Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving silence Celtics legend's wild take

The Dallas Mavericks are one step closer to rallying from 3-0 down after forcing a Game 5 on Friday. Instead of getting swept, the Mavs carried out one of the biggest beatdowns in NBA Finals history, running to a 38-point victory over the Boston Celtics.

Dallas has given fans several reasons to believe that it will make history. It's important for the organization to take it one game at a time and block out the unnecessary outside noise that can pull its attention away from the goal.

Naturally, some people will continue to criticize the Mavs, particularly franchise stars Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. On Friday, though, they did a good job of maintaining their focus.

Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving silence Bob Cousy's wild take with win in Game 4

Among those who have carped at the Mavs duo is Celtics legend Bob Cousy. The 95-year-old icon was ecstatic after the first two games of the Finals, as Boston ran away to a 2-0 series lead. Naturally, he is looking forward to seeing the organization raise its 18th banner to the rafters.

Cousy also had some choice words for the Luka-Kyrie tandem.

He asserted that Irving's non-superstar status had been exposed by the Celtics' defense. The six-time champion even expressed that Boston had been mostly applying single coverage on Irving yet had managed to limit the hard-working ball wizard's production.

On the other hand, Cousy described Doncic as a "truck driver" with amazing athleticism. The 1958 NBA MVP also relayed that the Celtics had successfully forced the Slovenian ace into relying on his step-back 3-pointers, which would bode well for Boston.

For one game, Doncic and Irving proved "The Houdini of Hardwood" wrong.

"Luka Magic" had his way against Boston's formidable defense in the first half of Game 4, when Dallas started running away with the blowout win. He scored 25 points in the first half before finishing with 29. Interestingly, none of those points came from beyond the arc. Furthermore, Doncic had to expend some of his energy on defense, where he proved capable of conquering his weakness.

Meanwhile, Irving followed up his 35-point outing in Game 3 with an efficient 21 points. Eleven of those came in the third quarter, helping the Mavs keep the Celtics at bay. He probably could have scored more had Dallas not won convincingly.

It remains to be seen which between the Mavs and Boston will come out on top in Game 5.

Dallas has to prepare for the opponent's coaching staff to adjust their game plans. Fortunately, the Mavericks have Jason Kidd, whose genius decision helped propel the team to the Game 4 win manning the sidelines. Kidd has been outstanding as a coach during the 2024 NBA Playoffs and all season, and it'll be interesting to see the chess match between him and Joe Mazulla in Game 5.