Tag: match today

Jayson Tatum says past pain inspired Boston Celtics

On: By: admin


Jayson Tatum #0 of the Boston Celtics celebrates during the closing seconds of the fourth quarter of Game Five of the 2024 NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks at TD Garden on June 17, 2024 in Boston, Massachusetts. Elsa/Getty Images/AFP

Jayson Tatum said the bitter sting of past postseason defeats powered the Boston Celtics to their record-breaking 18th NBA championship on Monday against the Dallas Mavericks.

The 26-year-old Celtics star produced a masterful 31-point performance as Boston completed a 4-1 series triumph with a resounding 106-88 victory.

The win couldn’t have been sweeter for Tatum, who just over a year ago was being derided as a playoff “choker” after the Celtics suffered a traumatic game seven home court defeat to Miami in the Eastern Conference finals.

That shattering loss came a year after the Celtics had lost 4-2 to Golden State in the NBA Finals, with the Warriors clinching the series on Boston’s home court.

Tatum said those back-to-back defeats had left Boston with a “relentless” desire to finally close out a championship.

READ: Celtics rout Mavericks to win record 18th NBA championship

“It took being on the other side of this and losing in the Finals and being at literally the lowest point in a basketball career that you could be, to next year, to the following year, thinking that was going to be the time, and come up short again,” Tatum said.

“Coming up short and having failures makes this moment that much better. Because you know what it feels like to lose.

“You know what it feels like to be on the other side of this and be in the locker room and hearing the other team celebrating, hearing them celebrate on your home floor.

“That was devastating.”

Tatum though was all smiles on Monday after finally entering the NBA’s winner’s circle.

“It’s a hell of a feeling,” Tatum said. “I dreamed about what it would be like, but this is 10 times better.”

Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla, who at 35 is the youngest head coach to win an NBA crown since Bill Russell in 1968 at the age of 34, said past disappointments had forged a determination to succeed amongst his players.

READ: Celtics’ Joe Mazzulla goes from Division 2 coach to NBA champion

“It really starts with them,” Mazzulla said. “You can’t have a philosophy or a way of playing if you don’t have a group of guys that are willing to buy into it and be disciplined.

“Quite honestly, this group of guys has been through so much in the league, they know what it takes.”

The Celtics win was also a personal triumph for Mazzulla, who was thrust into the head coaching role in the 2022-2023 season after the abrupt departure of predecessor Ime Udoka due to a sex scandal.

After last year’s playoff flop against Miami, several pundits called for Mazzulla to be fired.

The Boston coach however maintained that taking disappointment in his stride had been part of his and the Celtics success.



Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.


Your subscription has been successful.

“I think just having an understanding that praise and criticism are both just as dangerous,” Mazzulla said. “If you don’t handle them well, and I think we talked about that as a team this year, like winning is just as dangerous as losing if you don’t handle it well.

“I think our guys handled winning the right way by, whether we won or lost, we just moved on to the next game.”

Celtics rout Mavericks to win record 18th NBA championship

On: By: admin


Jayson Tatum #0 of the Boston Celtics hugs head coach Joe Mazzulla of the Boston Celtics during the fourth quarter of Game Five of the 2024 NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks at TD Garden on June 17, 2024 in Boston, Massachusetts. Adam Glanzman/Getty Images/AFP

BOSTON — The Boston Celtics again stand alone among NBA champions.

Jayson Tatum had 31 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds as the Celtics topped the Dallas Mavericks 106-88 on Monday night to win the franchise’s 18th championship, breaking a tie with the Los Angeles Lakers for the most in league history.

Boston earned its latest title on the 16th anniversary of hoisting its last Larry O’Brien Trophy in 2008. It marks the 13th championship won this century by one of the city’s Big 4 professional sports franchises.

READ: NBA Finals: Celtics back home with chance to clinch record 18th title

Jaylen Brown added 21 points and was voted the NBA Finals MVP. Jrue Holiday finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Center Kristaps Porzingis also provided an emotional lift, returning from a two-game absence because of a dislocated tendon in his left ankle to chip in five points in 17 minutes.

