Monday’s NBA playoff takeaways: Celtics fight off Cavaliers, Thunder complete comeback on Mavs

By Jay King, Joe Vardon, Jared Weiss, Tim Cato and Anthony Slater

The Boston Celtics were able to hold off the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday night, winning 109-102 to take a 3-1 series lead heading back to Boston. The Celtics were up double-digits at one point, but that lead dwindled as the game went down the stretch.

Jayson Tatum (33 points) and Jaylen Brown (27 points) combined for 60 points.

The Cavaliers showed resilience, keeping the game competitive without their best player, Donovan Mitchell, but the Celtics eventually outclassed Cleveland to earn the victory.

Jaylen Brown (27 PTS) drills the 3 to put the Celtics back up 8 late in Q4 on TNT! pic.twitter.com/UEdq0cBuT6

— NBA (@NBA) May 14, 2024

The Oklahoma City Thunder overcame a double-digit deficit to defeat the Dallas Mavericks and even the series 2-2. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander posted a game-high 34, outscoring the duo of Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving by himself, and guided the Thunder to victory in the game’s closing moments.

Dončić finished with 18 as Irving failed to score in double figures, posting just nine points on 11 shots. Oklahoma City now heads home, regaining home-court advantage.

Celtics 109, Cavaliers 102

Series: Celtics leads 3-1

Game 5: Wednesday in Boston

Boston’s uncharacteristically sloppy offense helped keep the game tight

Over the first three games of the series, Boston dominated the minutes when Mitchell hit the bench. After he was ruled out shortly before Game 4, it was easy to wonder how the Cavaliers would produce enough offense to keep pace with the powerful Celtics.

By playing with a newfound freedom. And by crushing the Celtics in transition for much of the game.

Led by Max Strus, who drilled five 3-pointers, all in the first half, the Cavaliers looked to launch long balls at every opportunity. Sam Merrill, who hadn’t hit a shot all series, sank his first two 3-point attempts off the bench. Cleveland generated 25 3-point attempts during the first half, which surely bothered Boston coach Joe Mazzulla, who usually wants his team to shoot more 3-pointers than its opponent.

If the Cavaliers continue hunting 3-pointers for the rest of the series, the Celtics should focus on doing a better job finding them in transition.

They should also look to do a better job taking care of the ball. After entering Monday with the second-lowest turnover rate of any team left in the playoffs, they committed six during the first quarter and another four in the second. That led to 16 first-half points for Cleveland.

Boston’s uncharacteristically sloppy offense helped the Cavaliers make 11 3-point attempts in the first half.

When the Celtics tightened up their offense, their defense had far more success while holding the Cavaliers to four 3-point makes after halftime. Boston’s defense will need to be attentive at the 3-point arc over the rest of the series, though, if Cleveland continues to put such a premium on the long ball.

And the Celtics should stop milking the clock late in games, as they did while allowing Cleveland back in the game late in the fourth quarter. — Jay King, Celtics beat writer

No moral victory for the Cavaliers

Their absences should have been backbreakers, and, I guess, in the end they were.

But the Cavaliers put forth a more-than-admirable effort in Game 4 without their top TWO players.

Yes, that’s right, Mitchell and Jarrett Allen are the best they have – and neither played Monday night.

Mitchell, ruled out with a left calf strain that obviously puts his availability for Game 5 in doubt, is averaging 31.7 points, 6.3 rebounds and 5.3 assists in this series and has gone over 30 points in his last five games.

Allen has now missed seven consecutive games with a rib bruise – he may have set a record for games in which he’s been considered “questionable” to play – but in the first four games against Orlando he averaged 17 points and 13.8 boards.

There has been so much talk about the pressure the Celtics put on opponents. The weight of playing against Boston without Mitchell and Allen may have given the impression the Cavs were in for another blowout loss. Instead, it was a two-possession game with less than 90 seconds left. Strus had a cleeeeeeean look at a 3 with 1:25 left that, had it fallen, would’ve cut Cleveland’s deficit to two points.

This was the closest game the Celtics have been in, win or lose, the entire postseason.

Darius Garland’s 30 points all came after the first quarter. He’s had a very up and down playoffs, and had no choice but to let it rip without Mitchell. He’ll wish he could have back a few of the 11 3s he missed (against 4 makes).

