The Dallas Mavericks blew the doors off the Boston Celtics on Friday night, extending their season with a 122-84 victory. The dominating Game 4 win began early on with Dallas taking a 34-21 lead after one quarter and a 61-35 lead into halftime. At that point, Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd already knew the game was over.
“They were ready to celebrate,” Kidd said of the Celtics, via the Boston Globe. “Understand, we made a stand. We were desperate. We got to continue to keep playing that way; understand they’re trying to find a way to close the door. The hardest thing in this league is to close the door when you have a group that has nothing to lose. Tonight you saw that. They let go of the rope pretty early.”
The Celtics will likely use that comment as bulletin board material ahead of Game 5, but Kidd isn’t wrong. The final score aside, it was obvious to anyone watching that Boston had no fight in them after falling behind early.
Celtics forward Jayson Tatum acknowledged as much in the locker room after the defeat.
“It happened. We can’t change what happened tonight,” he said, via ESPN. “You know, we always say you lose by two or you lose by 30, they all count the same. But we do need to be better. We’re not making any excuses. We need to be better, and we will. We will be better.”
The series will return to Boston on Monday night where the Celtics will have a second opportunity to close things out and pick up their 18th NBA championship, while Kidd hopes his Mavericks can once again make them tap out early.