It helped the Celtics cap a postseason that saw them go 16-3 and finish with an 80-21 overall record. That .792 winning percentage ranks second in team history behind only the Celtics’ 1985-86 championship team that finished 82-18 (.820).

Second-year coach Joe Mazzulla, at age 35, also became the youngest coach since Bill Russell in 1969 to lead a team to a championship.

Luka Doncic finished with 28 points and 12 rebounds for Dallas, which failed to extend the series after avoiding a sweep with a 38-point win in Game 4. The Mavericks had been 3-0 in Game 5s this postseason, with Doncic scoring at least 31 points in each of them.

Kyrie Irving finished with just 15 points on 5-of-16 shooting and has now lost 13 of the last 14 meetings against the Celtics team he left in the summer of 2019 to join the Brooklyn Nets.

READ: NBA Finals: Celtics take season’s worth of lessons into Game 5

NBA teams are now 0-157 in postseason series after falling into a 3-0 deficit.

Boston never trailed and led by as many as 26 feeding off the energy of the Garden crowd.

Dallas was within 16-15 early before the Celtics closed the first quarter on a 12-3 run that included eight combined points by Tatum and Brown.

The Celtics did it again in the second quarter when the Mavericks trimmed what had been a 15-point deficit to nine. Boston ended the period with a 19-7 spurt that was capped by a a half-court buzzer beater by Payton Pritchard – his second such shot of the series – to give Boston a 67-46 halftime lead.

Over the last two minutes of the first and second quarters, the Celtics outscored the Mavericks 22-4.

The Celtics never looked back.

Russell’s widow, Jeannine Russell, and his daughter Karen Russell were in TD Garden to salute the newest generation of Celtics champions.

They watched current Celtics stars Tatum and Brown earn their first rings. It was the trade that sent 2008 champions Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to Brooklyn in 2013 that netted Boston the draft picks it eventually used to select Brown and Tatum third overall in back-to-back drafts in 2016 and 2017.

The All-Stars came into their own this season, leading a Celtics team that built around taking and making a high number of 3-pointers, and a defense that rated as the league’s best during the regular season.

The duo made it to at least the Eastern Conference finals as teammates four previous times.

Their fifth deep playoff run together proved to be the charm.



Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.


Your subscription has been successful.

After both struggling at times offensively in the series, Tatum and Brown hit a groove in Game 5, combining for 31 points and 11 assists in the first half.

It helped bring out all the attributes that made Boston the NBA’s most formidable team this postseason – spreading teams out, sharing the ball, and causing havoc on defense.

And it put a championship bow on dizzying two-year stretch for the Celtics, that saw them lose in the finals to the Golden State Warriors in 2022 and then fail to return last season after a Game 7 home loss to the Miami Heat in the conference finals.

PH athletics with record number of bets in Paris Olympics

On: By: admin


French Gendarmes walk past a banner for the forthcoming Paris 2024 Olympic Games outside The National Assembly – Assemblee nationale in Paris on May 5, 2024. AFP

With three more track stars sure to qualify, Philippine athletics has written a piece of history even before the Paris Games get off the ground.

Hurdlers John Cabang Tolentino and Lauren Hoffman are just counting the days before their acceptance notice for the Games arrives along with sprinter Kristina Knott with less than two weeks before the qualification ends as they join pole vault ace EJ Obiena in the world’s fashion capital.

Robyn Brown, the women’s 400-meter hurdles Asian champion, could even bring the qualifiers of the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (Patafa) to five.

“They still have to compete in a tournament or two before the qualification window closes. The list of those who made it to Paris will be released a week later,’’ Patafa President Terry Capistrano told the Inquirer.

Flagbearers

Meanwhile, boxers Carlo Paalam and Nesthy Petecio will carry the Philippine flag in the parade of nations in the opening ceremony.

Paalam and Petecio, who both secured silver medals in the previous Olympics in Tokyo, were designated flagbearers by the Philippine Olympic Committee for the opening rites set July 26.

Tolentino, the Spain-based Filipino record holder in the men’s 110-m hurdles, is ranked 28th out of 40 qualifiers in his event with one more race to go at the Meeting Madrid in Spain on June 21 prior to the June 30 deadline set by World Athletics.