Strus was very good before he fouled out, scoring all 15 of his points on five 3s. The edge with which Cleveland played, albeit in a loss, is what he’s been looking for since he joined the organization from the Miami Heat.

Caris LeVert was admirable in Mitchell’s place with 19 points. Evan Mobley continued his strong series with 19 points and nine boards.

Cleveland knew it needed to bomb 3s to have a chance, and that’s what happened. On a night when LeBron James was in the house, the Cavs launched 48.

The chances of the Cavs’ season continuing past this series are bleak, and the fight and grit of the players available to play put in on Monday wasn’t enough to change that. — Joe Vardon, Senior NBA writer

With Donovan Mitchell out, Boston’s talent advantage was undeniable

The Celtics would go on streaks in the regular season where they were beating teams so easily that real wire-to-wire tests seemed rare. This was the first time they passed one of those tests this postseason. Finally, a real clutch game that required serious defense and some tactical savvy.

Even with the talent imbalance due to Mitchell’s absence, Cleveland made sure that the Celtics had to outwork them on the glass and play smart. Now Boston has some cushion to close out this series, but Garland and Levert showed they can bring enough scoring to keep this series close.

Cleveland took 16 more 3-pointers and had almost half as many turnovers as Boston over the course of the night.

The Celtics will have to clean things up to win this series if/when Mitchell returns, but this was an imperfect yet comprehensive win. — Jared Weiss, Celtics beat writer

(Photo: Logan Riely / NBAE via Getty Images)

Thunder 100, Mavericks 96

Series: Tied 2-2

Game 5: Wednesday in Oklahoma City

Thunder muscle their way to a strange Game 4 win

In one of the uglier wins in these playoffs, the Thunder went 7-of-27 on 3s, only made six total shots at the rim, trailed by 14 in Dallas and somehow found a way to sneak past the Mavericks, tying the series 2-2.

So how did it happen? Gilgeous-Alexander buried a ton of well-contested, high-arcing midrange jumpers, finishing with 34 points, including all 14 of his makes coming inside the arc. OKC went 23 of 24 on free throws, a particularly important figure when compared to Dallas.

The Mavericks missed nine of their 23 free throws, including two crucial ones in the final 10 seconds, one of them after Gilgeous-Alexander perfectly executed the foul-up-three strategy.

That was part of the bigger theme of the night for the Thunder. They won this game on the defensive end, holding Dallas to 96 total points, 15 in the third quarter and 42 in the second half. Cason Wallace, a rookie, played Irving well, making a case to start in Josh Giddey’s place for Game 5.

Irving shot 4 of 11 for nine points. Dončić shot 6 of 20 for 18 points. OKC has done a great job on two of the league’s best scorers. — Anthony Slater, NBA writer

Mavericks collapse after double-digit lead

The Mavericks began Game 4 like they had played in the prior two: suffocating defense that denied shot after shot at the rim.

At one point, the Thunder were shooting just 4 of 15 on such shots. The Mavericks swarmed Thunder ballhandlers, forcing Gilgeous-Alexander to keep OKC in the game with a constant diet of tough midrangers.

Dallas’ defense was so good the team just needed competence on the other end. But there wasn’t much of that in the third quarter: The Mavericks lost seven points from their 11-point halftime advantage as they made just five shots in the frame.

In Games 2 and 3, Dallas got its role players going, which happened again in Monday’s defeat. P.J. Washington continued his hot streak with 21 points, albeit worse efficiency, while Derrick Jones Jr. added 17. But at some point, an offense led by stars needs those stars to contribute, too. Dončić and Irving didn’t do enough of that.

Irving, to his credit, reacted to Oklahoma City’s near-constant double teams and finished with nine assists. But he only took 11 shots to finish with nine points.

Dončić has been dealing with a lingering knee injury, in addition to other ailments, since the middle of the team’s first-round series. He’s clearly affected by it, but it doesn’t change his 18-point evening on 6-of-20 shooting as a major contributor to the defeat.

Dallas has a formula that can work if those two show up and contribute difficult shot making to a roster that has favored defense and physicality over shooting and offensive pop. They need to, because when they don’t, it looks like this. — Tim Cato, Mavericks beat writer

Tuesday’s schedule:

Pacers vs. Knicks: 8 p.m. ET (Series tied 2-2)
Timberwolves vs. Nuggets: 10:30 p.m. ET (Series tied 2-2)

Required reading

(Photo: Brian Babineau / NBAE via Getty Images)