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We all know that no team in the history of the Association has recovered from a 3-0 deficit, so unless you think these Mavs are basketball’s answer to the 2004 Red Sox (Luka Doncic as Curt Schilling?), you can make arrangements for the parade.
The Celtics are 15-2 in these playoffs and will take a 10-game winning streak into Friday’s Game 4 in Texas. They are on the cusp of completing one of the most dominant seasons in NBA history. This will be Boston’s 18th championship, putting the C’s back ahead of the Lakers and their 17, and perhaps only the second time the Celtics have swept an NBA Finals. (Bill Russell and Co. did it to the Minneapolis Lakers in 1959.)
It’s almost official, Celtic fans: Seven years after Danny Ainge drafted Tatum to pair with Brown, the Jays are finally going to win a championship. They’ve been to the conference finals five times. This is their second NBA Finals. Now is their time.
When Game 3 was over, Tatum and Brown embraced on the court.
“I told him I was proud of him and he said the same thing,” reported Tatum.
Game 3 was played on the 13th anniversary of Dallas’s lone NBA championship, when Dallas coach Jason Kidd was a veteran guard for coach Rick Carlisle, and the 40th anniversary of Boston’s Game 7 victory over the Lakers in 1984 (a.k.a. Cedric Maxwell’s “Hop on my back!” game).
The Celtics trailed, 25-12, in the first quarter, cut it to 1 by intermission, then seemingly blew it open with a hail of threes late in the third. An emphatic Darryl Dawkins-like drive and slam by Brown in the closing seconds of the quarter made it 85-70 after three, and Boston’s lead swelled to 21 one minute into the fourth.
Incredibly, it was down to 93-92 with three and a half minutes left. Fortunately for Boston, Doncic (27 points) fouled out (via a blocking foul on Brown) with 4:12 left. Kidd challenged the play, but the call was upheld.
“We couldn’t play physical,” complained Doncic. “I don’t know . . . six fouls in the NBA Finals . . . C’mon man. Better than that.”
It was only the fourth time in Doncic’s NBA career that he fouled out of a game.
There was considerable pregame conversation regarding the shooting slumps of superstars Irving and Tatum. Irving endured two stink bombs in Boston, missing all eight of his threes, averaging a mere 14 points, and shooting 35 percent. Tatum shot 32 percent in the two games at home.
When Celtic coach Joe Mazzulla was asked if we are seeing the best version of JT, the ever-combative coach asked the reporter if he lived in Brazil or America. When the reporter stated Brazil, Mazzulla said, “That’s probably why you asked that question. None of the American ones did. They look at the lens differently . . . In America, nothing is ever good enough.”
OK. Swell, coach.
Tatum responded with a 13-point first quarter, his best of the series, and 20 in the first half.
On the other side, Irving came into the game unusually humble and contrite, telling reporters, “It’s my fault. I’m taking accountability for not playing particularly well.’’
He scored the first bucket of the night, 14 seconds in. Dallas went up, 9-2, and Mazzulla needed a timeout inside two minutes of play. The Celtics started 1 for 7 from three, and Xavier Tillman came in to replace Al Horford. Boston trailed by 13. It felt like they might be routed.
Not so. Sam Hauser came off the pine to hit a couple of threes and Tatum went off for 13, including a cherry-pick sneakaway, as Boston closed the first quarter with an 18-6 run to cut it to 31-30.
The Celtics led, 91-70, when Dallas went on a 22-2 run, capped on a basket by Irving. Unfortunately for Dallas, Doncic was gone. Boston’s lead proved simply too big to fail.
“You were going to expect a run from them because they had a 19-point [third] quarter,” said Mazzulla. “And just the type of shots they take alone, you knew they were going to make some kind of run.”
“It’s not over till it’s over. We just got to believe,” said Yogi Doncic. “Like I always say, it’s first to four. We’re going to stay together. We lose together, we win together.”
Message to Celtic fans: There’s still time to catch a flight to Dallas-Fort Worth and score tickets to Game 4. The Big D’s resale market should be pretty reasonable.
Pack your brooms.
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at daniel.shaughnessy@globe.com. Follow him @dan_shaughnessy.
An Instagram post that announced their closure on Tuesday evening did not point to any reason for the closure, and requests for comment were not immediately returned.