Hoffman, sitting at 34th with 40 Olympic slots in the women’s 400-m hurdles, will wrap up her slot in the prestigious Czeslaw Cybulski Memorial in Poznan, Poland, on June 23.

Sending four to five Filipino athletes from track and field is an unparalleled feat no Philippine Olympic delegation has done in a century of participation in the global sports showcase.

So far, the highest number of track and field athletes to the Olympics was three—hurdler Eric Cray, marathoner Mary Joy Tabal and long jumper Marestella Torres—during the 2016 edition in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. INQ



Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.


Your subscription has been successful.

Classy SMB core looking forward to next challenge

On: By: admin


San Miguel Beermen center June Mar Fajardo steers his team in Game 4 of the PBA Philippine Cup Finals against Meralco Bolts. –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

San Miguel Beer cornerstone June Mar Fajardo spoke with a lot of class in giving credit where credit was truly due on Sunday night.

And so did two others who have been parts of the Beermen’s fearsome team that ruled the PBA Philippine Cup with a veritable iron hand for most of the last decade.

“It’s a pity since we really feel we could win the championship—that we can win this series. But that’s sports for you. We have to take this loss,” he told reporters in Filipino shortly after an electric 80-78 Game 6 loss to Meralco at the Big Dome that crowned the opposing Bolts as the new all-Filipino champions.

“Maybe this is really Meralco’s [time] to become a champion. Let’s applaud those who need applause, and congratulate those who need congratulations. It hurts that we lost, but that’s life. We’ve won several championships before, right? Maybe it’s just Meralco’s turn now.”

Fajardo pointed out that some moments on Sunday night felt like the game was truly meant for the Bolts to take: “How the ball bounced towards them? Perhaps they were destined to claim this championship. Let’s congratulate Meralco because they played a fine game.”

San Miguel stared at holes as big as 17 points in the first half, then managed to forge a deadlock four minutes into the second half. The Beermen played a tighter game in the third period and even managed to tie the game on Fajardo’s tough triple with three ticks left until Chris Newsome put the series to bed with his signature fallaway jumper.

“The better team won,” San Miguel captain Chris Ross said in a separate chat. “[Meralco was] a well-oiled machine, man. It has been fun, man. Each game went down to the wire. There were no blowouts. So let’s give credit to them.

“Even in games where they felt they should’ve won, they came back like nothing happened, and that takes mental toughness,” he added.

Pretournament favorite

San Miguel was expected to extend its dominance in the tournament following an elimination round campaign where they only suffered one loss. Ironically, that defeat came at the hands of the Bolts.

Marcio Lassiter, the Game 2 hero and another one of San Miguel’s battle-hardened veterans, was just as appreciative of their conquerors.

“They deserve it, and at the end of the day, you just can’t win them all,” he said. “But you know, I’m proud of our players. We went to war and that’s what you expect—we give our all.”

Fajardo, Ross and Lassiter account for over a third of San Miguel’s 29 titles in the PBA. They were shooting for their 11th in this finale against a Meralco side that was playing in its first-ever All-Filipino title series.

With that bid over, the trio is now looking forward to the next chance.

“Whenever we lose a conference, it feels like we fell short of our major goal. Sometimes it happens, you can’t win all the time. Sometimes it’s just a test of character how you bounce back when you don’t meet your goal,” said Ross.



Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.


Your subscription has been successful.

“I’m excited for what’s in store for us, going forward. Hopefully we could make the adjustments and get back on the winning track.” INQ

Mbappe rules out representing France at Paris Olympics

On: By: admin


France’s forward #10 Kylian Mbappe looks on during an MD-1 training session at Paul Janes Stadium in Duesseldorf on June 16, 2024, on the eve of their UEFA Euro 2024 Group D football match against Austria. (Photo by FRANCK FIFE / AFP)

France captain Kylian Mbappe on Sunday admitted that he will not represent his country at the upcoming Paris Olympics.

“For the Olympics my club has a position which is very clear so that means I think I will not participate in the Olympics. That is how it is,” Mbappe said.

