The 2023-24 Boston Celtics side looked like they were destined to win the title. In the playoffs, after steamrolling through the Heat, Cavaliers, and Pacers, they took on a scary Dallas Mavericks side led by Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. They weren’t really a match either, but in Game 4 of the series, Boston were absolutely decimated, and former Celtic Luke Kornet revisited that day recently.
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The Celtics won the series 4-1, but when they were 3-0 up, the Mavs handed them a colossal beating. Doncic dropped 29 as Dallas won 122-84, which made many in Boston nervous.
Funnily enough, C’s coach Joe Mazzulla apologized to his team after that loss, something Kornet revealed during a recent interview on the White Noise podcast. The now-Spurs star, who was a member of that ’24 championship team, recalled he and the boys feeling on top of the world after winning Game 3, and Mazzulla halting their momentum.
“We finished Game 3 and we won that game in Dallas to go up 3-0, which is a really big moment. We’re back in the locker room and everyone is pretty pumped and hyped. Joe came in and said something like, ‘Why are we celebrating? We haven’t really accomplished anything’ type of thing,” said Kornet.
We always hear the crazy stories about Joe Mazzulla, but it says a lot that this was one of Luke Kornet’s favorites: https://t.co/1aiXedLudW
— Daniel Donabedian (@danield1214) March 16, 2026
That moment of motivation turned the Celtics ice cold. “Game 4 we came out and lost by a billion,” remembered Kornet. “We just got smacked.”
Kornet and everyone on the Celtics just wanted to celebrate the fact that they were running away with the series. They were well aware that it was the Finals, that anything could happen, and that it wasn’t over. So Mazzulla pressing them like that seemed like a buzzkill, almost as if he told them to turn down the music at a loft celebration. Fortunately, it does seem like the veteran coach got his wits about him and apologized to the team, an act that meant a lot to Kornet.
“At some point after that game, he sort of like apologized, recognizing that he completely undercut the emotion of the room after that Game 3. It’s kind of a weird one to point to, but I think that just meant a lot to me in terms of being able to recognize that you made a mistake and just own up to it,” he added.
Accountability goes a long way in life, but especially in sports. Mazzulla stepping up and admitting to his players that that was on him is exactly why Boston bounced right back in Game 5 and ended any chance of a miracle comeback. That’s what champions do, and in the end, Kornet and Mazzulla both got to call themselves one.
But the real lesson here is how Kornet still remembers what was probably a small moment in the grand scheme of that Boston season. It shows that some people can truly be affected by the little things. The good news for Kornet is that he has a chance to win another title this year with San Antonio, and wouldn’t it be poetic if the team they beat was the Celtics.
