DALLAS — The Celtics suffered their worst NBA Finals loss in franchise history on Friday night in a 122-84 beatdown by the Mavericks at American Airlines Center in Game 4. The victory kept the Mavericks’ season alive for at least one more game but it also presented a surprising issue for the Celtics during a game of this magnitude.
Joe Mazzulla was blunt in his assessment of the loss after pulling his starters in the third quarter of the defeat.
“Preparation doesn’t guarantee an automatic success,” Mazzulla said. “And so I thought we had a great process. I thought we had a great shootaround. Thought we had a great film session yesterday. I thought the guys came out with the right intentions. I just didn’t think it went our way, and I thought Dallas outplayed us. They just played harder.”
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When pressed about the effort issue, Mazzulla chose his words carefully, crediting the Mavericks more than calling out his own players.
“I thought Dallas played really — the more I said it, because you have to give them credit. It’s not about us,” Mazzulla said. “It’s about our opponent and having respect for them. And you have to give them credit for how well they played, and that’s the most important thing.
“So it’s less about us and more about how they played. They played well. They played hard. We have to be more disciplined in how we defend and attack them.”
Still, there were a bunch of red flags for Boston from a hustle perspective. The Celtics had their lowest rebounding game of the season and their second worst-shooting night as the Mavericks heightened level of physicality impacting Boston. The Celtics struggled with execution but it was clear they were outworked as well.
“It wasn’t as good as Dallas’s was,” Mazzulla said. “I thought theirs was a lot better.”
Coming off the worst loss of the postseason, Boston’s leaders remain intent on learning their lesson heading into Game 5.
“These are the moments that can make you or break you,” Jaylen Brown said. “We have to reassemble. We have to look at it and learn from it, and then we’ve got to embrace it and attack it. It’s going to be hard to do what we’re trying to do. We didn’t expect anything to be easy, but it’s no reason to lose our head.
“Tip your cap to Dallas. They came out and played well, and we’ve just got to be better on the next one.”
