2024 NBA Finals Game 4 Notes

Game 4 of the NBA Finals is in the books, and the Mavericks won 122-84.  Not much to say about it other than it was a painful game to watch, but I signed myself up to do these notes for each game, so good luck.

 

 

1^st Quarter

• On the first play, Jayson Tatum already appears to be focusing on an isolation play.  That ‘s not a good sign.
• Interesting that P.J. Washington took the first shot on a post up.
• Even though it missed, Boston’s second play was much more reassuring with ball movement throughout.
• Dallas just had back-to-back turnovers.  While the second was a really nice play by Jrue Holiday to force it, the first was an errant pass by Daniel Gafford that appeared to be a miscommunication with I think Washington.  That is something to watch.
• Derreck Lively is already in the game?  Wow, that was fast.  Gafford has looked kind of quiet at best, meandering at worst, so I don’t blame them for trying.
• I like how aggressive Luka Doncic has been.  While he had one against Al Horford that wasn’t the easiest, he had at least a couple that were pretty easy by his standards.
• Probably a good sign that Doncic playing average defense results in the broadcast praising his defense.
• I don’t think enough people have realized that Derrick White has been incredibly streaky from 3 this entire series.  He’s still playing pretty well overall, but I have held my breath at times when he has shot.
• Lively hitting a 3?  Wow, that’s a rarity.
• The broadcast praised the closeout on Washington, but I was worried the second it happened.  I’d much rather Washington getting an open 3 than give it to Irving in the paint where Lively is also.  That has a much higher points per attempt (or expected value, if you’re a stats/probability fan), which you’d want to minimize.
• While he’s been aggressive with scoring, Tatum has been a ball stopper on a bunch of plays.  If Boston wants to win, they really need to be aggressive the whole way, something that has often eluded Boston’s squad over the last several years.
• Boston has allowed a bunch of easy looks at the rim, which is the worst possible look to give up.  It’s especially unwise to do this when it’s Luka or Irving.
• I’m not fully sure what the contact was by Horford on Luka.
• I was confused for a second when the broadcast said that Porzingis is out, then they said that he is available if necessary.  I’m at the point where I’m considering muting it and it’s only in the first quarter.
• Boston has been atrocious at boxing out so far.  I genuinely believe that they’re getting ready for Game 5; Dallas will need to take advantage of this one game at a time.
• Geez, that was a wild one by White.  I thought that there was no way that was going in.
• Irving followed up with another one that was almost as difficult.  That’s absolutely wild.
• Dallas has had a few dumb turnovers.  We’ll see if Boston will ever takes advantage of it.
• The end of this quarter is absolutely chaotic.  Geez.
• I think the quarter comes down to Dallas realizing this is their last chance and Boston not taking this game seriously.  That is a dangerous mindset from Boston, since that’s what put them into a 3-0 hole against Miami last year.  Credit to Dallas for not playing down to Boston, which is easier said than done when one team is struggling; they’ve come out full force and are playing the best basketball of this series outside of a few dumb turnovers.

 

2^nd Quarter

• Boston hasn’t done a good job of finishing, but a big part of that is that they’re consistently trying to drive into set defenders.  That’s part of their drive and kick offense, which is to get players out of position and moving.
• Another offensive rebound by Dallas.  They’re really taking advantage of Boston’s lackadaisical play and total carefree mindset.
• I’m sure there will be people who think that I’m overreacting about Boston’s lack of effort, but this is an issue that has plagued them for several years.  If they get blown out in this game, I expect that Dallas will win Game 5 as well, which then puts Boston in a difficult situation.
• I have been hard on Joe Mazzulla, but I totally agree with what he was saying in the clip they played.  That’s absolutely the right message.  Hopefully the team listens.
• I’m surprised that they ended up overturning the Dante Exum 3.  Even though he was out of bounds, I don’t like overturning this.
• It wasn’t the best pass, but I loved Tatum’s defense on Lively.
• Brown’s help on Doncic is a big reason why Boston hasn’t helped all series.  Brown stepped a bit too far off of Exum and Doncic passed it right to him.  As good of a scorer as he is, the biggest way to limit Luka is by limiting all the role players.  It didn’t help that Brown’s defense on that play was atrocious.
• I continue to be confused by Kyrie Irving’s shot selection.  He has consistently turned an okay look into a difficult look by stepping sideways or back, or moving into a defender.
• How did nobody from Boston pay attention to a wide open Luka when Irving was trying to get the ball inbounds?  3 guys were standing there and allowed a clear passing lane to Luka right after he stood up.  That’s a monumental failure defensively.
• I’m stunned that Boston has taken more shots than Dallas.  I never would have guessed that one given all the offensive rebounds that Dallas has gotten.  While Boston’s defense hasn’t been good, Dallas’s offense has operated really well and looked smooth.
• That was really nice defense by Irving on Tatum.  Even still, I honestly am wondering if they’re tuning out Mazzulla, or if Mazzulla is saying anything to them.  They cannot have it where their first play out of a timeout is an isolation play.
• It took like 3 different angles for me to realize that Luka was fouled by Hauser.  That was a good catch by the refs.
• While I don’t have the numbers for any game, I felt like Luka struggled against mismatches in the first 3 games of the series offensively, but he appears to be very successful in this game.  He’s such a talented offensive player that he’s bound to happen.
• Boston’s offense was moving and looked good…if Jaylen Brown had started the drive about 5 seconds earlier.  Nothing good was going to come from a play that started with 5 seconds left on the shot clock when they’re struggling mightily at offense.
• I wonder how often the broadcast gives a mic to a player who’s getting killed and they just have to censor everything.
• I love when Horford rushes to get the ball in bounds when he realizes the refs might have blown a call.  I’m surprised there aren’t any desperate challenges in that timespan.
• Jaylen Brown has played horribly this game on both ends.  His decision making has been bad offensively, and he looks totally lost defensively.  That foul on Josh Green was just one of many poor plays.
• I’m starting to regret the fact that I committed myself to writing these.  This game is not entertaining at all. 
• I keep getting thrown off by the fact that Maxi Kleber is getting so much playing time this game.  He has struggled so much in the playoffs, especially in this series, and I genuinely am not sure what he has done in this game.  I notice him and then suddenly remember that he’s on the court.  He must be playing well enough, but I can’t begin to tell you if he has.
• Tatum is trying to do everything he can to win the game by himself, which is exactly what Dallas wants.
• It’s crazy that White is such a good defender, yet Doncic makes him look like a poor one.  It’s worth noting that Doncic has a big size advantage and is so strong, but it’s crazy that Doncic can do this to White.
• I was afraid that Boston wouldn’t try for a while, but I thought that after a quarter or timeout, Mazzulla would get to the team.  Whatever is going on in the huddle hasn’t worked.  Props to Dallas for coming out strong.  There are multiple role players who have played well (especially Lively), but it wouldn’t be fair to ignore the incredible game that Doncic has played.

