NBA

Mavericks shorten final series with thumping victory

The Dallas Mavericks have postponed the decision in the finals of the North American Basketball League NBA with a resounding victory and denied the Boston Celtics a quick championship celebration.

In the fourth game of the series, the Texans claimed an outstanding 122:84 at home on Friday to cut the deficit in the best-of-seven series to 1:3.

The Mavericks had lost all of the first three games, and another defeat would decide the series in Boston's favor. With 18 titles, the team from the east coast would then be the sole record champions of the best basketball league in the world. To date, they share this nimbus with the Los Angeles Lakers (also 17 titles).

"We can't lose any more. We'll keep believing until the end. The energy was much higher today and we played much faster," said Mavs star Luka Doncic, who scored 29 points and said of the upcoming fifth game in Boston: "We have to play the same way. We know how hard that's going to be."

Tatum and Brown were unable to shine
For the first time in the finals series, the Mavericks got to grips with the Celtics' offense led by Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. The Texans ended the first quarter with a 13-point lead, the lead at half-time was 26 points - and in the second half the buffer grew to 48 points. The stars of both teams were already on the bench by then, resting for the fifth game on Monday evening in Boston in view of the foreseeable outcome. Both coaches substituted their role players before the end of the third quarter.

Kyrie Irving scored 21 points for the Mavericks. At halftime, the Celtics had scored just 35 points.