As a result of the injury, Kleber is expected to miss a significant period of time, if not the remainder of the Mavericks’ postseason run.
Kleber suffered the injury on a drive to the basket in the second quarter when he was fouled by Clippers wing Amir Coffey and landed with all his weight on his shoulder.
Maxi Kleber suffered a fully dislocated AC joint on this play last night in GM 6 and will most likely be out for the remainder of the postseason, devastating development for the Mavericks #OneForDallaspic.twitter.com/K3KZlAW6Sc
The injury is significant to Dallas’ frontcourt, and is devastating for Kleber, who was really coming into his own this postseason off the Mavericks’ bench. Kleber averaged 5.7 points and 2.7 rebounds in 19.3 minutes per game off the bench in the team’s first-round series.
Kleber will certainly be missed moving forward, as the Mavericks attempt to navigate their upcoming series with Oklahoma City without one of their key frontcourt players.
Luka Doncic fouled out in the fourth quarter of Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday night as the Boston Celtics defeated his Dallas Mavericks 106-99 at American Airlines Center.
Doncic finished with 27 points on 27 shots before he headed to the bench to watch his team's comeback fall short. His fifth and six fouls came in the fourth quarter on close calls that no Mavericks fan would ever agree with.
After the game. Doncic was asked about the whistles that went against him in the fourth. His response likely doesn't warrant a fine from the league, but reading between the lines, it doesn't seem like he agreed with the calls.
"I mean, I don't know," Doncic said. "We couldn't play physical so ... I don't know. I don't want to say nothing, but you know, six fouls in the NBA Finals? When I'm basically I'm like this. C'mon, man. [Be] better than that."
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) June 13, 2024
While Mavs fans will certainly disagree with the calls that went against Doncic, everyone can agree that the officials were pretty bad in the fourth quarter. It seemed like everything was allowed early in the game, but by the end the only time officials didn't blow the whistle was when Derrick White grabbed Tim Hardaway Jr. right in front of a referee on purpose and pointed at the referee to confirm he was trying to foul and there was no call.
You can’t tell me changes don’t need to be made to officiating. Derrick white clearly intentionally fouled Hardaway looked at the ref, says foul, ref still doesn’t make the call. Refs have been horrible throughout all of the season but this is just embarrassing. pic.twitter.com/DdeKq8GCWd
When Dallas Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said last week that Jaylen Brown was the Boston Celtics’ “best player,” it was widely believed that Kidd was playing mind games (an allegation Kidd denied) rather than expressing an earnest opinion about Boston’s hierarchy. But he may have been right.
Kidd’s initial assertion seemed outlandish because Jayson Tatum undoubtedly has a better résumé than Brown. (Tatum was named First-Team All-NBA in each of the past three seasons, while Brown has just one Second-Team selection to his name.) Brown is a star, but Tatum is a superstar. In the Finals, though, it’s Brown who has shone brightest.
Tatum struggled offensively in the first two games of the series, averaging 17 points per game on 31.6% shooting (although he contributed in other ways). And while Tatum was better in Game 3 (31 points on 11-of-26 shooting), he was quiet again in the fourth quarter as the Mavs mounted a ferocious comeback, making just one of his five field-goal attempts.
That’s when Brown stepped up.
The fourth quarter very nearly turned into a nightmare for the Celtics. Boston was able to stretch its lead to 21 points in the opening minutes but saw that lead evaporate as the Mavs reeled off a 22–2 run to cut the deficit to one. The only Boston basket scored during Dallas’s run—which lasted more than seven minutes—was by Brown. He played a huge role in helping stop the skid, scoring on a putback layup with 3:08 to play that made it 95–92 in favor of the Celtics and hitting a contested jumper with 1:01 to play that made it 102–98. He scored nine of Boston’s 21 points in the final quarter as the Celtics held on to win, 106–99.
“I mean, how can I explain Jaylen?” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “The guy just has a growth mindset. He just wants to get better. He yearns to get better. He’s not afraid to face his weaknesses on the court. So when you have that type of mindset, you’re just going to be able to take on every situation that the game brings you. He puts himself in every single situation that he sees in a game. He uses six, seven, eight coaches a day, and every situation on both ends of the floor, he puts himself in that.
“And that’s how you have to grow, is to become vulnerable and on the things that make you uncomfortable, and he does that.”
