The Dallas Mavericks defeated the Boston Celtics 122-84 in game 4 of the NBA Finals.  The loss was one of the biggest defeats in the history of the NBA Finals.  Clearly, it’s time for Celtics fans to panic, right?  Right?

Wrong.  There is absolutely no reason to panic.  These games happen all the time.  The Celtics didn’t get blown out because they were out classed or because Dallas figured something out.  They lost because they relaxed and played a poor game, well below their standards, on both sides of the court and Dallas, with nothing to lose, came out in front of their home fans and played as well as they could.  Games like this happen in the regular season all the time and you don’t think anything of it.  Remember the January 11^th game in Milwaukee? The Celtics won their next 4 after that debacle.  The C’s had been on a 10-game winning streak in the playoffs before game 4.  10 straight playoff wins.  They were due to lose one.      

As I said, this stuff happens all the time.  Just look at what happened in the NHL playoffs.  The Florida Panthers won the first three games of the Stanley Cup Finals pretty easily.  Then playing game four on the road, the lost 8-1, which is the NHL equivalent to 122-84.  The Edmonton Oilers jumped out to a 2-0 lead and Florida was never really in the game.  Sound familiar?   So now the Celtics and Panthers return home looking to close things out in game 5 of their respective Finals.  Neither team nor their fanbases have a reason to panic. 

Now, if the Celtics lose game 5, things will get interesting.  Not panic time, but interesting.  The Celtics already won one game in Dallas so winning game 6 wouldn’t be a big deal.  However, if Dallas gets games 5 and 6 and forces a game 7, anything can happen.  The last time the Celtics played a game 7, last year, Tatum blew out his ankle 3 minutes in and the C’s lost.  You always want to avoid game 7s if possible.  So Monday night’s game is important and it would behoove the Celtics to come out with the fire that got them this far.    

As far as on the court stuff goes, there is really nothing to take from a game like this.  It’s the old cliché “burn the tape and move on” game.  It will be interesting though to see if Dallas can play on that level on the road with the embarrassment of being swept off the table.  Hopefully the Celtics will just forget about game 4 (as Celtics fans should), clean up their game, play their asses off in front of their home crowd, play their game on both ends, hit their threes, and finish this off. Of course, a true Green Teamer would argue that the Celtics threw game 4 so they could win their 18th championship on the famous parquet floor of the Boston Garden.