Brotherhood Playoff Watch: Kyrie Irving & Dereck Lively Help Dallas Crush Jayson Tatum & The Celtics
Well it’s not going to be a sweep anymore
Boston Celtics legend Bob Cousy is 95 and this week he said that he knew he had one foot in the grave but he hoped to live long enough to see his Celtics win one more title.
He’ll have to hold on a bit longer for that because Dallas just laid it on Boston in Game 4, winning 122-84, which, by the way, is the third worst whipping anyone has ever suffered in the Finals.
Dallas coach Jason Kidd said “[t]he hardest thing in this league is to close the door when you have a group that has nothing to lose. Tonight, you saw that.”
Jayson Tatum played just 27 minutes and scored 15 points on 4-10. He also had five rebounds and three assists.
Before the game, Cousy said this: “The Celtics have exposed Kyrie Irving as not quite a superstar. He has been severely subdued. They’re not even trapping him a lot. They’re doing it one-on-one. Kyrie’s working his ass off and they’re still stopping most of his stuff. He’s no longer in the superstar category. You’ve got to function in the playoffs to determine where you are in the hierarchy.”
Irving did better Friday, scoring 21 on 10-18 from the floor. For his part, Dereck Lively had 11 points, including his first NBA three pointer, and 12 rebounds.
Boston had been dominating the boards in this series but lost that battle 52-31. Dallas got 13 offensive rebounds and Lively claimed seven of those himself.
It’s an embarrassing loss but the Celtics are still up 3-1 and the series returns to the TD Garden on Monday and Cousy may get his wish then.
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