The 25-year-old, who was speaking ahead of France’s opening Euro 2024 game on Monday against Austria, has just signed for Real Madrid and will join the European champions for the new season under freedom of contract from Paris Saint-Germain.

READ: Kylian Mbappe finally joins Real Madrid

The men’s Olympics football tournament begins on July 24, with the final on August 9.

The Spanish season is due to start a week later, while Madrid is also due to play Atalanta in the UEFA Super Cup in Warsaw on August 14.

“Joining a new team in September would not be the best way to begin my adventure,” admitted Mbappe, who had previously stated a wish to be able to play for Thierry Henry’s French Olympic team.

READ: PSG, French football prepare for challenges of post-Mbappe era

“I wish the best to the France team. I will of course watch all their games as a spectator rather than an actor, and I hope they bring back the gold medal.”

This week Lionel Messi confirmed he would also not go to the Olympics, turning down the chance to win the gold medal with Argentina for a second time.



Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.


Your subscription has been successful.

Ferrari wins second successive Le Mans 24 Hours race

On: By: admin


Ferrari 499P Hybrid Hypercar WEC’s team, Spanish driver Miguel Molina, Italian driver Antonio Fuoco, and Danish driver Nicklas Nielsen celebrate on the podium after winning Le 24 Hours of Le Mans sports-car race Sunday, June 16, 2024, in Le Mans, France. (AP Photo/Jeremias Gonzalez)

Ferrari won a wild and wet 92nd edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours race on Sunday.

Nicklas Nielsen took the chequered flag after a vintage and grueling race, the Dane sharing driving duties in the Italian constructor’s No 50 car with Italian Antonio Fuoco and Spaniard Miguel Molina.

Toyota’s No 7 car took second with Ferrari’s No 51 car, which triumphed last year, completing the podium.

Twenty-four long hours, 311 laps and 4,238 kilometers after French football great Zinedine Zidane had sent the 62 car-grid on its way on Saturday, the Ferrari that emerged victorious after a classic version of motorsport’s supreme endurance test.

READ: Ferrari take first pole in 50 years as Le Mans turns 100

Porsche’s pole-sitting No 6 car narrowly missed a podium place in fourth ahead of Toyota’s No 8 car, with just over a minute covering the first five.

In an attritional affair, the night proved long and tedious with incessant rain forcing long yellow flag periods.

That reduced the gleaming high-spec racing cars capable of going well in excess of 300kph to pottering along at speeds normally associated with a family hatchback heading to the local supermarket.

Drivers like Toyota’s previous winner New Zealander Brendon Hartley complained of knee cramp as they were unable to put their foot on the gas in the confined cockpits.

READ: ‘Fantastic’ Ferrari makes triumphant return at Le Mans

Molina constantly complained of boredom on the team radio.

This year’s Le Mans set an invidious record of over six hours-racing neutralized by safety cars. Four were used at any one time, with some even having ‘to pit’ to refuel.

Mechanics used the period to grab some much needed shut eye, but that was not a luxury all the unpaid track marshalls from France and Britain could afford.

 Daytime mayhem

Ferrari 499P Hybrid Hypercar Le Mans

Spanish driver Miguel Molina, right, Italian driver Antonio Fuoco, left, and Danish driver Nicklas Nielsen, driving the car, a Ferrari 499P Hybrid Hypercar of WEC’s team, celebrate after winning Le 24 Hours of Le Mans sports-car race Sunday, June 16, 2024, in Le Mans, France. (AP Photo/Jeremias Gonzalez)

At the midway point – 0400 local time – with the rain tipping down, visibility minimal and the spray flying in the dead of night – Hartley’s Toyota led Kevin Estre in one of Porsche’s six Hypercar entries.

After daylight broke over the saturated Sarthe circuit, the safety cars retreated to give the weary 250,000 crowd a welcome dawn chorus of car engines roaring again in anger.

Nocturnal tedium made way for daytime mayhem.

At around 0930, mechanics in the Aston Martin garage had their hearts in their mouths watching Daniel Mancinelli suffer a terrible-looking crash.

