The Boston Celtics could have celebrated an NBA title Friday night if they were able to sweep the Dallas Mavericks.
Instead, the Celtics went through the complete opposite experience in Game 4 of the NBA Finals.
The Mavericks annihilated the Celtics at American Airlines Center and by the time the contest wrapped up, Boston was on the other end of the third-largest defeat in Finals history, looking up at a 122-84 decision.
It’s a deflating loss for the Celtics and halts all the momentum they created. They surely want to move on quickly from it, but Jaylen Brown’s message to his teammates is to not ignore what happened
“We learn from it. We take it. We don’t dismiss it,” Brown told reporters, per league-provided video. “We’re going to learn from it. We’re going to see how and why exactly where the game was won and lost. And then we take those experiences and then we come out and we play like our life depends on it. Because it does.”
Jrue Holiday, who is the only member of the Celtics who has previously won a championship, echoed Brown and wants this to be a learning opportunity for Boston.
“I wouldn’t say throw it away,” Holiday told reporters, per leagued-provided video. “We’ve got to learn from it. Things that we have to go back and watch. Again, see the things that we should have controlled and done better. But going back and watching film and getting better.”
The Celtics won’t like what they see when they watch the game back. The Mavericks constantly outworked the Celtics, which brought up questions about their effort, to control play and never look back.
Dallas owned a 61-35 lead by halftime and saw its advantage balloon to 36 points with 3:18 left in the third quarter, prompting Joe Mazzulla to pull his starters for the remainder of the game.
It will be on Brown and Boston’s other stars to make sure this loss doesn’t snowball into something else entirely. Brown’s stepped up as a vocal leader for the Celtics this season and he’s ready for this new challenge of helping Boston bounce back with a title on the line.
“These are the moments that can make you or break you,” 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.”
