MONDAY, MAY 23 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 D5
BY SCHUYLER DIXONdallas — Stephen Curry scored
31 points, Andrew Wiggins add-
ed 27 while posterizing Luka
Doncic on a dunk, and the Gold-
en State Warriors beat the Dallas
Mavericks, 109-100, on Sunday
night for a 3-0 lead in the
Western Conference finals.
Klay Thompson scored 19 with
a pair of big fourth-quarter
three-pointers as the Warriors
moved within a victory of a
return to the NBA Finals, three
years after the end of a run of five
consecutive trips that yielded
three championships.
Golden State, which swept
Portland in its most recent West
finals in 2019 before Toronto
won the title, goes for the sweep
in Game 4 on Tuesday in Dallas.
No team has rallied from 3-0
down to win an NBA playoff
series.
Doncic scored 40 and beat the
first-quarter buzzer with a
3 2-footer that got the crowd
going with the Mavericks again
at home trailing 2-0 as they did
against top-seeded Phoenix be-
fore winning the West semifinal
series in seven games.
But that shimmy-inducing
bucket was a blip on an other-
wise rough night from three-
point range for the Mavericks,
who missed their first seven and
finished 13 for 45.
Reggie Bullock and Maxi Kle-
ber, two long-range specialists
for Dallas, missed all 12 of theirthrees combined and were 0 for
15 overall. Both went scoreless,
offsetting Spencer Dinwiddie’s
26 points off the bench. Jalen
Brunson scored 20.
Wiggins’s dunk over Doncic
was originally ruled an offensive
foul midway through the fourth
quarter. The Warriors chal-
lenged, and the ruling was Wig-
gins’s elbow to Doncic was inci-
dental contact, giving Golden
State a 93-83 lead.
About a minute later, Wiggins,
who had 11 rebounds, moved
quickly down the right baseline
for a follow dunk on a miss by
Curry as the Warriors extended
their NBA record with a
26th consecutive series in which
they won at least one road game.
One of Dinwiddie’s three-
pointers got Dallas within five
points with 1:15 remaining, but
Jordan Poole answered with one
from the left wing just inside the
final minute.
The most tense moment of the
series came late in the first half
after a corner three from Curry
capped an 8-0 run that put the
Warriors in front by a point and
helped them to a 48-47 halftime
lead. And it left Curry confused.
Curry ran the length of the
court with his tongue hanging
out after Dallas called a timeout.
As he circled back toward his
bench, Curry walked by Doncic
with teammate Juan Toscano-
Anderson nearby.
Doncic appeared to take issue
with something Toscano-Ander-
son said and started toward the
Golden State bench before offi-
cials along with coaches and
players from both teams inter-
vened.NBA PLAYOFFSGolden State on the cuspof another trip to FinalsWARRIORS 109,
MAVERICKS 100TONY GUTIERREZ/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Andrew Wiggins’s dunk over Luka Doncic — c alled an offensive
foul and then overturned — highlighted another Warriors victory.paralyzed in pain, Tatum never
made it down the court after he
lost the ball to Lowry. And he
didn’t get back up when his
teammates got a stop and hurried
back to the offensive end.
Instead, he hurled his leg in the
air, twisting himself to lay on his
left side while holding his right
shoulder.
Following the game, Tatum
would say the stinger he felt had
originated in his neck and
traveled down his arm. He, too,
disappeared into the tunnel and
headed to a back room where the
medical staff “ran some tests.”
Then, just like his teammate,
Tatum made a triumphant
return. Celtics fans again
drenched their man with their
shocked appreciation.
As the Heat and Celtics
prepare for Game 4, the
protagonists are looking more
like Willis Reed impersonators
than modern-day millionaires
accustomed to load management.
They’re playing through injuries
and reminding us of the limits
they’re willing to push just to
make it to June. Their pain isn’t
pretty, but they’re creating a
memorable series that deserves
our respect — and maybe its own
insurance plan.sideline. When fans inside the
sold-out arena looked up and saw
their hero on the overhead
scoreboard, their roars seemed to
collectively express: What?!?
How!??!?
How in the world was Smart
back on the floor? And checking
into the game? And moving
laterally on defense? And then on
the other end, catching a pass in
the left corner, pump-faking to
his right to elude Victor Oladipo
(a good defender, by the way) and
drilling a three-pointer to cut the
lead to 10?
