic (27 points) to survive Game 3.
Game 4 is on Friday night, a 48-hour turnaround for the first time in the series. Boston will have a chance to raise its first championship banner since 2008, while Dallas will fight to keep its season alive.
Dallas fell behind by 21 points in the fourth quarter and then had their furious comeback fall short thanks mostly to the fact that Luka Doncic fouled out with just over four minutes left in the game and couldn't help his team in the final stretch.
ESPN's Brian Windhorst was asked after the game by Scott Van Pelt about what he thought of Doncic's sixth foul and he did not hold back, blasting the guard for that play and crushing him for the way he's acted and played all series long.
"I thought it was perfect that Luka fell on on to the ground there in an unacceptable position to put himself in with four minutes left and five fouls and then immediately looks at the bench and says you better bleeping challenge it, as if its the bench’s fault that he just made a terrible play," Windhorst said.
His rant then got even more personal:
"I’m standing here in the Mavericks tunnel. Over there is the Celtics tunnel. That’s where the winners are. If Luka is ever going to be a winner coming out of this tunnel here he’s going to have to use what happened in this Finals as a learning experience. His defensive performance is unacceptable. He’s a hole on the court. The Celtics are attacking him. They are ahead in this series because they’ve attacked him defensively. And you’ve got a situation here where Luka is complaining about the officiating. They have begged him, they have talked with him, they have pleaded with him—he’s costing his team because of how he treats the officials. He’s a brilliant player, he does so many things well. They are here because of how he did. His performance in this game is unacceptable and the reason why the Mavericks are not going to win. He’s got to get over this. The fact that he came out after the game and blamed the officials showed me he’s nowhere close yet. So maybe over the summer someone will get to him because nobody with the Mavericks or anybody in his life has and that’s why the Mavericks are at this point. They’re never going to this tunnel with the trophy if he doesn’t improve" those aspects of his game."
Here's the video of that:
Brian Windhorst BLASTS Luka Dončić on 'SportsCenter with SVP' after Game 3 of the NBA Finals. 🏀🔥🔥🔥
Game 4 is Friday in Dallas. We'll see if Doncic and the Mavs can bounce back or if the Cetlics can close out their 18th championship in convincing fashion.
After it was reported Porzingis was dealing with a "torn medial retinaculum," the Latvian big man was ruled out for Game 3 shortly before tip-off. The Celtics leaned on Al Horford, as they had for the many games Porzingis missed earlier in the postseason, and turned to Xavier Tillman Sr. for backup duty and he delivered. Boston ultimately prevailed in Game 3, 106-99, to take a nigh-insurmountable 3-0 lead in the Finals.
The Celtics will look to finish off the sweep in Friday's Game 4 and early reporting suggests Porzingis could be healthy enough to help. On Thursday, The Athletic's Shams Charania said Porzingis "has a chance" to suit up for Game 4.
After Wednesday night's victory the Celtics are 10-1 without Porzingis this postseason. They have shown time and time again that they can win without their starting center. But Boston's Game 1 win over Dallas showed how impactful Porzingis can be when he's healthy and cooking. The Celtics won that contest by 18, the only game they've won by double-digits so far.
Wins are wins but Porzingis's presence provides a fairly large buffer for Boston. He averaged 20.1 points and 1.8 blocks per game during the regular season. That production can be compensated for by the extremely strong roster the Celtics boast but there's a trickle-down effect with Porzingis out there and healthy that makes everyone else's lives much easier.
