News, notes and observations from Wednesday's NBA Finals game 3 in Dallas, where the Boston Celtics defeated the Dallas Mavericks 106-99 to take a 3-0 series lead…
Early in the fourth quarter, it looked like Boston would take a 3-0 series lead. A three-pointer by Derrick White put the Celtics up by 21 with 11 minutes to go. They were playing well from the three-point line and it looked like the Mavericks were done. Then P.J. Washington made a three-pointer, followed by a layup by Luka Doncic, followed by a miss by Derek Lively II for a touchdown. A 12-0 run cut the lead to nine with eight minutes to go. A 20-2 run put them within one with six minutes to go.
Doncic was on a roll. Kyrie Irving was on a roll. Dallas was on fire.
With 4:38 left, Doncic picked up his fifth personal foul. That's bad. Less than 30 seconds later, he picked up his sixth personal foul. That's even worse. Dallas, with their All-NBA guard on the bench, was crumbling as they tried to come back. An Irving jumper cut the lead to one point, but Boston quickly built up leads of three, six and eight. And the game was decided.
“We had some good chances,” Doncic said. “We were close, but we just didn't score. I wish I was there.”
“The game of basketball is about the run, and this is at the highest level,” Jayson Tatum said. “You know, they're the best team in the West right now. They're going to make shots. They're going to run the game. It's all about how you respond to that.”
Tatum scored 20 of his 31 points in the first half to keep the game close as Dallas jumped out to an early 13-point lead in the first quarter. When Boston needed some points late, Jaylen Brown scored 24 of his 30 points in the second half, including nine in the fourth quarter.
It wasn't a perfect game. Tatum struggled with his shooting, making just 11 of 26, and Brown made just 2 of 9 3-pointers. But they didn't get discouraged. It was Tatum's driving dunk in traffic that extended the Celtics' lead to six points late in the fourth quarter, and Brown's 21-foot shot that sealed the game. It was just the second time in Celtics history that two players had scored 30 or more points in a Finals game. And as the final buzzer sounded, the two stars embraced near center court.
“It just shows the emotion of the game,” Tatum said. “Two guys after the game, excited and tired. We're not necessarily saying, 'Just one more' or anything like that. We're just saying, 'No matter how long it takes.' Nobody's relaxed. Nobody's satisfied. I just told him in that moment how proud I am of him and he said the same thing – that you've got to keep fighting, you can't relax.”
Role players have been the story of this series. Kristaps Porzingis dominated the first two games for Boston. He returned from a 38-day absence and led Boston to a 2-0 lead. In Game 3, with Porzingis sidelined, White (16 points) and Sam Hauser (9 points) provided the shooting. Al Horford played 37 minutes. Xavier Tillman played for the first time in the series and was a +9 in 11 minutes.
“I think from top to bottom, we trust everybody and we're competing at a high level,” White said. “Obviously, they're great players and it's a challenge, but [it’s] It's just a matter of being in the right position and competing.”
It was a similar story in Dallas. Washington scored nine points in a fourth-quarter comeback by Dallas, but finished with just 12 points overall. Derrick Jones Jr. was ineffective, as was Maxi Kleber. Jason Kidd used Tim Hardaway Jr. for 20 minutes, but Hardaway was 0-for-5. Kidd had an 11-man rotation in the first half.
“We were looking for guys that could come off the bench and energize our team,” Kidd said. “Not necessarily guys that are going to make shots, but I think the guys that played tonight helped us get a lead or get back in the game.”
“You look at the guys that came out and you see they had some good chances. Some took advantage of them, some didn't. At the end of the third quarter, the teams that came out kept playing.”
In the conference playoffs, Luke Kornet took the majority of the playing time from anyone other than Porzingis. In Game 3, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla started Tillman because the former Memphis Grizzlies forward had experience playing against the Mavericks. Tillman answered back with a corner 3-pointer in the third quarter and then deflected two shots.
“Big shout out to X,” White said. “He wasn't in the rotation, but he played with focus and gave us a lot of minutes. He did a little bit of everything, and he defended hard, made big shots, got rebounds, did a little bit of everything for us. He deserves all the credit. Great, great teammate, great guy, and he was big for us.”
The stats say no. Of 156 teams that have been down 3-0 in an NBA playoff series, zero have come back to win. The more immediate concern is whether Dallas can avoid a sweep. Doncic struck an optimistic tone in his postgame press conference. “Being down 21 points in Game 3 and then coming back was really good for us,” he said. And the Mavs got Irving's breakout game (35 points). But Doncic and Irving are talented but not well-supported. And the Celtics team that nearly came back 3-0 last season doesn't seem ready to miss out again this season.
“We have to expect the expected,” Mazzulla said. “We have to understand that we are just as vulnerable as they are, maybe even more so, and we have to play that way. So as long as we have that mindset, and we understand that we are vulnerable and we are backed into a corner, we have to fight. That's the mindset we have to have.”
