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It’s not that coach Joe Mazzulla planned for this type of effort and performance, but it happened. The Mavericks were the more desperate team. Rookie center Dereck Lively hit his first career 3-pointer during an early Dallas run. Derrick White countered with an airball on a 3.
Nobody played well. The Celtics were punished on the boards. They couldn’t hit threes and they couldn’t hit twos. Now they return to Boston with a 3-1 edge in the series, but perhaps not the psychological edge because the Mavericks finally saw its bench produce while the duo of Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic shredded a Boston defense that just wasn’t interested in guarding.
Both were able to drive to the basket with ease for layups and floaters. The Celtics perhaps believed the Mavericks were done, that they would lay down after trailing, 3-0, and on the brink of getting swept. Instead it was the Celtics who relented, reverting to their style of “playing with their food.”
The Celtics trailed by as many as 48 points in the third quarter, completely letting go of the rope and forcing Mazzulla to pull his starters with three-plus minutes left in the quarter. They needed to be benched. They were awful. Jayson Tatum missed layups or was stripped at the rim. Jaylen Brown looked two steps slow. Jrue Holiday missed a handful of layups.
White airballed another 3-pointer in the second half. And the Celtics faithful who traveled from Boston, snapped up the tickets on the secondary market and wanted to see history, actually witnessed one of the worst playoff losses in Celtics history. Only two previous Celtics teams lost by more points in the postseason.
What this loss does is create that slight doubt, that slight anxiety that maybe the Celtics have been figured out. The Mavericks played stifling defense in the fourth quarter of Game 3 but the Celtics made enough key buckets to hold on. On Friday, the Celtics couldn’t score in the paint and couldn’t hit even open threes.
Mazzulla was more complimentary of the Mavericks than critical of his own team, but he did think Dallas played harder. How in the world could the Celtics allow the Mavericks to play harder with so much on the line? Nobody had that answer.
“I mean, I don’t know, always in situations like this, it always goes back to us,” Mazzulla said. “But you have to give Dallas credit. They played well. They played really, really well. And that’s the reason why they’re in this, is because when they play like that. So I thought they just outplayed us. I don’t know. I thought Dallas played really [hard] — , because you have to give them credit. It’s not about us. It’s about our opponent and having respect for them.
“And you have to give them credit for how well they played, and that’s the most important thing. So it’s less about us and more about how they played. They played well. They played hard. We have to be more disciplined in how we defend and attack them.”
Adjustments will be necessary.
Mazzulla and his staff have two days to cool down Irving, make things tougher on Doncic, and limit the bench players who are now brimming with confidence.
The Celtics could have played one of their better games and still lost with the way Dallas performed, but they didn’t have a chance to find out because they didn’t offer their best.
Sweeps in the NBA Finals are extremely difficult. The last time an Eastern Conference team swept an NBA Finals series was 1989.
It’s not that the Celtics lost Game 4, it’s how they lost that is a concern. The Celtics still have the advantage. No team has come back from 0-3 and Boston is the better team, but they were so listless in Game 4 that they lost a considerable amount of momentum gained from such an impressive playoff run and winning the first three games of this series.
They’ll have to work hard to regain that and can’t just depend on being home to take this series.
“We learn from it. We take it. We don’t dismiss it,” guard Jaylen Brown said. “We’re going to learn from it. We’re going to see how and why, exactly where the game was won and lost. And then we take those experiences and then we come out and we play like our life depends on it. Because it does.”
The Larry O’Brien Trophy will be shipped to Boston for Game 5, and the Celtics have the precious opportunity to clinch in front of a title-hungry city. They’ll have to play with the ultimate passion, no arrogance and with all the sense of urgency.
Gary Washburn is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at gary.washburn@globe.com. Follow him @GwashburnGlobe.
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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A rideshare driver suspected of assaulting a passenger at Boston Logan International Airport on Friday is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday.
Leonard Bacon, 23, was found in Lowell, where he lives, and taken into custody on Sunday, Massachusetts State Police said. He’s charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Bacon, who’s due to face the charge in East Boston District Court, had an attorney who could speak for him.