The 35-year-old Italian rolled his car, and there was an agonizing wait before he forced open his side door and scrambled out, thankfully unscathed.

With six hours to go and a restart after another safety car interlude Earl Bamber in the No. 2 Cadillac was told on the team radio “it’s time to make the eagle fly”.

The closing hours developed into a mesmerizing battle between four constructors – Porsche, Ferrari, Toyota and Cadillac.

Ferrari’s No 50 car led from last year’s winning No 51 car with under 120 minutes to go, from Toyota’s No 7 then the No 2 Cadillac.

Nielsen in the leading Ferrari then had to pit after orders from race control due to an unsafe open door which he had tried frantically to shut himself.

That gifted Jose Maria Lopez’s Toyota the lead but only momentarily as Nielsen with an hour remaining had regained control, the Dane establishing a 30sec cushion as the long awaited 1400GMT finish approached.

A frantic conclusion in the rain, with pit stops aplenty triggered multiple changes in the lead with Ferrari crossing the line 14 seconds ahead.



Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.


Your subscription has been successful.

With winners, come losers and one team leaving a memorable edition of a race first staged in 1923 downcast, were Alpine, whose two cars failed to finish, and motorcycling legend Valentino Rossi, whose BMW in the LMGT3 category crashed out.

Jayson Tatum reflects how being a dad changed his life, career

On: By: admin


FILE – Fans reach out to Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) as he leaves the court holding his son, Deuce, after the Celtics defeated the Los Angeles Clippers in a double overtime NBA basketball game, Feb. 13, 2020, in Boston. Tatum spent part of his Father’s Day, Sunday, June 16, 2024, thinking about how his son made him a better person — and probably a better basketball player, too. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)

BOSTON — Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum spent part of his Father’s Day thinking about how his son made him a better person — and probably a better basketball player, too.

Speaking at practice the day before Game 5 of the NBA Finals, Tatum acknowledged that he was “a little selfish” when he learned, as a teenager still in college with hopes of basketball stardom, that he would be a father.

“I’d be the first to say I wasn’t super-thrilled to find out I was going to be a dad, and quickly realized that it was the best thing that ever could have happened to me. There’s nothing better than being a dad,” Tatum said Sunday. “I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason.”

READ: NBA Finals: Celtics take season’s worth of lessons in Game 5

Now 26 and in his seventh season, Tatum is a five-time All-Star who has led Boston to the Eastern Conference finals five times and to the NBA Finals twice. The Celtics lead the Dallas Mavericks 3-1 in the best-of-seven series; after missing their first chance to clinch a title on Friday, they have a second shot at an unprecedented 18th championship banner on Monday night.

Tatum had just turned 19 and was in his only year at Duke when he learned his girlfriend at the time was pregnant.

“I wasn’t ecstatic,” Tatum said Sunday. “I was a little selfish at that point because I knew that I was about to go chase my dream and be in the NBA. I felt like that was going to affect what people thought of me, affect where I went in the draft.”

READ: Celtics will win NBA title if Tatum, Brown focus on details, not emotions

Tatum was picked No. 3 overall by the Celtics, and Jayson Tatum Jr. – familiar around the Celtics as “Deuce” – was born in December of his father’s rookie season. Having a son helped the NBA star manage the expectations of his new wealth and fame, and the temptations that came along with them, too.

“It taught me a sense of responsibility,” Tatum said. “Nobody can help you or prepare you for what it’s like to be 19 and have millions of dollars.

“And I think — not that I think, I know — that having Deuce at that age grounded me. Because whatever decision I wanted to make, I had to make sure that he was taken care of. I couldn’t just up and go or do everything that some of my peers were doing because I had to go home and put him to bed. Or for Father’s Day weekend I was going out of town, or I had to skip out on this trip with my friends because it was my weekend with him.

“Not that it’s a sacrifice. I willingly would choose those things. But it has taught me a sense of responsibility — as well as just making the right decisions, knowing that there’s a 6-year-old ‘mini me’ essentially watching everything that I do and knowing that I have to be the best version of myself. I have to make the right decisions, because he’s always watching.”



Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.


Your subscription has been successful.

