Jayson Tatum on Friday had his step-back three-pointer swatted away, then ended up in a heap on the floor and was called for a loose-ball foul on a night to forget for the Boston Celtics, who got knocked down hard in Game 4 of the NBA Finals when they had a chance to complete a sweep of the Dallas Mavericks.
Instead of wrapping up an unprecedented 18th NBA title, the Celtics suffered their worst loss ever in the NBA Finals — and one of the worst in league history — when they fell 122-84.
“It happened, we can’t change it. We had a bad night,” Tatum said. “We always say you lose by two or you lose by 30, they all count the same... We’re not making any excuses. We need to be better, and we will.”
Photo: Jerome Miron-USA Today
The Celtics’ 10-game post-season winning streak, a franchise record, ended after they lost on the road for the first time in these playoffs. They had been 7-0, including a Game 3 win in Dallas after overcoming a 13-point deficit midway through the first quarter.
Now the Celtics get a chance to clinch the championship at home.
Game 5 is scheduled for Boston on Monday.
Photo: AFP
Dallas already had a 26-point lead at halftime and any thoughts of a rally by the Celtics were pretty much done less than two minutes into the second half when Tatum had his shot blocked by Daniel Gafford, with the Boston forward reaching out as he fell and getting whistled for the foul.
With the outcome already all but certain, coach Joe Mazzulla emptied his bench with 3 minutes, 18 seconds left in the third quarter. It was then a 36-point margin and grew to as much as 48.
“I thought the guys came out with the right intentions. I just didn’t think it went our way, and I thought Dallas outplayed us. They just played harder,” Mazzulla said. “You have to prepare to put yourself in the best possible position, but it doesn’t guarantee anything. At the end of the day, we have to just maintain our process and get ready for Game 5.”
Tatum, who had 15 points and five rebounds, was on the bench with Jaylen Brown and the rest of the starters for the remainder of the night. Center Kristaps Porzingis never even removed his warmups after being declared available before the game.
“We take it, we don’t dismiss it. We’re going to learn from it, see how and why, exactly where the game was won and lost,” Brown said. “Then we take those experiences and then we come out and we play like our life depends on it, because it does.”
There have been only two more lopsided games this late in the season: Boston’s 131-92 win over the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 6 to wrap up the Celtics’ last championship in 2008; and the Chicago Bull’s record 42-point win over the Utah Jazz in Game 3 in 1998.
The Celtics had their lowest-scoring half all season — regular season and playoffs combined — when trailing 61-35 at halftime. They had missed 26 shots and had only two offensive rebounds.
When it was all over, they had been outrebounded 52-31 and outscored in the paint 60-26.
“We can say all these things about us. They played much better than us,” said Al Horford, the 38-year-old center seeking his first NBA title. “They clearly outplayed us, and that’s tough to take, but that’s the reality.”
‘SOURCE OF PRIDE’: Newspapers rushed out special editions and the government sent their congratulations as Shohei Ohtani became the first player to enter the 50-50 club Japan reacted with incredulity and pride yesterday after Shohei Ohtani became the first player in Major League Baseball to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season. The Los Angeles Dodgers star from Japan made history with a seventh-inning homer in a 20-4 victory over the Marlins in Miami. “We would like to congratulate him from the bottom of our heart,” top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo. “We sincerely hope Mr Ohtani, who has already accomplished feat after feat and carved out a new era, will thrive further,” he added. The landmark achievement dominated Japanese morning news
When Wang Tao ran away from home aged 17 to become a professional wrestler, he knew it would be a hard slog to succeed in China’s passionate but underdeveloped scene. Years later, he has endured family disapproval, countless side gigs and thousands of hours of brutal training to become China’s “Belt and Road Champion” — but the struggle is far from over. Despite a promising potential domestic market, the Chinese pro wrestling community has been battling for recognition and financial stability for decades. “I have done all kinds of jobs [on the side]... Because in the end, it is very
No team in the CPBL can surpass the Taipei Dome attendance record set by the CTBC Brothers, except when the Brothers team up with Taiwanese rock band Mayday. A record-high 40,000 fans turned out at the indoor baseball venue on Saturday for Brothers veteran Chou Szu-chi’s first farewell game, which was followed by a mini post-game concert featuring Mayday. This broke the previous CPBL record of 34,506 set by the Brothers in early last month, when K-pop singer Hyuna performed after the game, and the dome’s overall record of 37,890 set in early March, which featured the Brothers and the
With a quivering finger, England Subbuteo veteran Rudi Peterschinigg conceded the free-kick that sent his country’s World Cup quarter-final into extra-time before smashing his plastic goalkeeper on the floor in frustration. In the genteel southern English town of Tunbridge Wells, 300 elite players have gathered to play the game they love. “I won’t say this is the best weekend I’ve ever had in my life, but it’s certainly in the top two,” said Hughie Best, 58, who flew in from Perth, Australia, to compete and commentate at the event. Tunbridge Wells is the “spiritual home” of Subbuteo, which was invented there in 1946