 

3^rd Quarter

• The pass by Tatum to Horford wasn’t an advanced play from an x’s and o’s standpoint, but it is a good sign for the Celtics.
• I have no idea how Luka’s heave at the end of the shot clock even hit the rim; that’s an accomplishment in itself.  That said, it was a great defensive play by Boston.
• That was an amazing block by Gafford.  He got up so high on that play; he’s such a high jumper.
• I know this would never happen, but sometimes I wonder if it’s worth keeping the starters in a game that’s this much of a blowout.  The writing is on the wall.
• Derrick Jones has been so aggressive in this game, which is a massive game changer.  He just made a difficult shot, but he really has been impressive defensively as well.
• I’m starting to wonder if anyone would notice if I started making up random things and not pay attention to the game.
• This game has shown a big weakness of Boston not using a big on one of Dallas’s bigs.  Dallas has so many offensive rebounders (Lively alone has 7 already).
• I wouldn’t even be that mad about Kyrie’s offensive rebound if I were Boston; they were boxing out pretty well, but happened to have nobody in the area where the rebound went.
• Even in situations where they don’t end up forcing a turnover, Dallas has had several plays where they have messed up passing lanes.  What’s crazier is that in this game, it doesn’t even seem like Dallas has taken any risks on these plays, which is often what you have to do to get these disruptions.
• That was an impressive block on Holiday.  I thought that he was beat on the drive, but he recovered nicely.
• It’s crazy that Kyrie makes such difficult shots look easy.  His finish against Tatum was quite an impressive one.
• Boston has really struggled with limiting the driving lane for Lively, and he’s done a really nice job with exploiting this.
• I think it’s the right call to pull the plug.  They might as well allow their starters to not get injured.
• I always found it so funny when the ball gets stuck in the rim.
• I was hoping Boston would win this game so I could take a break before focusing on the draft.  Both Dallas and Boston had other plans.

 

4^th Quarter

• I’ll cut to the chase here:  you won’t get a lot of in depth analysis from me at this point.  I’m just stubborn and am trying to get through this game.
• It’s unreal that Dallas has shot 16 percentage points higher than Boston from the field.  With each team’s style of play, I wouldn’t have predicted that at any point.
• If there’s any silver lining for Boston, Hauser has shot well.  He’s had inconsistencies during the playoffs.
• Hardaway finally has his first points of the Finals, and Dallas finally hit 100 points for the first game this series.
• There were a few plays that probably could have been fouls, but the refs are probably coasting as much as the players are.  I’d bet that they have the same mindset as me:  let’s just finish this game.
• I absolutely love Dirk Nowitzki.  He is obviously a legend on the court, but he also seems like he’d be a blast off the court.
• I just noticed that the broadcasts haven’t really mentioned anything about gambling this entire series.  The only reason I thought of it is because I sometimes laugh at the idea of how chaotic the idea of betting in garbage time is since it’s so much more volatile than a normal game.
• Neemias Queta is in the game; the reason he’s a hit in our household is because he’s Portuguese, as is my fiancé, Victoria.
• A foul was called, and I’d be lying if I were to tell you that I remembered the refs were still playing.  It’s been a long day, so I’m struggling to stay awake here.
• I find the micing up the players to be kind of useless.  I have never listened to one of them where I felt happy that I heard something the player had said.
• I always find myself gravitating towards a player in garbage time each season.  I’ve always thought Jaden Springer was an interesting player, though he was in the wrong situation once Philadelphia drafted him.  He is a solid defender, though he is a bit raw.  Still I’m glad he’s gotten some playing time tonight.  I’m also glad that Jordan Walsh has, since he has upside as a defender.
• There isn't too much to say other than the fact that Dallas came out ready to win and Boston didn't.  I'm worried about Game 5 for Boston's sake.

What did you think of this game?  Are you as glad as I am that it ended?  Let me know in the comments!