“I’AM LEAVING” Luka Dončić has announced that he is leaving the Dallas Mavericks due to……Read More..
“We’ve responded all year and this was no different,” said Celtics forward Jayson Tatum after the game, when asked how the Game 4 blowout affected Monday night’s performance. “We owed our fans, it been a long journey. It’s been a long journey.”
Tatum, who was named in the All-NBA first team for the third time this season, was superb on Monday night, putting up 31 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds. The victory came exactly 16 years after the Celtics last won the NBA title, in 2008.
Jaylen Brown, who had 21 points on the night, was named finals MVP.
“It was a full team effort and I’m going to share this with my brothers and my partner in crime Jayson Tatum, he was with me the whole way,” said Brown, before embracing Tatum.
The Mavericks were never in contention on Monday night. Luka Dončić finished with 28 points and 12 rebounds but was sloppy defensively, committed seven turnovers and missed his first six three-point attempts as Dallas failed to make an early impression on the game.
“I’m proud of every guy that stepped on the floor, all the coaches, all the people behind [the scenes],” said Dončić, who became just the 11th player to score more than 3,000 points in a season. “Obviously, we didn’t win the finals, but we did have a hell of a season and I’m proud of every one of them.”
Dallas’s other star, Kyrie Irving, endured another miserable night against his former team, and finished with just 15 points on 5-of-16 shooting. He has now lost 13 of his last 14 games against the Celtics, who he left in acrimonious circumstances in 2019.