Brown’s biggest play of the night, though, may have been the foul he drew on Luka Doncic with 4:12 to play. Brown attacked Doncic in transition and gave Doncic no choice but to commit a foul, causing him to foul out. Doncic’s absence changed the entire shape of the game. Once Doncic was forced to leave the floor, Dallas’s comeback came to a screeching halt. Kyrie Irving did his best to carry the Mavs, but Doncic’s absence allowed Boston's defense to zero in on Irving.
Doncic’s poor performance was the other main takeaway from Game 3. He scored 27 points, but his uninspired defense left him vulnerable to foul calls, eventually leading to his disqualification from the game. His constant complaints to the referees probably didn’t help flip any borderline calls in his favor, either.
Doncic has never been a great defender but that’s been especially problematic against a Boston team whose scoring depth makes hiding Doncic on defense impossible. And he’s clearly struggling with injuries that hinder his mobility, making him even more of a defensive liability. Doncic certainly looks like he could use a rest, and now that the Mavs have fallen behind 3–0 in the series, it appears he’ll be getting one very soon.
McIlroy is looking for his first major victory in a decade. / Adam Cairns-USA TODAY Sports
… things I saw last night:
5. The couple that got married in the stands during a Giants game. 4. Giancarlo Stanton’s 449-foot shot for his 17th home run of the season. Stanton, Juan Soto (17) and Aaron Judge (25) have combined for 59 homers this season, which is more than five teams have on the year. 3. Christian Pulisic’s free-kick goal vs. Brazil. 2. Angel Reese’s big game against the league-leading Sun. She had a career-high 20 points and 10 rebounds as she notched her fourth straight double double. 1. Jaylen Brown’s ferocious dunk at the end of the third quarter.
Halftime shows are like commercials. A necessary evil and a perfect opportunity to load up on more snack mix or perform a fluids check. Few people in the history of sitting on their couches have ever been deeply intrigued by a Coming Up At the Half tease. And the hardworking broadcasting crews that try to capture eyeballs and attention are fighting an uphill battle.
That's the bad news. The good is that all of this combines to create a low-stakes environment because, let's face it, average viewers don't really care if the halftime show is good or average or a trainwreck. As long as the second half begins on time then everyone wins and no one loses.
So it's kind of perplexing to see the aggregating of grievances concerning ESPN/ABC's mid-game fare during the NBA Finals. Awful Announcing got out the stopwatch and crunched some numbers following Game 1's halftime show.
All told, the studio crew got roughly a minute and 20 seconds of air time. And remember, that time was split between five people. Much of that time was spent on intros from and outros to commercial breaks.
Is this ideal? Certainly not. But is it a new phenomenon? Also no.
ESPN/ABC has been dinged for stuffing shot-clock-length opinions and observations between a crushing amount of bells and whistles for years. Those critiquing the operation are right when they say there's no flow and it can all be a bit disorienting. But they are also a bit silly for tuning into the Finals games and expecting anything different than what has been standard operating procedure for some time now.
It feels weird to defend something that could certainly be better yet at the same time complaining that viewers aren't getting enough opinions or analysis during what is essentially a content oasis feels a bit weird. Those are available on the network before the game and after the game, plus on-demand and on social media for anyone who may have missed the thousands of words and hundreds of segments devoted to Celtics-Mavs under the ESPN umbrella.
There simply cannot be a real world faction significant enough to warrant concern-trolling that Bob Myers and Josh Hart weren't given enough time to explore the space. Or that the real world is pining for another minute of Stephen A. Smith to fire off whatever he's going to fire off.
For as often this crew is compared to TNT's iconic foursome on Inside the NBA, which does move at a more beneficial pace, there's little apples-to-oranges consideration. First, broadcasting a champioship is going to afford the opportunity — and necessity really — to be more sponsor- and commercial-heavy. Then there's the problem of people conflating TNT's long postgame coverage with its halftime hits. Sure Barkley or O'Neal might say something hilarious and go viral during the mid-game break but more often than not the focus will be on Team X not turning the ball over or how Team Y looks sleepy out there.
Sunday night's Game 2 brought more of the same because, honestly, who would think it would change in the span of a few days. Unofficial numbers suggest the commercialization outpaced the analysis at around a 6-1 clip. But we're not going to go back and chart it ourselves because almost anything is a better use of time.
Something to keep in mind for Game 3 instead of hoping for a miracle that simply isn't going to come.
