The Dallas Mavericks look like they don't belong in the NBA Finals. At very best, they look like a two-man team, with those two men being Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving.
Unfortunately, one of those men (Doncic) fouled out late in Game 3, which seemed to be the Mavs' best chance to win.
Verdict: Boston Celtics 106, Mavericks 99 on Wednesday in Dallas. The Celtics lead the series, 3-0, and the only thing to ask is they will sweep or win in five. Our guess, and our hope, is that they put the Mavs out of their misery.
Dallas deserves credit for getting this far, winning the oh-so-difficult Western Conference and showing that Doncic and Irving can work — and just one year after failing to make the playoffs.
But they match up extremely poorly with the stacked Celtics of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and a whole bunch of really good NBA "role" players. Tatum scored 31, Brown had 30, and the likes of Derrick White, Al Horford and Jrue Holiday knocked down big shots and made massive defensive stands when needed.
Heck, the Celtics didn't even have Kristaps Porzingis, the 7-foot-2 cheat code who scores almost at will and alters every shot at the rim. Porzingis missed the game with a lower leg injury and he could miss Game 4 as well. No big deal. The Celtics should still win and claim their 18th championship banner.
Let Porzingis heal this offseason. No way the Mavs win four straight. Or maybe even one straight.
Along with everything else, Irving finally came to life after two subpar showings in Boston, scoring a game-high 35 points and shooting 4-of-6 on 3-pointers. Doncic finished with 26, but when he fouled out at about the 4-minute mark, that was all she wrote.
The Mavs came back from 21 down to make a game of it in the fourth, cutting the deficit to three. Unfortunately for them, that may be their highlight of the series.
The Celtics will be champs. And it's not an if, but a when.
