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NBA: Dallas forces Celtics to win it at home


BOB'S CORNER: BEHIND 31 points from Jayson Tatum and a 30-8-8 line from Jalen Brown, the Boston Celtics held off a furious Dallas rally to take a 106-99 win in Dallas and a seemingly insurmountable 3-0 lead in the NBA Finals, reports BOB CRAVEN from the US. Of course, Game 4 was a new story.

None of the previous 156 teams to face a 0-3 deficit have rallied to win an NBA playoff series. 

In Game 3 the Mavs almost pulled themselves out of a big hole with a furious comeback, but without star Luka Doncic at the end, it wasn't to be. 

Boston led by 21 points early in the fourth quarter, but Doncic fouled out with four minutes left in the game and Dallas down by only three points. 

The Mavericks managed to draw within one point, but Boston pulled away at the end. 

Dallas started the game on fire, running out to a 22-9 lead, but Boston dragged that back almost immediately and took control—until the drama at the very end. 

Doncic scored 27 to lead Dallas, but took 27 shots to get those points, fouling out in a petulant display.

Dallas bounced back with a blowout 122-84 win in Game 4, one of the biggest ever in Finals history, as Boston seemed content to mail in the result and return home and try for the win on their home court in front of their own fans. 

At one point Boston trailed by 48 points. Doncic and Dallas played a much better game, particularly defensively, Doncic scoring 25 of his 29 points in the first half. 

Olympics-bound Aussies Josh Green and Dante Exum also were big contributors in the turnaround for Dallas.

Neither team played their starters in the fourth quarter.  Doncic had 22 points in the paint by himself, more than the entire Celtic team had in the three quarters that he played.

Dallas was up by 13 points after the first quarter and took a 61-35 lead into the halftime break.  It got even worse from there. 

Boston quickly emptied its bench in the third quarter, making no attempt to make a game of it.  Game 5 will be in Boston tomorrow, Tuesday morning in Oz.

MY local WNBA team Seattle Storm, after stumbling out of the gate with three quick losses this season in their first four games, have totally turned things around since then, winning eight of their past nine. 

This puts them in a virtual tie for first place in the Western Conference with the Minnesota Lynx.

After a very poor year last season, the Storm signed two veteran free agents, Nneke Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins-Smith, both All-Stars multiple times over. 

Adding them to star scorer Jewell Loyd and budding Aussie star post player, Ezi Magbegor, has created a totally new entity led by what the local Media are calling the Storm's "Core Four".  These four players are all putting up career numbers in several categories.

Perfect timing for them as this week the WNBA begins balloting for its 20th All-Star Game and the Storm could send all four to the big game. 

This year's game will pit Team WNBA against USA Basketball Womens National Team that's heading to the 2024 Paris Olympics.  The case for Magbegor's making the All-Star team is particularly strong. 

It's still early, but Magbegor is on pace to make history while averaging 3.0 blocks. In fact, if she maintains her 13.6 scoring average and 9.1 rebounds per game along with those 3.0 blocks, she would become the first WNBA player to finish a season with those benchmark numbers.

In NBA coaching news, the LA Lakers offered their head coaching job recently to Dan Hurley, who coached the Connecticut men's basketball team to the past two NCAA national titles. 

Everyone assumed he was odds-on to accept the job, but earlier this week, he turned the job down, announcing he'd stay at UConn.  He will now try to make UConn the second team to win three consecutive national championships.  UCLA won seven in a row from 1967-1973.

The first poll is out with rankings for the NCAA D-1 men's title for the upcoming season. 

A second consecutive Final Four is predicted for Alabama, and that this time, they are favourites to win it all.  Gonzaga is picked as #2, with Baylor, Kansas, UConn, North Carolina, Iowa State, Duke, Tennessee and Houston rounding out the top 10.

Jun 16

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