Any doubts about the Boston Celtics' ability to seal the deal should now be erased.
For a team often mislabeled as one that crumbles in the clutch, Boston poetically put those concerns to rest with their performance on Wednesday.
In Game 3 of the NBA Finals, the Celtics exorcised their clutch demons in the fourth quarter, pushing the Mavericks to the brink of elimination.
After taking a commanding 21-point lead with 11:07 left in the game, the Celtics got a bit too comfortable. They began settling for contested jumpers and dribbling into traffic, resulting in live-ball turnovers and a stagnant offense. During a stretch of eight minutes, they scored just two points, recalling last year's droughts and meltdowns in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Dallas capitalized with a 22-2 run, cutting the deficit to one with about three and a half minutes remaining.
It was up to Boston to mount one final surge. Considering how devastating and, frankly, embarrassing it would have been to blow Game 3, it's no exaggeration to suggest that fourth quarter could have swung the Finals.
But as the Celtics have done repeatedly with this particular group, they passed the test and left no room for debate. When the pressure intensified, they rose to the occasion, effectively sealing their championship pursuit.
With Luka Doncic fouling out, Boston closed the fourth quarter by scoring 13 points in the final 3:37, achieving a 130 offensive rating. This would be impressive in any scenario, but it's even more remarkable in a road Finals game.
Brown snatched the Mavericks’ spirit late in Game 3 with contested mid-rangers to keep Boston afloat.
However, the real backbreaker was Jrue Holiday catching the ball in the left corner with 2:54 left and doing what he does best: Reading the game and making a high-IQ play.
The Celtics were trying to expose Tim Hardaway Jr.’s defense any time he was on the floor. With Hardaway Jr. opening his stance for a baseline drive, Holiday took the route and trusted he could draw help at the rim.
When the low man rotated over, Holiday slung a left-handed dime to Derrick White at the top of the arc. Because the Mavs’ defense had already collapsed, White caught the ball wide open and finished the biggest play of the night. Notice how elite the ball placement was on Holiday’s pass — directly in the shooting pocket:
“I don’t know how they let us get (Holiday),” Tatum said to the NBATV crew after the win. “But I’m so happy we got Jrue on our team and we’re just very fortunate. He just makes winning plays.”
This clutch performance elevated the Celtics’ playoff record to 6-0 in games decided in crunch-time (margin within five points with five or fewer minutes left). They are now +26 in their 24 clutch minutes during the playoffs, a massive difference from their -2 scoring margin in 40 clutch minutes last year.
A year ago, Boston wouldn’t have survived last night’s near-collapse. They would have lost confidence and been too rattled to finish the job.
If you listen to Brown, though, those are the comparisons that need to stop.
These aren’t the same Celtics. Their talent level is dramatically higher with the new rotation. Their composure is now at a championship level.
“Experience is the best teacher,” Brown said. “All year long, we’ve been hearing about the Celtics of the past. You know? For the last six to eight months, that’s all we’ve been hearing. All the different shortcomings we’ve had. But this is a new team. We’ve learned from those experiences. In these moments, you can see ... we didn’t run from it. We stepped up to the plate and found a way to win.”
Their road destruction also continues to build. Boston has joined rare company with a 7-0 road start during their playoff run. Only the 2001 Lakers, 2017 Warriors, and 2017 Cavaliers started the playoffs with seven straight road victories. Two of those teams unquestionably belong on the Mount Rushmore of NBA groups and single-season runs. The other, Cleveland, would have won the championship in any other year if they didn’t face Golden State.
Winners of 10 straight playoff games, Boston is now on a collision course with history. It’s the longest playoff winning streak in the franchise’s 78-year existence. They are one of nine teams in NBA history to win 10 consecutive playoff games in a single season.
If they close out the Mavericks on Friday, Boston will become the only team ever to sweep the Conference Finals and NBA Finals.
At a certain point, the facts and statistical models cannot be ignored. Everything is adding up to this Celtics team being a juggernaut and carving their name in the record books.
Whether it’s in Game 4 or later in the series, this is now a formality. Teams to take a 3-0 lead in any seven-game series, regardless of round, have a 100% success rate in closing it out. So far, 155 have tried to recover and 155 have failed.
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The Celtics' defense in this series is proving to be one of the most cohesive units we've ever seen, consistently synchronized every step of the way. Joe Mazzulla's game plan from the start was to switch as much as possible against Doncic and Irving, keeping his players out of compromising positions and refraining from sending double teams.
By virtually eliminating the role players from the series, Boston has placed immense pressure on Doncic and Irving to create tough looks in isolation.
Staying out of rotation and preventing their defense from collapsing has given the Celtics a massive advantage in shot selection. They’ve held the Mavericks to just 14 corner three-point attempts over three games. For reference, Dallas averaged 11.6 per game in the first three rounds of the playoffs.
By either switching the pick-and-roll sets or playing them two-on-two in traditional drop coverage, the Celtics have largely kept the ball in front. This means there’s hardly any need for weakside help, allowing Boston's wings to stay glued to outside shooters while Doncic and Irving exhaust their energy in one-on-one situations.
On the other side of the court, Tatum and Brown exploit Dallas's numerous weak defenders at the point of attack. Almost every possession involves a direct blow-by, forcing weakside help and overreaction—precisely what Boston's defense avoids.
This strategy is the primary reason Boston has generated 30 more corner three-point attempts than Dallas and why they’re shooting 82% at the rim against the Mavs. They have dismantled Dallas's game plan and turned the tables, leading to a likely lopsided Finals ending on Friday.
Like his running mate, Tatum doesn’t want to dwell on past failures. As young as they both are, they’re allowed to have bumps in the road before maturing into champions.
The Finals loss in 2022 still stings, but they weren’t favored to win that series against the Warriors. Boston just had to ensure that heartbreak never happened again.
“We’ve learned from our mistakes,” Tatum said. “We’ve learned from a team at the time (Golden State) that was better than us, that had been there and gotten over the hump. They were mentally tougher at the time. We’ve grown from that. We really have. And it was on display tonight.”
Soon enough, all criticism will fall on deaf ears. This title will be theirs, earned every step of the way. Their dominant, clutch performances will quickly erase past shortcomings, and the window will be wide open for a mini-dynasty.
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