Jrue Holiday supplied the points. Derrick White included a block for a chase-down. Additionally contributing with their passing and defence were Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
The Mavericks don’t need to worry about identifying Boston’s top player anymore. With every effort put out by the team, the Celtics are getting closer to winning an incredible 18 NBA titles.
With Holiday scoring 26 points and pulling down 11 rebounds, White raced down the court to deny Dallas a last-gasp opportunity to tie the game at one, and Boston defeated the Mavericks 105-98 on Sunday night to grab a 2-0 lead in the NBA Finals.
“I’m really tired of hearing about one guy or this guy or that guy and everybody trying to make it out to be anything other than Celtic basketball,” Boston coach Joe Mazzulla said. “Everybody that stepped on that court today made winning plays on both ends of the floor.”
Tatum added 12 assists, 9 rebounds, and 18 points to make up for a poor shooting performance. Brown scored 21 with three steals, White had 18 points and three steals, and Peyton Pritchard’s only basket of the game was a banked half-courter to beat the third quarter buzzer and give Boston an 83-74 lead.
“That’s why they are the No. 1 team in the NBA with the No. 1 record,” said Mavericks star Luka Doncic, who scored 32 with 11 rebounds and 11 assists — the first NBA Finals triple-double in Dallas franchise history. “They have a lot of great players. Basically, anybody can get off.”
Doncic, who was listed as questionable to play less than two hours before the opening tipoff, had his 10th career playoff triple-double. But he scored only three points in the fourth, converting a three-point play with 1:15 left as Dallas scored nine in a row to cut a 14-point deficit to 103-98.
After Derrick Jones Jr. blocked Tatum’s dunk attempt, White ran down the court to block — along with Brown — P.J. Washington’s potential dunk. Brown made a layup at the other end, and then Doncic missed a one-footed, running floater from 3-point range with 28 seconds left, ending Dallas’ last chance at a comeback.
“He was great,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. “Luka is a special player — if not the best player in the world — and he causes a problem. … He’s able to create open opportunities and we just didn’t take advantage of them.”
Dallas will host Games 3 and 4 on Wednesday and Friday. Boston has not lost on the road this postseason, but the Mavericks need to snap that streak to avoid a sweep and earn a trip back to the Boston Garden, where the local fans are already making space in the rafters for another banner.
It was the ninth time the Celtics have won the opening pair in the NBA Finals. They have won the last eight and have never needed to go to a seventh game in any of those victories.
Boston demonstrated why it doesn’t matter a day after Kidd tried to incite conflict in the Celtics locker room by designating Brown as the team’s top player rather than Tatum, an All-NBA first-team player.
Leading-ranked Boston managed just 12 points from a hobbled Kristaps Porzingis. The Celtics were 10 for 39 from long range overall; Tatum was 6 for 22 from the field and 1 of 7 from 3-point range.
Kyrie Irving scored 16 points; he has lost 12 straight games against the Celtics and has been the target of hostility from the local fans ever since he ended his 2019 season in Boston.
The Celtics missed their first eight long range shots on Sunday, in contrast to their 7–15 performance from 3-point range in the first quarter of their 107–89 triumph in Game 1. For the entire first quarter, Dallas was ahead.
Tatum started the game without scoring any points and had just five at the half, when he was still 0 for 3 from three-point range. Peyton Pritchard banked in a half-court shot at the third-quarter buzzer to give Boston an 83-74 lead, but Boston was still just 5 for 30 from long range.
That thrilled the audience, who had mostly been booing and chanting semi-vulgar things at Irving. Irving shook his head in response to the jeers.