Luka Fouls Out, Celtics Survive Late Mavs' Rally to go up 3-0, and Remembering Jerry West

June 13, 2024·1 hr 5 min·5 clips

Boston's offense was so bad in the fourth quarter that Jalen Brown had Luka switched onto him with ten seconds left and still took a contested sidestep three.

Zach Lowe opens by noting the episode will address Jerry West's death at 86 before pivoting to Game 3 of the NBA Finals. Boston entered Dallas, built a large lead through heavy three-point shooting, and appeared to be cruising before a catastrophic fourth-quarter offensive collapse. The Celtics scored just two points over an eight-minute stretch, allowing Dallas to cut a 91-70 lead to 93-90. Luka Doncic fouled out with four minutes and 12 seconds remaining — his first disqualification of the season — on a blocking foul while trying to stop Jalen Brown in transition. The hosts walk through all six of Luka's fouls chronologically, debating each call and identifying the fifth foul as the most debatable, while concluding none were egregiously wrong. Jalen Brown is identified as the Finals MVP front-runner after finishing with eight assists and hitting a clutch jumper over Tim Hardaway Jr. with a minute left. Drew Holiday is praised for his all-around play — drives, kicks, relocations, and offensive rebounds — while Derrick White contributed four threes and Xavier Tillman provided 11 key minutes including a corner three. Sam Hauser hit three big threes and held up defensively. The hosts analyze Boston's fourth-quarter offensive meltdown in detail, noting possessions where Brown and Tatum drove into PJ Washington rather than attacking favorable matchups, and an Al Horford turnover where he inexplicably sprinted the ball up the floor with 48 seconds left up four. They credit Boston's defense for bailing out the offense with key stops in the final five minutes, including Tatum blanketing Luka on a switch and Holiday staying with Kyrie on a transition rush. Tactically, the hosts explain how Boston's scheme has eliminated Dallas's corner three attempts — their primary playoff weapon — while daring non-shooters to beat them from above the break. Dallas's half-court offense is described as slow and matchup-obsessed, having abandoned the double-drag and Spain pick-and-roll actions that made them effective against Minnesota. Boston is noted to be 15-2 in the playoffs with a net rating around plus-11, a statistical profile that places them alongside the mid-90s Bulls and Durant-era Warriors, though the host admits his gut hasn't fully caught up to the numbers. The Kristaps Porzingis injury is highlighted as an underappreciated context point — Boston has achieved this run without their starting center. The Drew Holiday trade from Milwaukee is revisited, with the host maintaining it was still a reasonable bet for the Bucks even if the outcome benefited Boston enormously. The episode closes with the hosts noting Boston has potentially won 12 consecutive games and could finish on a 13-game win streak if they close out the series.

As heard by us

A sharp Game 3 read on Boston's scheme discipline, Brown's late poise, and Luka's costly foul-out.

The Lowe Post catches Boston's Game 3 win as a Finals night that got messier than the 3-0 series lead suggests. The Celtics hit their threes, built the kind of cushion they usually trust, then hit the familiar fourth-quarter stall before Jaylen Brown's late jumper over Tim…

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Why you'd press play

You get Luka fouling out, Jaylen Brown's late jumper, and Boston surviving its fourth-quarter stress test to go up 3-0.

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