Police didn’t share more details on what Bacon is accused of doing. They’ve previously said that the rideshare passenger entered Terminal C just before 5:30 a.m. and reported that they had been physically assaulted by their driver prior to being dropped off.
After the passenger got out of the vehicle, the rideshare driver left the scene, according to police, who alerted area law enforcement agencies to look out for the suspect. The victim was taken to a Boston-area hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police added.
Police are looking for a rideshare driver who was reported to have assaulted a passenger right before drop-off at Boston’s Logan airport.
In a statement, Uber said they’ve checked in with the rider and removed the driver’s access to their rideshare platform.
“We are horrified by this reported violence,” a representative for the company said in a statement, adding, “Our specialized team has been in touch with law enforcement, and we will continue to do whatever we can to support their investigation.”
“She’s more than just a cyclist and an advocate,” Rose Frank, 36, who became friends with Gag in seventh grade, said. “Those were parts of her identity, but she’s such an amazing person in so many other ways, and we want to celebrate all of those ways.”
Gag, who grew up in Roslindale just minutes from the park, was a joyful and energetic child, said Mark Smith, 66, a neighbor who spoke at the event.
“She was the sweetest little girl with a big wide smile,” Smith said. “Whenever you were in her presence, you felt somehow special.”
Smith said Gag’s passion for giving back to her community likely came from her parents, Steve Gag and Laura Gang, longtime Roslindale residents who contributed greatly to developing the neighborhood. Steve Gag helped bring a farmers market to Adams Park, while Laura Gang was involved in the public library.
Gag’s loved ones said she grew up to become a generous person who cared deeply about her family and friends.
“Louisa showed up for people,” Molly Goodkind, 36, a childhood friend of Gag’s said during Sunday’s event. “We’ll never understand how she had time to be everyone’s go-to person.”
Gag, she said, would eagerly volunteer to cat-sit, even though she didn’t like cats. Another friend said she kept a spreadsheet of the birthdays of all the babies she knew.
“She was the person outside of my biological family who, if I needed something, she would be there in an instant,” Goodkind, who has known Gag since they were 2-years-old, said.
Gag’s friends said she was curious and remained open-minded, even though she held firm beliefs.
“Who do you know that was a vegetarian except for when it inconvenienced others? And of course, except for hot dogs, because according to Louisa, you can’t not have a hot dog at a barbecue,” Gag’s friend Danielle Shaked said, drawing laughs from the crowd, including Laura Gang, who dabbed at her eyes with a crumpled tissue.
Gag also found time for many hobbies, and was always trying new ones, her friends said. Beyond loving outdoor activities such as biking and hiking, she was passionate about sustainability and shopped secondhand or sewed her own clothes. She dabbled in photography, painting, and cooking.

Urban planning was one of Gag’s enduring passions, Goodkind said.
“In college, she created her own major,” she said. “I don’t remember exactly what she called it, but it was something like city and people.”
Gag attended college at the University of Rochester and later earned a master’s degree in urban and environmental planning and policy from Tufts University, according to her LinkedIn.
Before joining the city in 2022, Gag worked for LivableStreets Alliance, a Boston-based nonprofit that advocates for increased safety, equity, and affordability. She also interned for Mayor Michelle Wu when Wu was a city councilor.
Wu attended Sunday’s event, but did not speak. Like many other attendees, she held a yellow sunflower, one of Gag’s favorites, as she tearfully listened to the tributes.
While Gag didn’t like being the center of attention, her friends said she would have been grateful for Sunday’s event.
“She would be completely honored to know that she has impacted so many people,” Frank said, her gaze drifting over the people gathered in the park.
Under a small tent nearby, attendees crowded around a folding table, filling out remembrance cards. Dozens of bikes leaned against the park’s fences while more lay scattered in the grass.
Allyson Chiu can be reached at allyson.chiu@globe.com. Follow her on X @_allysonchiu.
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