Where does the Mavs’ Game 4 victory figure in Boston Celtics’ biggest defeats?

The Boston Celtics were just one victory away from achieving glory in Dallas but the thrill of being so close to lifting their 18th trophy seemed to have had the opposite effect on Joe Mazzulla’s team. The Cs not only suffered their heaviest defeat since 1995 but also lost by the third biggest margin ever recorded in an NBA final series.

Doncic destroys the Celtics

Led by the talismanic Luka Doncic, the Mavericks took the game 84-122 - winning by a staggering 38-point margin - that is an astonishing difference when you compare it to the other games in this series: the Celtics won Game 1 by +18 points and Games 2 and 3 both by +7 points. Or even Boston’s biggest defeats of the last few years.

The Celtics suffered a 102-135 regular season loss to the Bucks back on 11 January. That 33-point margin signified Boston’s 15th heaviest defeat in franchise history and up until last night, equaled the worst reverse suffered by the team during the last seven years.

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What is Boston Celtics biggest ever defeat?

It’s a long way off Boston’s most humiliating defeat on record. On 31 January 2003 at the FleetCenter, the Celtics were thrashed 118-66 by Detroit Pistons in front of their own shell shocked fans. Richard Hamilton and Chauncey Billups had a field day ripping Boston’s defense to shreds and posting almost half of Detroit’s points tally.

That surpassed the 124-77 defeat to the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference first round in April 1995 - a harrowing defeat by 47 points in which all of the home team’s starters ended on double figures.

A few years later, the Washington Wizards came within two points of matching that deficit. It ended 114-69 with Jerry Stackhouse sinking 10 from 10 from the free-throw line. To this day it remains Boston’s third heaviest defeat in their 78-year history.