While the Mavericks have to look at their 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals like it can be overcome, which it has been before, the Celtics will try to remind themselves of who they are – still the overwhelming favorites to hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy, perhaps as early as Monday night.
And they are coming off an embarrassing loss on Friday night when the Mavericks’ spanked them by 38 points, the third-largest margin of defeat in NBA Finals history.
“Nobody likes to get beat like that at any point in anybody’s career,” Jrue Holiday said.
And the Celtics, who have been the best team in the NBA from October until now, have three more games to win one. That’s a situation that, while not guaranteed, still puts them in control of this series.
Unless, of course, the Mavericks put some doubt in their heads with the beatdown they administered on Friday at American Airlines Center.
It won’t be that easy in Boston for Game 5 Monday.
“We have a great group, a resilient group, and we don’t like to lose,” Jaylen Brown said. “This is what we all work for. We are at the precipice of completing what we set out to do at the beginning of the season.
“We do it together and we fight like our lives depend on it. And I think we’ll be all right.”
That’s not dissimilar to the way the Mavericks feel right now. Fight hard, play together and let the chips fall.
But for the Celtics, they have the luxury of knowing that if they don’t win on Monday night, they have two more chances to finish the job.
The Mavericks have no such room for error.
“We would love to win (Monday), more than anything,” Jayson Tatum said. “But if it doesn’t happen, it’s not the end of the world. We have more opportunities. Joe (coach Joe Mazzulla) did a great job of reminding us that it’s OK to smile during wars. It’s OK to have fun during high-pressure moments.
“That’s what makes our team unique and fun.”
As Al Horford said: “We understand that they are a desperate team and that they are probably playing a little freer. We know what that mindset is like. For us, it’s really controlling what we can control.”
Dad’s day: The Celtics were at home for Father’s Day, but they did have work to do, which interrupted family time.
Tatum said he particularly has a fondness for Father’s Day, partly because he wasn’t all that fired up when he learned he was becoming a father.
“When I found out I was going to be a dad, I was still in college,” he said. “I wasn’t ecstatic. I was a little bit selfish at that point because I knew I was about to chase my dream in the NBA. I thought that was going to affect what people thought of me, affect where I went in the draft. So I’d be the first to say that I wasn’t super-thrilled to find out I was going to be a dad.
“And I quickly realized that it was the best thing that could have happened to me. There’s nothing better than being a dad.”
Ice-cream man: The headline out of this note should be that Tatum doesn’t depend on deliverymen or friends or family for his guilty pleasure.
As he said during Sunday’s media session when asked about the Celtics’ mystique of 17 NBA championships, he said:
“I do notice, especially at this time of the season, when you drive around and go to the gas station – or I wanted to go get some ice cream yesterday, it’s Celtics gear everywhere. Everybody is super-excited about this team and what we have accomplished and what we have the chance to accomplish. You really just feel the love and support from everybody.”
Not unlike the Mavericks in Dallas.
Tatum also said he’s learning more and more about Celtics’ history, which is like mastering calculus for this generation of Celtics, who don’t remember most of the greats that built the Celtics’ franchise around Bill Russell, Red Auerbach and John Havlicek.
“I would say throughout the season, I had no idea who Cedric Maxwell was. I thought he was just the radio guy,” Tatum said. “I didn’t know that he won Finals MVP.”
That got the media gallery giggling.
Briefly: Kristaps Porzingis was available to play in Game 4 in Dallas in certain situations, Mazzulla said. Obviously, with a blowout, that never happened. And the Celtics’ coach did not tip his hand about Porzingis’ availability for Game 5 when he addressed media members Sunday. “He’s doing everything he can to try to put himself in position to be out there,” he said. “I know that for sure.” . . . What is more important for Game 5 from a Celtics’ perspective? Said Mazzulla: “1A is the willpower, the mindset, the approach that your bring into it. (But) there are some tactical things that you have to do depending on how the game is going, for sure.”
X: @ESefko
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