NBA Finals 2024: Hot Takes and Top Storylines Celtics vs. Mavericks Game 4

The Boston Celtics enter Game 4 of the 2024 NBA Finals with an advantage that hoops history holds as being wholly insurmountable.

The Celtics have a 3-0 edge on the Dallas Mavericks, and no NBA team has ever blown a lead this big.

There are no good reasons to think the Shamrocks will be the first to do it—nor that the Mavericks will be the first to Houdini out of this hole—but maybe things feel differently if Dallas scores a convincing victory in this matchup. Let's dig into the biggest talking points in this tilt before finishing with a hot take.

While it's important to note the Celtics haven't actually secured a title yet, everything leading to this point makes that feel like a formality.

You can pinpoint a lot of different things that have gone wrong for Dallas in this series, but its biggest problem might be the simplest. The Mavericks aren't scoring enough.

They averaged 117.9 points in the regular season and 107.9 through the first three rounds. They've yet to crack triple-digits in this series, averaging just 95.3 points on 44.4/28.2/71.2.

Luka Dončić has averaged a series-leading 29.7 points, but the Celtics have made him work for every last one of them. His shooting touch hasn't reached three-point range (32.1) or the free-throw line (58.8), and he's almost averaging as many turnovers (five) as assists (six). His backcourt mate, Kyrie Irving, is averaging more shots (21.7) than points (21), and he isn't moving the needle as a passer either (3.3 assists against 2.3 turnovers).

The supporting cast has failed to produce a high-end third option—P.J. Washington is the only other Maverick averaging double-figures (14.7), but his 42.4/28.6/75 slash line underwhelms at every level—or virtually shot-making. At this point, it's hard to tell whether Dallas just needs its stars to go ridiculous or its role players to step up. Honestly, both might be needed to extend this series.

This is the second time in three years that the Mavericks reached at least the Western Conference finals, and their best player, Dončić, is all of 25 years old.

Their future should be blindingly bright. Their reality is more complicated.

If this roster doesn't have enough as currently constructed—and one of the overarching themes of this series is that Dončić needs more help—it will be tricky to address those shortcomings. The Mavs have already given up their first-round pick in this draft, 2027 and 2029, and they've traded away swap rights on their 2028 and 2030 firsts. This roster is expensive, and outside of Dereck Lively II, there aren't many obviously ascending young players on the team.

This might've been the Mavericks' best chance to win it all with Irving and Dončić leading the way. The Western Conference will only grow more hellacious moving forward. And, remember, Dallas didn't exactly dominate it this season, landing fifth in the standings before sweating out six-game series wins over a Los Angeles Clippers club mostly playing without Kawhi Leonard and an inexperienced Oklahoma City Thunder squad.

One of the best devices for moving on from a Finals loss is thinking about the next opportunity to win a title. Yet, those next chances don't always come. Dallas should be good for a while, but can it ever be great with this group? Never say never, but the Mavericks have cashed in a lot of their best trade chips already, so they better hope the lessons learned from this series will be a big enough boost because external help will be hard to find.