IIRC, the Mavs slightly outscored the Kings in a 2004 playoff series overall but lost 4 games to 1.
I just caught the last half of the 2nd period and it was clear that the Mavs were playing some tough defense. They’re still going to lose, but at least showed some heart.
I was out at a dinner where they had a TV. I could see in the distance what was happening. This morning I watched the Boston Massacre. Dallas was awesome. Great defense, especially by Kyrie on Tatum. And Luka’s stepped up defense was effective. Quarters 2 and 3 were incredible by Dallas. If these Mavericks show up this way for every game, this series goes 7, and they may make history by winning the whole thing. We’ll see how Boston responds in game 5, at home.
Phenomenal win by the Mavericks.
I’m not tracking how many series went 5 games, with the winner taking games 1-3 and the eventual loser taking game 4 in epic fashion.
Well, that was satisfying.
I’m a Bostonian now, so I was pulling for them, but I also know that Boston sports fans are spoiled rotten.
The Celtics won game 5 tonight like the Mavericks won game 4, with tight defense. It’s been a long 16 year wait, but the wait is over. That 2008 team had Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, and Sam Cassell. Those names sound ancient now.
#18!!
I don’t generally follow basketball, but I live less than 2 miles from the Garden, so it’s hard not to get swept up in Celtics mania here. From what little I know, these Celtics seem like good guys who like each other and enjoy playing together - easy to root for. (Unlike, say, Kyrie Irving). Congrats to them for putting together a dominant season!
From here in California, I get that sense too. This seems to be a team that played like a TEAM. Some players greater, some not so much, and they were all working together to win as a team. In the immediate postgame interviews, on the floor and in the locker room, each player, and also the coach, praised the others when the spotlight was on them.
I grew up back there and have followed them since the mid-1970s and their 13th championship in 1976. I’ve been living near San Francisco now, for decades in the heart of Warriors Land, so I don’t follow them as closely any more. But the Celtics are the only East coast team that I still have any allegiance to.
After game 4 when the Mavericks absolutely crushed the Celtics, I was a little worried how this series would go. But the Celtics won last night with team defense.
As the old saying goes, offense sells tickets but defense wins championships.
For Kyrie, there’s always a ME in “team”.
After last night it was very obvious that the Celtics were far and away the best team in the NBA this season. And after the drama and suspense of the earlier rounds, the Finals were decidedly boring, at least to a fair-weather fan like me that had absolutely no dogs in the hunt.
The last repeat champions were the 2017 and 2018 Golden State Warriors. I think that Boston has an excellent chance of doing the same.
My sister, who’s lived in Boston since college, is arriving on vacation tonight. I’ve never known her as a big basketball fan, but I bet she’s going to be pretty happy. 
Man, it wasn’t that long ago that the Celtics had the reputation as the franchise where all the glory was in the past and they never finished the job. (I described this phenomenon in my Super Bowl losing stigma thread, which I don’t feel like digging up again.) After 17 championships, and it’d been only 16 years since the last! You think the Knicks or 76ers or Nets wouldn’t be doing backflips over one title every 16 years?
Of course, the other really nice thing besides the media and Twitter forced to stop pounding that BS narrative and put some real thought into the enduring greatness of this franchise is that this one seems…well, totally deserved. Remember the “dead spots”, which no one even freaking bothered to inspect for years? There were exactly two possibilities: 1. The Celtics benefitted from a grossly rigged non-regulation floor and the league completely turned a blind eye to it, or 2. The Celtics made everyone think they benefitted from a grossly rigged non-regulation floor, gaining a huge psychological advantage, and the league didn’t see anything wrong with this. 
(And we’re ripping on the Houston Astros?) Then there were playful pranks like promising air conditioners for the visitors and leaving the unopened boxes in the locker room. 
This year’s squad required no shenanigans. They just plan outshot, outran, outstuffed, and outhustled everyone else. Champions almost always carry some stench of controversy; favorable calls, bad sportsmanship, shady recruiting, draft finagling. The only knock on the Celtics I heard all season was that they were just too damn good.
Oh, and Lakers fans: Your time will come again. Chill out and have a little patience. Geez. 
One major reason for this is what Brad Stevens has done since becoming president of basketball operations, taking over for Danny Ainge. Ainge left Stevens a pretty good team, but Stevens made some shrewd moves that really solidified the roster. In the past 3 years, Stevens got Al Horford, Derrick White, Kristaps Porzingis, and Jrue Holiday. In particular, the Marcus Smart for Porzingis deal, a tough move at the time, proved to be a key transaction.
Ime Udoka must really be kicking himself right about now.