Kyrie Irving finally breaks the so-called 'curse' with victory over the Celtics

BOSTON – Whatever so-called “curse” the Boston Celtics allegedly placed on Kyrie Irving is now over.

A member of the Celtics from 2017 to 2019, Irving had gone 0-13 against the Celtics since leaving that franchise to sign a free agent contract with the Brooklyn Nets on July 7, 2019. But the veteran guard finally broke up. the so-called “curse” and was in the winning part of a game against the Celtics when the Dallas Mavericks beat Boston, 122-84, Friday night at the American Airlines Center.

“It took a while, I tell you,” Irving said. “It's difficult because as a competitor you try not to show all your emotions to give the advantage.

“When you go up against some of the best, they’re going to use everything to their advantage. I think they succeeded in doing it. That’s why I talked about just having my number or knowing my game really well.”

Irving scored 21 points on 10-of-18 shooting in 31 minutes in helping the Mavs blow out the Celtics. He also had six assists and four rebounds to get the monkey off his back. terms of not being able to defeat the Celtics.

“I think I was also able to step back and talk to my teammates a little more about what that pressure can feel like,” Irving said. “Not just losing to a team, but just going against a team and knowing that they're doing everything they can to stop you.

“But it’s a team game, so I really have to rely on my teammates. I think we all did a great job (Friday) – continuing to support each other.

Even though Irving finally got a win against the Celtics since leaving in 2019, he knows he is still 0-7 in games played.in Boston since leaving Beantown. He hopes to break this so-called “curse” when Game 5 is played Monday at 7:30 p.m. in Boston.

“You saw all those Celtics fans (AAC on Friday),” Irving said. “They travel in packs. When we go to Boston, there will still be a lot of people screaming a bunch of crazy stuff, but I think we've been able to grow and face this adversity head on.

Meanwhile, the Mavs ended up winning Game 4 by an incredible score of 38 points. It was the third-largest margin of victory by a team in NBA Finals history, surpassed only by Chicago's 42-point whipping of Utah in 1998, and the spanking of 39 points that the Celtics gave to the Los Angeles Lakers in 2008.

No NBA team has ever rallied to win a best-of-seven series after being down 3-0, and no team has ever won the championship after losing a game in the Finals by at least 38 points. But one of those rare occasions will happen before this series enters the history books.

“We discover ourselves in a crazy way during the highest stage of basketball,” Irving said. “It's a beautiful thing, but it can also be chaotic if you don't know how to stay balanced.

“I think we understand each other throughout these phases.”

At one point in the second half of Friday's game, the Mavs led the Celtics by 48 points (115-67). It's the largest lead a team has built in the NBA Finals sinceat least 50 years old, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

“That’s how we started the game,” Irving said. “Our ability to go home, rest, not have the same 48 hours to prepare our body and recover, so it felt like it was pretty much the regular season as far as that aspect.

“For us, we wanted to make it a lot more respectable than it has been in the last few games in terms of limiting our defensive mistakes. We've been one of the best teams in the league in terms of stops. This has been our identity.

And the Mavs ultimately used their identity to get plenty of stops on Friday by limiting the Celtics to 36.2 percent shooting, which was their second-worst field goal percentage of the season. Additionally, the 84 points scored by the Celtics were the fewest Boston had produced in a game this season.

Additionally, the 26 points the Celtics scored in the paint were a season low. And the -38 plus-minus handed out by Celtics guard Jrue Holiday was the worst of any player in a Finals game in the last 25 years.

In other words, it was total domination by the Mavs.

“I think we play better offensively when we get stops, are able to push the pace and get easy opportunities in transition, which we haven't done as often in the last few games,” Irving said. “It felt good to be on the positive side to see our hard work reward us, especially on the defensive side.”

For Irving, it probably also felt good to finally break this so-called “curse” of not being able to beat the Celtics.

X: @DwainPrice