BOSTON – The Mavericks’ flair for strong retorts after suffering a loss in these playoffs abandoned them on Sunday night at TD Garden.
The Boston Celtics took charge in the third quarter and held on for a hard-earned 105-98 victory to take a 2-0 lead in the NBA Finals as the Mavericks lost consecutive games in the playoffs for the first time in this remarkable run.
Teams that win the first two games of the NBA Finals win the series 86.1 percent of the time (31-5). So it’s not a death sentence for the Mavericks.
But they do have work to do. They will be coming home for Games 3 and 4 at American Airlines Center on Wednesday and Friday. And, as the saying goes, a series doesn’t really start until the home team loses.
So far, the Celtics have held serve. Nothing more.
“They haven’t lost a game since May (9th),” coach Jason Kidd said. “They’re hot. Not just on the road. But at home. So we got to protect home. And that’s it. We got to find a way. Our defense put us in position to win tonight. Unfortunately our offense didn’t help us. Defensively, we can build on this. But we got to take care of the ball.”
The Mavericks had 15 turnovers, eight of them by Luka Dončić, who overcame a questionable tag because of a thoracic contusion to post a triple-double.
The Mavericks played well defensively. But they also were stymied by the Celtics and their attention to detail was lacking.
“If we can take care of the ball and not give them live-ball turnovers where they’re just laying the ball up or dunking it, it puts us in a better seat,” Kidd said. “So we just got to take better care of the ball. That’s the next step in the series.
“We’re not down. We’re positive. This is a group that believes. We didn’t get an opportunity to get a split or win two here on the road. So Boston held serve. Now we got to go home and hold serve.”
The Mavericks had fallen behind Sunday in the third quarter, just as they did in Game 1. They stayed within striking range and were down by 10 with under three minutes to go. They made the Celtics sweat with five consecutive points, cutting it to 103-98 when Luka converted a three-point play with 1:15 still showing.
They had a chance to make it even more interesting, but Boston’s Derrick White blocked a P.J. Washington dunk try on the fast break.
“My interpretation? It looked like a foul,” Kidd said. “But it wasn’t called. So it wasn’t a foul.”
Moments later, the Celtics got a layup from Jaylen Brown to close out the scoring and survive the Mavericks’ late push.
Brown had 21 points, but it was Jrue Holiday who anchored the Celtics offensively with 26 points to go with 10 rebounds. Jayson Tatum had 18 points, nine rebounds and 12 assists.
Dončić was outstanding with 32 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists. But the turnovers, plus missing half of his eight free throws, marred an otherwise spectacular night, although he didn’t see it that way.
“We got to make some more shots,” Dončić said. “I think my turnovers and my missed free throws cost us the game. So I got to be way better in those categories. But at the end of the day, we got to make shots to win the game.
“They’re the No. 1 team in the NBA, the No. 1 record. They have a lot of great players. Honestly, I didn’t think we did a bad job defending today. We took away some threes, contested some more threes. But we had a lot of turnovers and missed too many free throws and I think that cost us the game.”
And the Celtics defense certainly had something to do with the Mavericks’ offensive woes. They have scored 89 and 98 points in the two Finals games.
The Mavericks now are 1-5 when they score under 100 points in the playoffs.
“They’re physical,” Luka said. “They try to guard one-on-one and I think today they tried to help more. I was able to get some teammates open. But they are physical. They are very physical. We let them be physical. So they are pretty, pretty amazing on defense.”
That’s something the Mavericks will have to solve when they get to Dallas. And the Celtics have yet to lose on the road in these playoffs (6-0).
The Mavericks had been the surest bet you could think of when coming off a loss in the playoffs. They were 5-0 after a loss coming into Sunday and 3-0 in Game 2s so far this postseason.
They started Sunday’s match like they were determined to keep all those streaks intact.
And the game was there for the taking, until the third quarter.
Coming into the game, Dončić was questionable because of a thoracic contusion. That on top of his knee and ankle issues.
“There actually was (a question about playing),” he said. “I always want to play so all day we did a lot of things to get it ready.”
As he played, he was typically brilliant, apart from the turnovers and missed free throws.
But the same bugaboo that stabbed the Mavericks in Game 1 hit them again.
They were in the thick of a razor-close game midway through the third quarter, but the Celtics caught fire late in the third quarter, just as they had in Game 1.
All it took was a couple of turnovers by Dončić and some off-target shots to spring the Celtics, who put together a 13-4 surge to go ahead 80-67. The Mavericks rallied and appeared to be regaining some momentum when they got it within 80-74 with under 4 seconds left in the third.
But Payton Pritchard took the inbound pass after two free throws and raced just past the midcourt line and let fly a three-pointer that jolted the Mavericks and sent the TD Garden crowd into delirium.
X: @ESefko
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