T-Shirts: https://heat-check-shop.fourthwall.com/

In a must win situation at home, Dallas desperately needed Kyrie to wake up from the 2 game slump he’s been in... And he knew that as well, as he was the lone player in the arena taking shots 3 hours before the game. I guess that made a difference because..
Irving and Doncic led the Mavs to a furious opening in the 1st quarter, as they hit 11 of their first 15 shots, most of them in the paint, looking like they were scoring at will.
And the crowd exploded when the Mavs went up by 13.
You could feel the buzz, this felt like one of those Dallas games where they blow the opponent right away in the 1st half.
But the Celtics weren’t gonna surrender that easily, and they responded with an 18 to 6 run in the final 4 and half minutes of the quarter, making some huge plays on both ends of the court.
And just like that, on this great pass by White, Tatum makes it a 1 point game.
It was obvious that the Mavs wanted to attack inside way more, now that Boston’s best rim protector in Kristaps Porzingis wasn’t playing.
And we saw a lot of drives inside, but a lot of misses as well. The Celtics fought great to minimize the effect from the absence of their big man.
The second quarter was a true war with both teams having to fight for every point. At times it looked ugly, but this is the finals, with one time having their back against the wall, I expect this type of a dog fight. Absolutely nothing should come easy.
I guess the only guy that did not have problems with the tight defense in the second was Kyrie Irving…
This phenomenal shotmaking fired up the crowd, but couldn’t provide any cushion for Dallas as they went to the break only up by 1.
Thing is, Boston’s defensive intensity continued in the third quarter as well, forcing the Mavs to earn every single point. Even on the rare occasion when they did have a clean look Dallas was unable to convert it, shooting only 8 for 21 in the quarter.
So you know that this Celtics team would look to punish that, and boy did they ever…
Boston smells blood and they go for it.
The same penetrate and kick game that’s been working to perfection for them, the same aggressiveness attacking the paint, and everyone contributing in this blazing hot quarter for them shooting 65% from the field.
This became a double digit lead in the blink of an eye, and now the pressure was really on Dallas, as it looked like things were slipping away from them, especially at the end of the third, with Boston finishing the quarter with the exclamation point.
Down by 15 after 3, this is a do or die situation for the Mavs, and if they were going to come back they needed to have a hot start.
But the complete opposite happened, and this looked like game over…
A 21 point game at 4:25 in the morning on my end, so I think about turning off the TV and getting some sleep. I’m glad I didn’t do that because what followed was an avalanche by the Mavericks.
Wooow they are right back in this thing, and it gets even better when Holiday fouls Kyrie on the three point shot, and Irving knocks down all of them to make this only a 3 point game.
Now it’s crazy and all of a sudden, the intensity goes through the roof, and neither team can score for a while.
This is where things start to get dicey for Dallas, as Luka commits his 5th foul fighting against Jaylen Brown. And he really needs to be careful now. But just moments later this happens…
What a huge blow. They challenge the call desperately hoping for an overturn but that didn’t happen and the Mavs were left fighting for their championship dream without their main guy.
But they would keep fighting.
2 point game, all they need now is just 1 stop and Dallas would have a chance to tie or take the lead.
What a colossal shot by Jaylen Brown to keep the Mavs at distance, and in the closing seconds they couldn’t hit the clutch shot on 2 separate occasions so the Celtics survive and now have a commanding 3-0 lead just 1 step away from finally winning the championship after coming up short so many times these past few seasons.
Everything will be forgotten, all the narratives about them choking in the big moments, or settling for threes, or their 2 main guys not being able to coexist, all of that will be gone if they’re able to win just 1 more game. The same way that all the criticism was erased for Dirk about him being a bit soft, or for Kobe when nobody could say that he couldn’t win without Shaq.
All they need now is just 1 more. And with rumors that Porzingis could return, things could look similar to game 2 when Boston completely outplayed Dallas, so you gotta check out the full breakdown of that, right here. Talk to you in the next one. Peace out.