“Eight years ago, we opened our doors at the Innovation and Design Building with a simple hope: to bring you honest, delicious food and a warm place to share it,” read the post. “What we found instead was a community – regulars who became friends, first dates that turned into anniversaries, celebrations, quiet lunches, and everything in between. You made this restaurant so much more than a place to eat.”
Globe Food Critic Devra First awarded Chickadee 3.5 stars in October 2018, where she wrote how some meals “are magic, everything cooked perfectly, making you swoon.”
At the time, it was also considered one of the earliest restaurants to have opened in the still-industrial far reaches of the Seaport, which was home to ship-repair facilities and cutting-edge design firms, seafood wholesalers, and biotech companies. In terms of location, some said it was ahead of its time.
DaSilva, a three-time James Beard Best Chef: Northeast semifinalist, has led some of the top restaurants across the Greater Boston area. Aside from Barbara Lynch’s flagship No. 9 Park, he opened Spoke Wine Bar in Somerville in 2013. During his time at Spoke, he received a number of accolades and was named one of Zagat’s “30 Under 30” for Boston and earned the title “Rising Star Chef” from StarChefs.
Kilpatrick, who also left Lynch’s group in 2014, worked for the team behind O Ya to help open restaurants in New York. According to his LinkedIn, he started a new job as a regional operations manager for Lark, a boutique hotel management company, in April.
Alexa Gagosz can be reached at alexa.gagosz@globe.com. Follow her @alexagagosz and on Instagram @AlexaGagosz.
This is a web edition of GBH Daily, a weekday newsletter bringing you local stories you can trust so you can stay informed without feeling overwhelmed.
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🥵Very hot, with highs around 97 degrees. Sunset is at 8:19 p.m.
GBH’s Dan Murphy captured Abby Evangelista and her corgi, Rocko, at Sail250 this weekend. “Rocko gets dressed up for lots of occasions … sometimes just to go to the store, and he does so great with meeting people,” Evangelista said. Keep reading for more photos from the tall ships.
A year ago today firefighters were extinguishing flames at the Gabriel House, an assisted living facility in Fall River. Ten people died in the fire, a tragedy for their loved ones and a scary moment for about 18,000 people who live in assisted living facilities across the state.
Now state officials have created new regulations for fire safety in assisted living facilities, going into effect later this month. Fire departments will inspect these facilities once a year, and facilities will need to submit emergency plans and train their workers on what to do in case of a fire.
GBH’s Craig LeMoult found that neither the new regulations nor state or federal fire codes address checking sprinkler systems. Some of the sprinklers at the Gabriel House weren’t working the night of the fire, including the ones in the room where it started.
“Had the sprinklers functioned properly, we’re not having this conversation right now. It is maybe a single fatality fire, but certainly not more than that,” Fall River fire chief Jeffrey Bacon told LeMoult. “The good news is that some of the sprinklers did function. And had they not, we would be here talking about 20, 30, 40 victims.” You can read the full story here.
1. Colleagues and friends are remembering Louisa Gag, a Boston transportation planner killed last week when a truck driver hit her as she rode her bike near the Roxbury Crossing MBTA stop. Gag grew up in Roslindale and worked for the city on expanding the BlueBikes bike-share program. Before that, she worked for the LivableStreets Alliance, co-authoring a plan to help cities stop traffic deaths. You can see her talk about her work in this 2019 video.
“In moments like these, there is a tendency to reduce the person to the way they died and to their activism,” said Stacy Thompson, a former executive director of LivableStreets. “While we may know Louisa as a deep champion of the city and a close advocate, she’s also a Boston Latin [School] kid. She’s also, like, the most infectious, hilarious person you’ve ever met. She’s also a daughter. It’s so important to us right now for her life to not be reduced to how she stopped living.”
2. More than 4,000 nurses are back at work at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. They went on a one-day strike last week, and hospital administrators kept them from returning to their jobs for another five days. The Massachusetts Nurses Association and Brigham management have been negotiating a contract for seven months, going back and forth over wages, health insurance premiums and staffing levels.
“It’s exciting, but also frightening,” said Christine Forgeron, a cardiac nurse at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “I don’t know what to expect when we go back to our patients. What happens next, because we still don’t have a contract,is the most unsettling part.”
