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The Dallas Mavericks, who have at least some NBA respect left to them, are unfazed by the magnitude of the challenge at them and will continue to strive for history. The Mavericks avoided embarrassing themselves by defeating the Boston Celtics 122-84 on Friday night in Dallas.
The series now returns to Boston for a Game 5 on Monday. In response, Luka Doncic—a consistent candidate for most valuable player—had his greatest postseason performance yet as the Mavericks crushed the Celtics in front of a receptive home crowd, leading by 26 points at the half.
Despite receiving criticism for his performance during the series, especially in defense, 25-year-old Doncic ended with a strong defensive performance throughout the game and finished with 29 points, five assists, and five rebounds.
He needed to silence the critics, at least until the series was over, because he had to know what had been said about him—the defensive flaws the Celtics had exposed, the fact that he had failed to lead the club to victory in any of the three most important games of the season. Before the game, Dallas coach Jason Kidd stated, “I think when you look at today’s athlete, the game of sport is not to be perfect; it’s just to win.” And if you’ve seen the Mavs in the last day or so, you can see that Luka has improved his defense.
The Mavericks didn’t require Doncic to transform into the greatest defender in history. All they need is for him to be more consistently and better engaged. We’re wanting him to be a shutdown defender, or at least some of us are. He has played on five (all-NBA) teams, including the first team, but he has never been on an all-defensive squad, according to Kidd. This indicates that he is among the top five players in the world and that he is approaching the game correctly in order to locate open players. But someone has to poke a hole while you’re on the grandest stage of all. This will only enhance the exceptional ones.
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