Boston — Jrue Holiday provided the scoring. Derrick White added a chase-down block. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown also contributed — with their passing and defense.
The Mavericks should stop worrying about who Boston’s best player is. Every player the Celtics have in the game is helping them win an unprecedented 18th NBA championship.
Holiday scored 26 points and 11 rebounds, and White ran down the court to capitalize on Dallas’ last chance on Sunday night that turned the game into a one-sided one, and Boston beat the Mavericks 105-98 to take 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 this something other than Celtics basketball,” Boston coach Joe Mazzulla said. “Everybody that stepped on that court today made winning plays on both ends of the floor.”
Tatum made up for a poor shooting night by scoring 18 points with 12 assists and nine rebounds. Brown scored 21 points with three steals, White had 18 points and three steals, and Peyton Pritchard’s only basket of the game was a banked half-courter that beat the third quarter buzzer to give Boston an 83–74 lead.
“That’s why they’re 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 over.”
Doncic, who was listed as questionable to play less than two hours before the opening tipoff, had the 10th playoff triple-double of his career. But he scored only three points in the fourth, converting a three-point play with 1:15 left as Dallas scored nine consecutive points to cut a 14-point deficit to 103-98.
After Tatum’s dunk attempt was blocked by Derrick Jones Jr., White ran across the court and stopped the ball Brown followed by a potential dunk by P.J. Washington. Brown made a layup on the other end and then Doncic missed a one-legged running floater from 3-point range with 28 seconds left, ending Dallas’ last chance for a comeback.
“He was fantastic,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. “Luka is a special player — even if he’s not the best player in the world — and he creates a problem. … He’s able to create open opportunities and we just couldn’t take advantage of them.”
Games 3 and 4 will be in Dallas on Wednesday and Friday. Boston hasn’t lost on the road this postseason, but the Mavericks need to break that streak to avoid a sweep and get back to Boston Garden, where local fans are already making room in the rafters for another banner.
This was the ninth time the Celtics won the opening pairing in the NBA Finals. They have won the last eight, and have not been forced to a Game 7 in any of them.
A day after Kidd attempted to sow discord in the Celtics locker room when he named Brown the team’s best player — not Tatum, an All-NBA first-teamer — Boston showed it didn’t matter.
Kristaps Porzingis scored 12 points for top-seeded Boston. Tatum made 6 of 22 shots and 1 of 7 from 3-point range; the Celtics made 10 of 39 shots from long range overall.
Kyrie Irving, who has drawn the animosity of local fans since cutting his stay in Boston short in 2019, scored 16 points; he has lost 12 consecutive games against the Celtics.
Unlike the 107-89 win in Game 1, when Boston shot 7 of 15 from 3-point range in the first quarter to take a 17-point lead, the Celtics missed their first eight attempts from long distance on Sunday. Dallas held the lead throughout the first quarter.
Tatum went scoreless in the first quarter and had just five at halftime, while he was still 0 of 3 from 3-point range. Boston still made just 5 of 30 from long distance when Peyton Pritchard banked in a half-courter at the third quarter buzzer to give Boston an 83-74 lead.
This agitated the crowd, which had previously spent much of its time jeering Irving with boos and semi-obscene chants. Irving acknowledged the taunting by shaking his head.
