Some games will be remembered for the moments that make them memorable.
For the Mavericks’ their win over Boston on Saturday will be a classic in Mavericks’ lore because of Luka Dončić making the game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer.
And the side story will be how Kristaps Porzingis came back so successfully after missing five games with a back injury.
Nobody will remember Tim Hardaway Jr., except the Mavericks who are in the huddle and in the locker room with the veteran swingman.
Hardaway came up with a 15-foot jumper with 4:13 to play that padded the Mavericks’ dwindling lead to 98-94. He then assisted Porzingis on a layup with 2:58 to go that made the score 102-99. The Mavericks were teetering against a rejuvenated Boston team and those plays helped set up the heroics that Dončić would supply at the buzzer.
And you wouldn’t necessarily know it if you looked at the stat sheet and saw Hardaway scored seven points and was 0-for-4 from 3-point range.
“Everybody will look at the points and the first thing they’ll say he didn’t have a good game,” coach Jason Kidd said. “I think he had one of his better all-around games, defensively but also talking. He was very positive, showed great leadership for the 48 minutes. We needed that.”
And, just maybe, Hardaways solid start to the season shooting the 3-pointer rubbed off on his teammates. At the least, the veteran showed something important after averaging 18.7 points in the last three games.
“He just showed it’s not always about scoring,” Kidd said. “You can impact the game other ways and he did that for us today.”
All things are relative: Both coaches were asked before Saturday’s game about the relatively slow starts to the season for the Mavericks’ Luka Dončić and the Celtics’ Jayson Tatum, both multiple-time all-stars despite being in their early 20s.
Bear in mind that Dončić came into Saturday averaging 23.9 points, 8.3 rebounds and 7.1 assists. He was shooting 42.2 percent from the field. Tatum is averaging 22.7 points, 8.1 rebounds and 3.4 assists. He was shooting 37.3 percent from the field.
Mavericks’ coach Jason Kidd said slow starts are in the eye of the beholder.
“For this to be called a slow start for those two, we would all sign up for that,” Kidd said. “Both players are super-talented. They’re going to get their numbers, all-star and MVP numbers.
“Sometimes we want them to be perfect. Basketball’s not perfect. It’s all right to start slow. There’s no panic for Jayson or Luka. Just take one game at a time and learn. And they are young. This will be something they can go back to look at in the years to come, how they started slow.”
Added Boston coach Ime Udoka: “We think that will all balance out soon. The thing I liked in Miami was he (Tatum) still was hunting shots in the second half.”
The superstars always do.
J-Rich return: Josh Richardson came off the bench Saturday evening at American Airlines Center as part of the Boston Celtics.
Last time he was in the building, he had six points in nine minutes in Game 6 of the first-round series against the Los Angeles Clippers.
It was a quick pass through Dallas for Richardson, who averaged 12.1 points but shot just 33 percent from 3-point range in 59 games last season.
He was acquired, ostensibly, for Seth Curry. He was traded this summer to Boston for Moses Brown.
Celtics coach Ime Udoka said the 6-5 Richardson has brought a lot of versatility to Boston, just as he was expected to do with the Mavericks.
“Well rounded in a lot of ways, especially defensively,” Udoka said. “I had him in Philadelphia (when Udoka was an assistant coach), the year before he was here. He guards multiple positions, does a lot of the dirty work that doesn’t show up in the stat sheets.
“He can obviously guard one through three or four and switch, which we like to do a lot. Offensively, he can knock down shots and just be a solid veteran guy off the bench.”
Richardson entered the game midway through the first quarter and finished with 13 points and three assists, along with several key plays in the fourth quarter as the Celtics made their rally.
Briefly: Maxi Kleber remained sidelined with a left oblique muscle strain. The 6-10 Kleber, who was off to a solid start before the injury, is expected to be re-evaluated later this week . . . The Celtics were without Jaylen Brown, who returned to Boston to have his leg examined after injuring it in Orlando Thursday.
Twitter: @ESefko
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