Credit the magic of modern
medicine — or Lucky’s healing
powers — but Smart showed no
noticeable shuffle in his gait as he
tracked Tyler Herro, boxed out
Bam Adebayo and goaded
offensive fouls (see also: flopped)
against any Heat player who
forgot to read the scouting
report. A lesser person, lacking a
team of trained medical
professionals paid to obsess over
their body parts, would have been
crying alone in the fetal position
— not finishing the game with
16 points in nearly 37 minutes of
action.
Tatum’s apparent shoulder
injury in the fourth quarter
seemed just as dramatic. Soturned it over 24 times Saturday
— the players have forced us to
marvel at their strength,
endurance and particularly high
thresholds for pain.
It started in the opener, when
Heat forward P.J. Tucker left the
court with an ankle injury that
looked bad enough to at least
keep him in the trainer’s room for
the rest of the game. But he
wouldn’t allow his rolled ankle to
have the final word and came
back to play 31 minutes in the
Heat’s win.
“There’s a genie back there,”
Tucker said after the game,
explaining how he healed so
quickly. “Took one of my wishes.”
If Tucker needed a genie, then
maybe Lucky, the Celtics’ mascot,
sprinkled magic dust on Smart’s
foot after his fall. Early in the
third quarter Saturday night, as
Smart attacked the glass for a
rebound, he and Lowry collided,
and his foot landed in a way that
a human foot shouldn’t.
Smart couldn’t put weight on
the ankle as the trainers flanked
him on both sides and helped
him off the court. But there he
was, just a few minutes later,
hobbling through the hallway, a
camera capturing his steps as he
made his way back to the Celtics’Celtics’ heartbeat, needed help
from the trainers to leave the
floor after a gruesome-looking
injury to his ankle. Later, Celtics
forward Jayson Tatum splayed
across the floor as his right
shoulder throbbed in pain.
Despite their howls and grimaces
as they exited the court, both
Boston players would return for
more punishment. All of this
happened on a Saturday night
that started with the news of
Boston center Robert Williams
III having to miss the game with
left knee soreness.
So after the Heat’s 109-103
victory, a few things were evident.
One: Neither head coach
seemed particularly interested in
pretending to have a medical
degree or a sixth sense, so both
took a minimalist route in
providing prognoses.
“I do not have any updates on
anybody. We’re just going to go
back to our cave and just recoup,
and maybe I’ll have some
information for you [Sunday],”
Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra said.
And two: On Monday night,
when the teams meet again,
someone in the training rooms of
TD Garden better have Tylenol
(or something stronger) on deck.
Maybe even Paul Pierce’s old
wheelchair.
As for the players themselves,
they will need to come prepared
with ankles made of steel and
adrenaline on a 10. And tape. Lots
of athletic tape.
“You know, injuries are a part
of the game,” said Heat point
guard Kyle Lowry, who made his
series debut Saturday night after
he missed the previous four
playoff games with an ailing left
hamstring. “That’s the part that
sucks about the game, the
injuries, and you know, this is
tough.”
If you’re anything like Lowry —
and not a sicko who could
stomach watching the replay of
Smart’s injury more than once —
you also detest injuries. But at
least in this series, the Heat and
Celtics are turning pain into an
art form.
Granted, any game loses
appeal when a superstar such as
Butler can play only limited
minutes. And it’s no fun hearing
the court microphones pick up
Smart’s anguish as he squirms on
the baseline. However, when so
much about this series fails to
meet the normal standard of
postseason aesthetics — the
Celtics treat the basketball as if
it’s a plate that has just been
nuked in a microwave; they
BUCKNER FROM D1
CANDACE BUCKNER
Injuries in Boston-Miami series seem to hurt so good
WINSLOW TOWNSON/GETTY IMAGES
Boston Celtics fans cheered wildly as Marcus Smart (36) returned to the court after an ugly ankle injury.with 38.9 seconds remaining and
essentially put the game away.
“It’s been new,” Meesseman
said of playing in Chicago. “I had
to step a little bit out of my
comfort zone. That’s what it was
for — prove [to] myself as a
person. And it’s been good so far.”Bench struggles
The Mystics’ reserve unit has
been one of their strong points,
but it struggled Sunday. The
bench scored 11 points against
the Sky, with nine coming from
Elizabeth Williams. Thibault
said his substitution patterns
didn’t feel good, either. “We’ve
gotten spoiled by them a little
bit,” he said. “Tonight it didn’t
work.”Lineup shuffle
Mystics rookie Shakira Austin
(14 points, five rebounds, three
assists) made her second straight
start and her third of the season.
