NBA finals Game 4: Boston Celtics v Dallas Mavericks – live

Beau will be visiting soon. In the meantime, here’s Andrew Lawrence on Kyrie Irving’s series so far:

Late in Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday night, the Dallas Mavericks were on the brink. They largely erased a 21-point deficit to move within three points of the Boston Celtics. Then Luka Dončić, the Mavs’ superstar scorer, was fouled — the first time he’s ever done that in a playoff game.

That left Kyrie Irving, the Deadpool to Dončić’s Wolverine, to carry the day. And when he went on to score Dallas’ next four points, including an 18-foot jump that cut the Boston lead to one, it looked like the Mavericks might actually make it a competitive series. But it wasn’t to be. Boston is just too good and too strong. The result, a 106-99 Celtics victory on Dallas’ home floor, puts the Mavericks in an 0-3 series hole, a margin from which no NBA team has ever recovered. And it came just as Irving, who scored a game-high 35 points, had two quiet games to start the series.

This NBA season has been notable for Irving’s deafening silence despite the endless opportunities to express his opinions. Forget the wars going on around the world and the protests on American campuses. Irving kept things quiet when LeBron James, Irving’s championship-winning running mate, came into play apparently couldn’t wait to get awaywent on his podcast days before the finals to say how much he missed playing with “the most gifted player the NBA has ever seen.”

And there are signs that Irving is a much better teammate these days. After Wednesday’s loss to the Celtics, his first thoughts were of Dončić.

“You just have to let it breathe a little bit,” Irving said of what he wanted to tell his co-star. “Let the human emotions come out. Just give him a hug. That’s it, man. It’s easy to just point at him and say, “You could be better.” That’s easy to say. I think he knows that. But yeah, it reiterates that I’m behind him, we’re all behind him.”

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