Doncic and Irving can’t deliver for Dallas in NBA Finals as Celtics win 18th championship

BOSTON (AP) — Short jumpers came off the rim and 3-pointers went in and out. Even free throws were a challenge for Luka Doncic in the deciding game of the NBA Finals.

Dallas needed Doncic and Kyrie Irving to be at their best in Game 5 against the Celtics on Monday night. Instead, the Mavericks’ best players got off to a terrible start, and by the time their shots started falling, the Celtics were on their way to a 106-88 victory and an unprecedented 18th NBA title.

“To fail at this point, it really sucks,” Irving said as the Celtics celebrated in the locker room down the hall. “It’s a bitter feeling because you want to keep playing, and you feel like your best game is coming next and the shots that you’re going to shoot the next game are coming.

“We got to the top of the mountain and we failed. So now we have to start from the bottom, and that should be a source of inspiration,” he said. “It’s going to be a long summer, but I’m looking forward to the start of next season now.”

Doncic missed his first six 3-point attempts and finished 12 of 25 from the floor; by the time he made a 3, Dallas was already down by 21. He scored 28 points – including 10 in the fourth quarter, while Dallas never got closer than 18 points.

He pulled down 12 rebounds but also turned the ball over seven times. He was 2-for-5 from the free throw line, a problem that bothered him throughout the series.

“It just wasn’t our night offensively,” Dallas coach Jason Kidd said after his fifth-seeded team failed to win its second NBA title. “We are a young team. We have a young core, and so it’s an exciting time to be a Mavs fan and also be a coach for the Mavs.

The Slovenian star said injuries – a bruised chest and problems with his right knee and left ankle – were not the problem.

“It doesn’t matter if I was hurt, how hurt I was. I was out there,” he said. “I tried to play, but I didn’t do enough.”

Irving was 3 of 9 from 3-point range and 5 of 16 overall. He had nine assists but 15 points, including six in the fourth quarter, when the game was already out of reach.

“I look at this as an opportunity for us to look at what we did well this year as a group and how Luka and I can be better as leaders of the team,” he said. “When you fail in the final, it’s not something you want to carry over into disappointment or into next season. We worked extremely hard to make the final two teams. We didn’t reach our goal, but we did achieved most of our goal, so this is just the last step we need to get back to, and we know it’s not going to be easy.”

Irving’s failure brought joy to Boston fans, who booed him every time he touched the ball – still angry that he opted out of his contract with the Celtics in 2019. Irving, who admitted this week that the crowd had a “psychological advantage” over him, averaging 14.3 points in the three games in Boston and 28 in the two games in Dallas.

“The crowds can sing whatever they want. When we’re away, they’re obviously going to come against us,” Dallas guard Josh Green said. “He does a great job of not letting himself get affected and I think that goes back to his leadership on and off the field.

“So we have nothing but respect for Kyrie. … We all supported him, that’s for sure.”

Irving and Doncic shared a hug at the end of the game.

“We said, ‘We’ll fight together next season,’ and we’ll just believe it,” Doncic said. “I’m proud of all the guys who stepped on the field, all the coaches, all the people behind it. Obviously we didn’t win the finals, but we had a great season and I’m proud of each and every one of them.

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