Her previous two came on sched-
uled days off for Delle Donne, but
this time they started side-by-
side.
Hines-Allen moved to the
bench and was held scoreless in
11 minutes. Thibault said she’s
struggling to find her rhythm
and thinks a quadriceps contu-
sion is still bothering her.
Kennedy Burke (nine points,
six rebounds) got her first start
with Washington as Alysha Clark
(foot) had a scheduled rest day.Sun rises early in easy win
Alyssa Thomas and Brionna
Jones scored 18 points each, and
the Connecticut Sun breezed to a
victory over the Indiana Fever,
92-70, in Indianapolis.
Thomas added six rebounds
and six assists for Connecticut
(4-1), which jumped out to a
26-15 lead after the first quarter
and never looked back. Courtney
Williams scored 15, and Jonquel
Jones pitched in with 13 points
and nine boards.
Victoria Vivians topped Indi-
ana (2-6) with 15 points, while
Emily Engstler scored 11 with
eight rebounds.Meesseman joked that Hines-
Allen’s taste in food has im-
proved; Hines-Allen found her in
a hallway postgame to challenge
that assertion in a spur-of-the
moment faux interview. Meesse-
man finished with 11 points and
four rebounds; she made a jump-
er to give Chicago an 80-71 leadwith another WNBA team for the
first time. The 2013 draft pick sat
out 2021 amid national team
obligations in Belgium and then
signed with the Sky in the offsea-
son. The Mystics’ Myisha Hines-
Allen took her out to eat Satur-
day, and those two and Atkins
had a group hug after the game.When you do that with a team of
their caliber, with their length,
with their skill set, it’s not going
to be pretty.”
Here’s what else to know about
the Mystics’ loss:Welcome back
Meesseman returned to D.C.allowing each of us to get into
our own heads and being on our
own islands and not still playing
through it and playing together.
“I think that was probably the
biggest issue, just kind of all of us
being like, ‘Oh, God, I’m missing
shots.’ And then it turns into
playing too much one-on-one....the first time this season, the Sky
looked the part of reigning
champion during an 82-73 win in
which the Mystics floundered
offensively.
“That was pretty ugly,” Coach
Mike Thibault said. “I don’t have
a lot of good things to say. Our
offense is just not smooth at all
right now.... We didn’t have a
good shooting night. We didn’t
recognize sometimes how we
were being played, necessarily.
Some of our turnovers in the first
half, we threw the ball into a
crowd.... That was a good game
to get some lessons from, too.”
Parker became the third play-
er in WNBA history with multi-
ple triple-doubles and the first
with more than one in the regu-
lar season. She finished with
16 points, 13 rebounds and 10 as-
sists. Delle Donne countered
with 17 points, seven rebounds,
three steals, two assists and a
blocked shot.
During one third-quarter se-
quence, Delle Donne made a
three-pointer in Parker’s face,
then buried another on the next
possession to give Washington
the lead. Parker responded with
a three-pointer of her own to
snatch the advantage back for
Chicago.
Copper made her season de-
but after returning from over-
seas and posted 12 points and
four rebounds as the Sky shot
54 percent. Ariel Atkins scored a
game-high 20 for the Mystics,
and Natasha Cloud had 10 as-
sists.
The Mystics (5-2) shot just
37.5 percent but used a 13-7 run
in the third quarter to take a
55-53 lead. The Sky (3-2) closed
the quarter with an 8-0 stretch
that expanded to 21-5 in the
fourth. Washington never got
closer than seven points the rest
of the way. Delle Donne said the
defense got disjointed, which
slowed the Mystics’ offense.
“There’s going to be some
games where shots don’t fall,”
Delle Donne said. “It’s just not
MYSTICS FROM D1
Mystics fall to 5-2 with ‘ugly’ loss at home against Chicago
KATHERINE FREY/THE WASHINGTON POST
Ariel Atkins scored a team-best 20 points, but the Mystics struggled offensively Sunday afternoon, shooting just 37.5 percent from the field.