Let’s bring out some statistics. The last ten teams who won the first two games on the road had won the series.
And what is the percentage of the teams who are leading 3–0 in their series to clinch it?
Yup, you have it here…. a painful 100%
And so by the looks of it, the 3 – 0 lead in the Eastern Conference Championship of the Boston Celtics is insurmountable (your Bombo Radyo and Star FM analyst had predicted this early in the series); this is also true for the Western Conference Championship.
The Mavericks’ look overpowering during the crucial moments of Game 3, making a decisive 13–3 run in the final minutes of the game to earn their third win for their series and a win shy of being in the finals after thirteen long years. Significantly, Dallas legend Dirk Nowitzki was cheering at the sidelines for this momentous game.
Doncic and Irving, the consistent 1–2 punch of the Mavericks for this series scored 33 points each to power Dallas to such an enviable position where it is in now.
Both Luka (33 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists) and Kyrie (33 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists scoring 14 points in the 4th quarter) totally dominated the acknowledged duo of the Timberwolves.
Anthony Edwards scored 26 points (plus 9 rebounds and 9 assists) but only had four points in the pivotal 4th quarter, controlled well by the Mavericks defense who almost always clogged the lanes and made any drive and past ploy resorted to by the Timberwolves, inutile.
Karl Anthony Towns was once more limited, this time to 14 points, 11 rebounds and 3 assists.
But to show to show how frustrating a night for the Timberwolves duo this was, they were a combined 0 for 10 from the three-point territory.
Towns percentage for the past three games reflect clearly the commanding 3 – 0 lead in the series by the Mavericks: way low at the 30% mark (15 of 54) in terms of field goal percentage while Edwards is just a bit better (22 of 57). Such shooting percentages cannot win a game much more a Championship.
The Timberwolves have the best defense in the league during the regular season. The way they are running it now as well as their offense, it is very clear they have not learnt to throw all the reputations away, to ready for the big league and buckle down to business as the play-offs will always be another matter of its own.
As for the Pacers versus Celtics series? The percentage of winning is nil as far as the NBA records will show.
The fact that Boston can rally from double digits down to beat the Pacers in their home court show what control the Boston Celtics have versus the reputable Number 1 Offensive Team of the League in the Indiana Pacers.
As the Celtics menacingly gnawed at the seemingly big Indiana lead from the third to the fourth quarter of Game 3, you can feel the Pacers panicking while the Celtics are simply all business doing their job.
In both series, composure and experience seemed to matter very much.
The betting would be, will there be a game 5, or will we have a historic sweep in both eastern and western conferences championships?
In Game 4 of both series, we will know.