3. Michael Walsh, a Republican candidate for state attorney general, will be on the primary ballot in September despite what Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Karp called “substantial evidence in the record of voter fraud.” The case began when Adam Roof, executive director of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, submitted a complaint accusing a signature gatherer Walsh’s campaign hired of either falsifying or not meeting state requirements for 1,021 of the 10,677 signatures they submitted. Candidates for statewide office need 10,000 signatures to get onto the ballot.
Karp said that there was indeed evidence that the signatures came not from voters themselves but from a list of registered voters the state’s Republican party gave the signature gatherer. But the case fell on a technicality: state law required Roof, the Democratic party official, to submit his complaint by certified mail, and he did not do so. The state’s highest court still has to decide what will happen to Anne Manning Martin, a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor who used the same signature gatherer.
4. Residents of towns around the Quabbin Reservoir flooded into the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority meeting last week to ask for a better deal. The Quabbin supplies clean drinking water for dozens of cities and towns in the eastern part of the state. Right now, the state requires towns like Shrewsbury, Belchertown, Orange and Pelham to keep their development in check to keep the Quabbin clean. Though those towns get some money in return, local officials said it’s not enough to cover their costs.
“We are protecting this watershed by foregoing any type of economic development, which is a cornerstone of providing the basics of education [and] public safety,” said state Rep. Aaron Saunders, of Belchertown. “It’s time for a change, and not an incremental one.”
Dan Murphy / GBH News
Tomorrow is the last full day of Sail Boston, the city’s tall ships celebration. The ships will leave our harbor Thursday morning. GBH photographer Dan Murphy was there over the weekend to capture the Parade of Sail.
Dan Murphy / GBH News
The Esmeralda, a ship from Chile, sailed by Castle Island.
Dan Murphy / GBH News
Carolyn Gustine carried her son, Patrick, on her shoulders.
You can see the full photo essay here.
Dig deeper:
–Spectators line Cape Cod Canal to see tall ships make their way to Sail250 in Boston
–The World Cup transformed Greater Boston. Will it last?
–Department of Agricultural Resources celebrates Ice Cream Trail program
Local News
A Boston man is facing charges after he allegedly lunged at a Burger King employee, punched a customer, and then resisted arrest at a nearby MBTA station in East Boston, authorities announced Monday afternoon.
Patrick Donovan, 59, was charged July 1 with one count of assault and battery causing injury on an over 60 or disabled person, assault and battery, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, assault, and vandalism, Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden’s office said in a press release.
The charges stem from an incident shortly before 10 p.m. on June 30, when Boston police responded to a disturbance call from Burger King at 1 Maverick Square, Hayden’s office said.
A Burger King employee told officers that, after ordering his food and receiving it, Donovan yelled that he no longer wanted it and smacked a napkin holder off the counter. He then allegedly lunged at an employee and grabbed her by the arm, prosecutors said.
Donovan subsequently shoved a customer from behind and allegedly punched him in the face three times while calling him racial slurs, the DA’s office said.
Emergency medical services evaluated the customer for “visible lacerations to the forehead,” but the victim declined additional treatment, authorities said.
Donovan fled the restaurant following the assaults, and officers tracked him to the nearby MBTA Maverick Station, prosecutors said.
“While officers tried to detain Donovan inside the station, he swung at them with a closed fist but did not make contact,” Hayden’s office said, noting that Donovan made racial slurs towards the officers. “Donovan was placed into custody after a brief struggle.”
During his arraignment in the East Boston division of the Boston Municipal Court, Donovan pleaded not guilty and was released on personal recognizance. Court records show he was also ordered to stay away from Maverick Square and Burger King.
He is scheduled to return to court Aug. 7 for a pre-trial hearing, prosecutors said.
Officers obtained security footage of both assaults. Authorities said the incident remains under investigation and could result in further charges.
“Our workers deserve to be safe in their workplaces and our consumers deserve to be safe in their shopping or dining places, without exception,” Hayden said in a statement. “Beyond that, none of our citizens or first responders should be subjected to racial slurs. These appalling words have no place in Suffolk County or anywhere else in our society.”
Attorney information for Donovan was not immediately available Monday afternoon.
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