Saturday afternoon’s game between the Dallas Mavericks and Boston Celtics is not just another regular-season contest.
No one would buy that description anyway since it was the Celtics who defeated the Mavs in five games in last season’s NBA Finals. But Mavs forward P. J. Washington did say:
“We know what happened last year. But it’s a regular-season game and we try to go out there and do our jobs.
“I’m not really worried about it. Every single one of (the games) are circled for me.”
This is the first meeting between the Mavs and Celtics since they faced each other in last year’s Finals. Back then, the Celtics won the first two games of that best-of-seven series in Boston — 107-89 and 105-98 – then took a 3-0 lead after winning Game 3 in Dallas, 106-99.
The Mavs avoided a series sweep by claiming Game 4 in blowout fashion, 122-84. But the Celtics closed out the series at home by winning Game 5, 106-88.
Coach Jason Kidd’s squad will host the Celtics after coming off arguably their grandest victory of the season. Playing at Oklahoma City on the second night of a back-to-back – and with half of their team unable to play because of injury or illness – the Mavs totally shocked and defeated the Thunder, 121-115.
OKC entered that game tied with Cleveland for the best record in the entire NBA. But the Mavs have proven that this Red River shootout is totally tilted in their favor.
In fact, no other team has beaten OKC more than once this season. The Thunder are 35-5 against the rest of the NBA this season, but are only 1-3 against the Mavs.
Kidd said he’s not looking ahead to possibly playing the Thunder in the playoffs after they also eliminated OKC in the second round of last season’s postseason.
“We won’t look that far ahead,” Kidd said. “We got to get ready for Boston. Hopefully we get healthy.
“But it is a good win coming off of a back-to-back. This is something for us to build on and hopefully we can get better from it.”
Although the Celtics own the third-best record in the NBA, they’ve stumbled a bit lately while producing only a 10-9 record in their last 19 games. Boston’s miseries started when they lost at home to Chicago, 117-108, on Dec. 19 after the Bulls outscored them, 35-22, in the fourth quarter.
Since then, the list of Boston losses includes Sacramento (114-97) and Atlanta (119-115 in overtime), both at home, and at Toronto (110-97) and Thursday at the Los Angeles Lakers (117-96).
Kidd is hopeful of getting some of his players who are injured or sick back to play this matinee game against the Celtics. In the meantime, players and coaches always salivate at the opportunity to play against a team who fans and the media believe are one of the best the NBA has to offer.
“It’s always measuring,” Kidd said. “We can look at different things to see how the young players handle the situation.”
In other words, this is not just another regular season game.
Here are some other nuggets surrounding Saturday’s game between the Mavs and Celtics.
*After Saturday’s home game against Boston and Monday’s home game against Washington, the Mavs will hit the road for a season-long five-game road trip that starts Wednesday at New Orleans then moves on to 
Detroit on Friday, Cleveland on Feb. 2, Philadelphia on Feb. 4, and Boston on Feb. 6 before the Mavs return home to entertain Houston on Feb. 8.
*For the Celtics, this is the finale of a four-game trip. Behind 22 points and nine rebounds from Jayson Tatum, the Celtics drilled the Golden State Warriors on Monday, 125-85. It was the worst home loss for Golden State since Steve Kerr started coaching the Warriors in 2014. Boston also won in Los Angeles on Wednesday against the Clippers, 117-113 in overtime, before losing in Los Angeles on Thursday against the Lakers (117-96).
*The injury-riddled Mavs will be without Luka Dončić (left calf strain), Dereck Lively II (right ankle stress fracture), Naji Marshall (illness), Dwight Powell (right hip strain) and Dante Exum (right wrist surgery) against the Celtics, while Klay Thompson (left ankle sprain) and Jaden Hardy (right ankle sprain) are listed as questionable.
*Three members of the Celtics were part of the prestigious 12-man USA Olympic team who won a gold medal at the Paris Olympics last summer. That list oddly did not include Jaylen Brown, who was the Most Valuable Player of last season’s NBA Finals and also the MVP of last season’s Eastern Conference Finals. The list did 
include Jayson Tatum, Jrue Holiday and Derrick White.
*Because of a slew of injuries that have forced them to go deep into their bench, the Mavs have been forced to play players meaningful minutes who normally don’t receive a lot of playing time. But young thoroughbreds Olivier-Maxence Prosper, Kessler Edwards and Brandon Williams were impressive in Thursday’s win over the Oklahoma City Thunder. Prosper collected 14 points in 21 minutes, Edwards started and contributed seven points and four rebounds in 23 minutes, and Williams added two points, three rebounds and three assists in only eight minutes.
*Celtics forward Jayson Tatum was voted Thursday to play in next month’s NBA All-Star game. Tatum is averaging 27.2 ppg, 9.1 rpg and 5.5 apg, Jaylen Brown averages 23 ppg and 6.0 rpg, and former Mavs center Kristaps Porzingis is averaging 18.9 ppg and 7.1 rpg. Also for the Celtics, Derrick White averages 15.8 ppg, Peyton Pritchard is averaging 14.3 ppg and shooting 40.3 percent from three-point land, and Jrue Holiday averages 11.4 ppg.
BOSTON CELTICS (31-14) at DALLAS MAVERICKS (24-21)
When: 4:30 p.m., Saturday
Where: American Airlines Center, Dallas
TV: WFAA-8, MavsTV Stream
Radio: KEGL 97.1 FM The Eagle, 99.1 FM Zona MX (Spanish)
X: @DwainPrice
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