BOSTON – And it all happened so fast.
One minute, forward P.J. Washington was firing up a three-pointer while trying to put the Dallas Mavericks up by one point over the Boston Celtics with a little over five minutes remaining in the third quarter. A millisecond later, the Celtics were up by 21 points and cruising to a 138-110 victory Friday night at TD Garden.
A barrage of three-pointers by the Celtics, combined with too many missed shots at crucial moments by Dallas, helped do in the Mavs in a game that tested how well they can perform against one of the NBA’s elite teams. In the end, the Celtics improved to 47-12 overall and 28-3 at home while revealing to anyone who was watching nationally on ESPN why they are the most prolific team in the NBA.
“This is the best team in the NBA,” Mavs point guard Luka Doncic said in describing the Celtics. “I think we played great for three quarters, but it’s tough to win here, especially against this team at this point.”
The watershed moment for the Mavs came when they were trailing, 81-79, and – with a chance to take the lead for the first time since the first quarter — Washington missed a three pointer. From there, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum drilled back-to-back three-pointers and Boston was off to the races.
Former Mavs center Kristaps Porzingis scored two hoops in a row. An offensive rebound and put-back bucket by Al Horford and a three-pointer by Tatum padded Boston’s lead to 102-90 after three quarters.
A short time later, the dam busted when Derrick White, Payton Pritchard and Horford each buried three-pointers as the Celtic lead swelled to 127-103 with 3:55 left.
In this measuring-stick game for Dallas, the Mavs fell short and finished this four-game road trip 1-3 while also dropping to 34-36 overall going into Sunday’s noon game at American Airlines Center against the Philadelphia 76ers.
“They don’t panic,” Kidd said of the Celtics. “There’s no stress. They’re going to continue to keep playing the way they do, sharing the ball.
“It’s very rare in this league to see a team like that with five shooters.”
The Celtics shot 55.3 percent from the field and converted 21-of-43 three-pointers for 48.8 percent.
“They’re an amazing team,” said Mavs rookie center Dereck Lively II, who finished with 15 points and two steals. “I think one-through-nine can shoot threes.
“Being able to go against a team like that is hard. We definitely tried to really limit the amount of threes they had. We were trying to make their threes as hard as possible.”
Former Mav Porzingis got things going on the right path for the Celtics by scoring 13 of his 24 points in the first quarter, including four three-pointers. He finished the night 8-of-14 from the field, including 4-of-8 from downtown.
“He can shoot the three, he can put the ball on the floor (and) he gets to the free throw line,” Kidd said. “Defensively, he can change or block shots, and he also can rebound.
“And he plays with another big. It’s a great pickup and he’s had an incredible season for them.”
Tatum came into Friday’s game seventh in the league in scoring at 27 points per contest, but only had a pair of free throws in the first quarter.
From there, Tatum got cooking with 30 of his 32 points over the final three quarters. And with Brown adding 25 points, seven rebounds and five assists, the Celtics settled into a groove and the Mavs were unable to capitalize on the opportunities that were presented to them.
“They’re a very good team,” Kidd said. “At the half they had made 10 threes. I thought we did a little bit better there in the third quarter. But if you don’t take advantage of a couple of possessions, they can hurt you, and that’s what they did there in the fourth.
“It wasn’t the game that we wanted, but we learned a lot about ourselves. We got some things we got to correct, but it’s going in the right direction.
We’re closer than we think from the scores, but again, if they make a mistake you got to take advantage and we just didn’t do that.”
Dončić continued to display his brilliance as he collected his second straight triple-double, the 12th of the season and the 68th of his illustrious career. Dončić finished with 37 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists and was 14-of-25 from the field.
Kyrie Irving scored 19 points for the Mavs and was only 9-of-23 from the field. And the Mavs got help from Washington (17 points, seven rebounds).
But it wasn’t enough as the Celtics brought way too much heat for the Mavs to overcome.
“I think we played very good basketball for three quarters,” Dončić said. “They made 21 threes.”
And those threes were back-breakers, particularly when the Mavs played solid defense only to see a Celtic shake free and drain a wide-open shot from downtown.
“You can’t have empty possessions against them, and then you can’t have breakdowns defensively against them or they’re going to make you pay for it from the three-point line, and that’s what they did,” Kidd said. “It’s a two-point game and they kind of walked away from us with our mistakes on 
both ends. Give them credit. They’re a very good team.”
Boston led 38-32 after the first quarter and 66-59 at intermission. The Celtics were just too strong, too consistent and too cagey on this night.
“We were trying to get to certain spots, we were trying to get certain shots, we were trying to get different matchups,” Lively said. “In games like that, we’ve got to be able to just stay focused.”
The fact the Mavs missed 25 of their 34 attempts from three-point land and also got out-rebounded, 47-42, didn’t help Dallas’ cause. In the meantime, Kidd was asked how does his team stack up against a Celtic team with the NBA’s best won-loss record.
“I think that we can compete with the best,” Kidd said. “Not looking at the score, we truly believe that we have the talent to compete. It’s just being consistent and understanding it is hard to win in this league. It’s hard to beat teams in this league.
“You don’t have to play perfect, but you have to stay together, you have to stay consistent, and that’s what we’re fighting to do right now just like everyone else in this league.”
Although this was the final game of a four-game, week-long road trip when legs often get heavy and the attention is sometimes on just wanting to get back home, the Mavs put up a good fight before things went south.
“We were focused,” Kidd said. “We did some good things. We got to go back and look at it on film.
“Unfortunately, we won’t have time to practice, because we have a 12 o’clock game on Sunday. It is what it is. This is a quick turn around coming from the East Coast and then playing Sunday at noon. It’s tough.”
X: @DwainPrice
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