PROVINCETOWN — George’s Pizza is packed on a rainy Friday night for Game 4 of the NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks. A man at the end of the bar grips his pint-sized iced cocktail. A bartender slices an orange, checking the TV over his shoulder. Art writer and curator Helen Molesworth arrives with her signature pixie cut and glasses just in time for the tipoff. She settles into a ruby-red booth surrounded by twinkling Christmas lights — still up in June.

Molesworth, originally from Forest Hills, N.Y., was chief curator of the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art and then of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles — until she was abruptly fired for “creative differences.” She is outspoken about the lack of diversity in arts institutions.

She moved to Boston in 2006. “It was an easy year to become a Celtics fan,” she says. “Rondo, Pierce, Allen, Garnett, Big Baby. Rondo was my guy.”

The Celtics are up 3-0 and looking to sweep. Molesworth doesn’t drink alcohol — she sips a club soda as the game begins. In her view, the Celtics’ success thus far is about two things. “One: the most devastating passing game — they’re willing to pass the ball and go for a better shot,” she says, “and two: all five starters plus the bench can shoot threes.”

Guard Jrue Holiday’s defense has carried the Celtics in this series, she says. “He has an uncanny sixth sense,” says Molesworth. “He knows where people are going to be before they get there. He’s often waiting for the ball in a very opportune place.”

Molesworth now spends half the year in Provincetown and half in L.A. She and her wife, art historian Susan Dackerman, live a quiet life here. “We’re up early and on the beach,” she says. They have been coming to Provincetown for 25 years and bought a home in the East End two years ago.

“I wrote so many essays here over the years — this is my writing place,” she says. “It’s been like that for so many people before me. Time is a little different out here.”

Since moving here, she has discovered a whole new part of Provincetown — “the town part of town, not the National Park part,” she says as the Celtics win the tipoff and the ball goes to Jayson Tatum.

“We’re watching people at the absolute top of their game — people so good at a thing you can’t even approach their level of expertise,” she says.

Molesworth, the author of Open Questions: Thirty Years of Writing About Art (2023), sees a connection between great basketball players and great artists. “Intelligence, intuition, practice, and commitment — when you’re in the hands of a great artist, it’s similar,” she says as Tatum readies himself for a free throw.

Dallas forward Derrick Jones Jr. drives to the hoop. “Look at that, plus English!” says Molesworth. “He just went through three huge guys and he’s corkscrewing up into a narrow space and off the glass. The amount of knowledge in that space right there is extraordinary.

“To me, that’s like thinking about sculpture: How is he making that space, defending that space? What’s he doing with the props in that space? It’s a similar muscle.

“The moves are in response to a lot of different stimuli that the players can’t control. But they can be prepared. They know who their opponents are. That’s the practice part — like how an artist in the studio is able to practice. Part of their practice is going into that space.”

Dallas guard Kyrie Irving races down the court. “Kyrie really has the globetrotter vibe,” says Molesworth. “Even the beard is like an old-school ’70s beard.”

Molesworth’s favorite Celtic is Jaylen Brown because of his elegant play. “He just seems so intelligent,” she says, “the kind of shots he takes. He’s a great passer.” Brown is known as the NBA’s renaissance man — he was in the middle of a summer robotics class at M.I.T. when his agents secured a $304-million contract last July, the largest in NBA history.

With the Mavericks up 25-14, Dallas guard Luka Dončić faces up on a defender and shoots a fade-away jumper. He gets fouled. “No one understands Dončić,” says Molesworth. “First of all, he’s husky. It looks like he just finished eating hot dogs and beer. Yet, he’s got the best numbers in the league.”

During a timeout, Molesworth considers who is more competitive: the artist or the NBA athlete. “It’s difficult,” she says. “Artists can be very competitive with each other, but at the end of the day there is no such thing as a stat. There’s no way to measure who the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) is.” Artists compete over who gets seen, who gets in the zone, and who has a run of making great work.

“There’s a different kind of competition between artists,” says Molesworth. “Someone does something great in their studio. The other artist is like, ‘I need to get back in my studio.’ It becomes a question of who is making better work and who is coasting.”

Al Horford argues a call and Dallas goes up 34-21. Molesworth takes a sip of her club soda. “They’re rattled,” she says of the Celtics. “That’s the biggest lead Dallas has had the whole series.”

In Open Questions, Molesworth writes about how her brain goes “curiously quiet” in front of a work of art. “Being with the art is quiet for me,” she says. People standing front of a work and talking about it is not her style. “In front of the thing my mouth is filled with marbles. I don’t know what I think. The writing and talking comes later.

“I love a Q and A,” she adds. “I’m so curious about what people think — how the conversation gets punctured all of a sudden.” Tatum gets charged with an offensive foul for barreling into Irving. “I think Kyrie played that he was knocked off balance and exaggerated it,” says Molesworth.

“Dallas is on quite the run,” she says as Dončić steps to the free-throw line and puts the Mavericks up 43-25.

On the other end, Boston’s Derrick White airballs a three-pointer from the top of the key. “Did you see how he just pulled up and took that shot?” says Molesworth, exasperated. “That’s not their game. The more people touch that ball the better off they are.”

Dončić strikes again. “A classic step-back fade-away jumper and BAM!” says Molesworth. “Look at the long arc on that shot.”

Molesworth left the pizza shop at halftime to go home and celebrate the completion of Dackerman’s new book, Dürer’s Knots: Early European Print and the Islamic East, which will be published by Princetown University Press in September. She didn’t miss any late Celtics heroics in the second half: they ended up losing Game 4 122-84.

But Boston went on to win its 18th NBA championship in Game 5 on Monday night, 106-88. Jayson Tatum led the Celtics with 31 points, 11 assists, and 8 rebounds, and Jaylen Brown had 31 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists. Brown was named Finals MVP.