It’s Meralco’s time to win PBA title

On: By: admin


San Miguel Beer center June Mar Fajardo during Game 6 of the PBA Philippine Cup Finals.–MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines—June Mar Fajardo, as expected, displayed grace in defeat after a rare PBA Finals loss by the San Miguel Beermen in the Philippine Cup on Sunday.

Fajardo, a 10-time PBA champion, made sure to give credit where credit is due, tipping his hat to the Meralco Bolts, who closed out the Beermen in six grueling games.

“That’s really how it is. That’s how the sport is. We need to accept the losses,” said Fajardo in Filipino after a heartbreaking 80-78 loss that gave the Bolts their first-ever PBA title.

“It’s Meralco’s time to win the championship. Let’s clap for those who deserve it, let’s congratulate those who deserve the congratulations.”

Fajardo gave everything he had in the finals, finishing with 21 points and 12 rebounds in Game 6. He also made a clutch triple that would have forced overtime had it not been for Chris Newsome’s game-winning jumper with 1.3 seconds left.

READ: PBA Finals loss fuels CJ Perez to get better

The loss was Fajardo’s first loss in the PBA Philippine Cup Finals after winning in his last six trips to the all-Filipino championship round.

“While it’s painful to lose, that’s just how life is. We won championships but this time, it’s Meralco’s time. The ball was theirs. Let’s congratulate them, they played well as a whole,” said the seven-time PBA MVP, who missed a last-second 3-pointer that would’ve won it for San Miguel.

“As for us, we’ll keep our heads up. It’s not the end of the world for us, right? There’s still the next conference so we can bounce back there.”



Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.


Your subscription has been successful.

In hostile Boston, Mavs’ Irving aims to keep focus on NBA Finals

On: By: admin


Kyrie Irving of the Dallas Mavericks looks to pass the ball during the third quarter against the Boston Celtics in Game Two of the 2024 NBA Finals at TD Garden on June 09, 2024 in Boston, Massachusetts.  (Getty Images via AFP)

NEW YORK – Resigned to the villain’s role in Boston, Dallas star Kyrie Irving is less concerned with silencing hostile Celtics fans than with quieting self doubt and leading the Mavs in a must-win NBA Finals game five.
“Let’s just call it what it is,” Irving said Sunday as the Mavs prepared to try once again to fend off elimination in the championship series, in which they trail the Celtics 3-1.
“When the fans are cheering ‘Kyrie sucks’ they feel like they have a psychological edge, and that’s fair,’” said Irving, who was hounded by Celtics fans still rankled by his departure in 2019 after two seasons with the team.
Amid the jeers he delivered two sub-par performances in games one and two, the Mavs eventually falling 0-3 down before a blowout victory in game four to extend the series.
“Of course, if I’m not making shots or turning the ball over, that makes it even more of a pressing issue that they can stay on me for,” Irving said.
“I think in order to silence even the self-doubt, let alone the crowd doubt, but the self-doubt when you make or miss shots, that’s just as important as making sure I’m leading the team the right way and being human through this experience, too, and telling them how I feel.”
Sunday’s victory ended Irving’s own 13-game losing streak against the Celtics.
He’s cognizant of his complicated personal history with the team, which he said stretches back further than his petulant demonstrations when his Brooklyn Nets were swept by the  Celtics in the first round in 2022.
He said Sunday it started when he arrived in Boston in 2017, when he failed to engage with the history of the storied franchise or, as he put it “the cult that they have here.
“That’s what they expect you to do as a player,” Irving said. “They expect you to seamlessly buy into the Celtics’ pride, buy into everything Celtics. And if you don’t, then you’ll be outed.
“I’m one of the people that’s on the outs,” he added with a laugh. “I did it to myself.”
Now Irving is more concerned with the task facing the Mavericks as they try to become the first NBA team to erase an 0-3 deficit to win a playoff series.
“Most importantly, (it’s) not making this about me or getting into the energy with anyone else other than my teammates,” Irving said, adding that the Mavs must think “about the goal that we have in front of us as best we can, and try not to get tired of everyone talking about the history that has not been made.”
Irving, who won a title alongside LeBron James in Cleveland in 2016, said he had encouraged his teammates — many in the Finals for the first time — to embrace and enjoy the moment.
“We got a chance to accomplish one of our goals, which is to make it back to Boston,” Irving said. “We have another goal in front of us, and that’s to make it back to Dallas.”



Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.


Your subscription has been successful.

Irving ends skid vs Celtics, Mavs try again in Boston

On: By: admin


Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving, center, drives to the basket against the Boston Celtics during the first half in Game 4 of the NBA basketball finals, Friday, June 14, 2024, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

DALLAS — Kyrie Irving’s personal 13-game losing streak against the Celtics is over.

Now it’s back to the parquet floor in Boston to face his former team again, the Dallas Mavericks still alive in the NBA Finals after avoiding a sweep with a 122-84 blowout in Game 4 on Friday night.

The first two road games in this series weren’t Irving’s best, the two in Dallas quite a bit better despite a Game 3 loss that left the Mavs with a deficit no NBA team has overcome to win a playoff series.

Combine that with much more of an impact from the role players around Irving and co-star Luka Doncic, and maybe the constant booing of Irving from the jilted fans in Boston won’t ring quite as loudly in Game 5 on Monday night.

Plenty of green-clad Celtics fans were planning a celebration in Texas, but the loud cheers early when the game was close didn’t last long.

READ: NBA Finals: Kyrie Irving says Mavericks change ‘starts with me’

“You saw all those Celtics fans in there tonight. They travel in packs,” said Irving, who spent two seasons in Boston. “When we go to Boston, there’s going to be a bunch of them yelling a whole bunch of crazy stuff still, but I think we’ve been able to grow and face kind of this adversity head on.

“We’re figuring out each other in a crazy way during the highest stage of basketball,” Irving said. “So it’s a beautiful thing, but it also can be chaotic if you don’t know how to stay poised through it.”

If the Mavericks are to become just the 12th of 157 teams to force a Game 6 after falling behind 3-0 — and get the title series back to Dallas — the supporting cast for Irving and Doncic will have to keep it up.

Dereck Lively II connected on a 3-pointer for the first time in his career — exactly seven months after the the second of the two regular-season attempts from beyond the arc by the 7-foot-1 rookie center.

At one point in the second half, Lively had 12 rebounds, his final total, to 16 for Boston. No wonder Dallas outscored the Celtics 60-26 in the paint, where Lively scored the other eight of his 11 points.

READ: Kyrie Irving channeling 2016 as Mavericks plot NBA Finals rally

Dante Exum hit two 3s and had another taken away when replay revealed he had stepped out of bounds. The buckets from deep were coming from so many Dallas players — 14 of 23, although those numbers were skewed a bit by the blowout — it didn’t matter that Doncic and Irving combined to go 1 of 14.

“It’s five people on the floor,” Doncic said. “So that’s huge for us. Everybody played with a lot of energy. That’s how we got to do it. We got to think the same way in Game 5 in Boston.”

Doncic scored 25 of his 29 points in the first half, while Irving had 10 of his 21 in the third quarter to help push a 26-point halftime lead to 38 before all starters were out of the game for good late in the third.

Lively’s games in the finals have somewhat mirrored those of Irving, his fellow Duke alum. The 20-year-old was mostly quiet in Boston. The two games in Dallas put him in the company of Magic Johnson as the only rookies with consecutive double-doubles in the NBA Finals.

He replaced starter Daniel Gafford earlier than in any of the previous finals games, and coach Jason Kidd said Lively just happened to be in the right spot — the right corner — when he hit the 3 to put Dallas ahead for good about three minutes later.

It’s unlikely Lively will start at this point — something he did early in his rookie season — but the crowd probably will notice when he heads to the scorer’s table for the first time back in Boston.

“If they leave me open in the corner, I’m going to get them up, for sure,” Lively said. “It’s just having that trust. Luka is going to give me the ball. As soon as I shot it, he kind of jumped for joy when it went in.”



Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.


Your subscription has been successful.

Irving is still trying to find some joy in Boston, and he gets another chance this season.