Who sparked Dallas’s powerful fourth quarter comeback? Lively did.
Former Duke Blue Devil Dereck Lively was a revelation for many teams last June as he zoomed up the draft board, ultimately taken by Oklahoma City with the #12 pick which the Thunder then traded to Dallas. It didn't take long for him to establish himself as a key player for the Mavs and his attitude there has been the same that it was at Duke: he puts the team first and winning is his priority.
Dallas has struggled in the Finals against Jayson Tatum and his Boston Celtics, going down 3-0. The first two game were in Boston but Game 3 was in Dallas Wednesday and when the Celtics went up by 21 in the fourth quarter, it looked to be over.
But Dallas went on a 22-2 run and nearly pulled off a huge comeback. The driving force behind the comeback?
According to former Duke star Kyrie Irving, it was his younger teammate Lively. He said this after the game: “He rallied us tonight. Came to the bench and just told us to keep believing.”
Mavs coach Jason Kidd concurred, saying this: “D-Live was great during the timeout. He was still positive, telling guys that we could still get back into this. It turned into a one-possession game.”
What Dallas has found out is that not only is Lively a talented young big man, he’s a winner. He’s still just 20 and he’s built like a teenage skateboarder. When he fills out, and we see the parts of his game that he has kept under wraps to better serve his team’s needs, he’s going to be a monster. In fact, there's a good chance that he become the sort of player that becomes a team’s tentpole.
Barring a miracle, Dallas isn’t going to come back in this series, but for Lively, and for the Mavericks, the future is really bright.
