DALLAS — Joe Mazzulla was almost prophetic before the game. Jason Kidd absolutely was prophetic before the series.
In the Celtics coach’s longer and more colorful than usual pregame press conference before Game 3, Mazzulla talked about how being within sight of the finish line can be the most vulnerable position.
“If you’ve ever been in a fight with someone and you think you’re about to beat ‘em, you usually get sucker punched. The closer you are to beating them up, the closer you are to losing,” said Mazzulla, who ran off a few painful-sounding UFC examples and added. “The closer you think you are to beating someone is the closer you are to getting your ass kicked.”
BetMGM BET UP TO $1,500! BONUS BET REFUND AFTER A LOSS
STATES: AZ, CO, IA, IL, IN, KS, LA, MD, MI, NJ, OH, PA, TN, VA. Visit BetMGM.com for Terms and Conditions. 21 years of age or older to wager. MA Only. New Customer Offer. All promotions are subject to qualification and eligibility requirements. Rewards issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets. Bonus bets expire 7 days from issuance. In Partnership with MGM Springfield. Play it smart from the start with GameSense. GameSenseMA.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-327-5050 or visit gamblinghelplinema.org. US Promotional Offers not available in New York.
A minute into the fourth quarter, the Celtics appeared to be close to finishing off a blowout victory and gaining a vice grip on the series. They were up by 21-points (91-70) and the Mavericks looked tired. Every offensive possession put Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving through a grind. Despite the ever-present pleas from the American Airlines Center’s annoying public address announcer to chant “Let’s go Mavs!” even the crowd seemed ready to throw in the towel.
But as Mazzulla promised, that’s when the sucker punch arrived.
And what a haymaker it was. Dallas scored 22 of the next 24 points. But unlike the UFC fighters from Mazzulla’s violent parable, the Celtics didn’t submit. They absorbed the hit, wobbled for a moment, but hung on. Instead of their seemingly inevitable knockout, the Celtics prevailed by decision, which while not as decisive, is still a win.
Kidd wasn’t talking about his 2024 Mavericks or this series on the eve of Game 1. He was remembering his Nets in 2002 against the Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant-led Los Angeles Lakers.
“There are times when you’re just not good enough. As a player, unfortunately with the Nets, we played the Lakers, we weren’t just good enough and we got swept,” Kidd said. “There are some cases that you run into Shaq and Kobe. You got to just take defeat and then move on.”
He circled back to that series again that day.
“Sometimes you don’t have enough talent,” he said. “As I brought up the Lakers and Nets, we were happy to be there, but we just didn’t have enough talent to beat Kobe and Shaq. It could be that simple.”
But while he wasn’t talking about the Mavericks, he could have been.
They’re not good enough. It really is that simple.
They have Doncic, who is one of the top three players in the sport, and Irving, who is still good and often great, but not nearly what he used to be.
After that? The Mavericks don’t have nearly enough. Dallas needed huge nights from both stars just to be competitive. They got those big numbers and still lost because Dereck Lively, P.J. Washington and the rest of the interchangeably average Mavericks can’t back them up.
The Mavericks got big numbers out of Doncic and finally got Irving going and they still lost Game 3. Boston couldn’t shoot at all in Game 2 and they still pulled away. The Celtics are missing their starting center and it hasn’t mattered.
The 2024 Celtics might not be as good as those Lakers teams that Kidd played against, but they were the best team in the NBA this year and are too good to lose this series.
Even after getting sucker punched.
Follow MassLive sports columnist Matt Vautour on Twitter at @MattVautour424.
