Al Horford Reveals Bold Celtics Strategy After Game 4 NBA Finals Loss

The Boston Celtics stuck with what worked for them in the first three games of the NBA Finals when they looked to closeout the Dallas Mavericks on Friday night.

Well, the Mavericks finally caught on to what the Celtics were doing and made them pay dearly in Game 4 for not adjusting.

The Celtics had no answers for the Dallas Mavericks, who ran away with a lopsided 122-84 win at American Airlines Center to make it a 3-1 series. It was the third-largest loss in Finals history.

Al Horford is no stranger to playoff series and he understood that not adapting from game-to-game certainly goes against the grain.

“I’ve been in a lot of these, and usually by the second game, you’re making adjustments,” Horford told reporters, per league-provided video. “Third game, you’re making another adjustment, and that’s kind of how it is. And for us, we’ve had the first three games, we didn’t really make any adjustments. So today, they did something. We have to see how we can be better and prepare for it. That’s kind of where we’re at right now.”

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The Mavericks really did whatever they wanted on the court over 48 minutes. They made an adjustment to unlock their offense and got back to shooting corner 3-pointers and throwing down lobs. Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving got going again, too, as the Mavericks duo combined for 50 points.

Dallas also made the change to be more physical defensively, especially out on the perimeter, and crashed the glass to outrebound the Celtics, 52-31.

And with the way the Mavericks responded in resounding fashion, it will now force the Celtics to adjust with another chance to get their hands on the Larry O’Brien Trophy coming in Game 5 on Monday night.

“We have to take some things that we can be better at and try to fix them … and make sure that we come out and we play Celtics basketball,” Horford said. “I think ultimately that’s what it comes down to for us, and there’s a lot of things that we can control and that I expect us to be much better on Monday.”