Celtics beat Mavericks 105-98, take 2-0 lead in NBA Finals as series heads to Dallas

BOSTON — Jrue Vacation offered scoring. Derrick White added a chase-down block. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown contributed, too — with their passing and protection.

The Mavericks can cease worrying about who Boston’s greatest participant is. Everybody the Celtics put within the recreation helps them shut in on an unprecedented 18th NBA championship.

Vacation had 26 factors and 11 rebounds, and White sprinted down the court docket to swat away Dallas’ final probability to make it a one-possession recreation on Sunday evening as Boston beat the Mavericks 105-98 to take a 2-0 lead within the NBA Finals.

“I’m actually uninterested in listening to about one man or this man or that man and all people making an attempt to make it out to be something aside from Celtic basketball,” Boston coach Joe Mazzulla mentioned. “Everyone that stepped on that court docket immediately made successful performs on each ends of the ground.”

Tatum made up for a tough taking pictures evening with 12 assists and 9 rebounds to go along with his 18 factors. Brown scored 21 with three steals, White had 18 factors and three steals, and Peyton Pritchard’s solely basket of the sport was a banked half-courter to beat the third quarter buzzer and provides Boston an 83-74 lead.

“That’s why they’re the No. 1 workforce within the NBA with the No. 1 report,” mentioned Mavericks star Luka Doncic, who scored 32 with 11 rebounds and 11 assists — the primary NBA Finals triple-double in Dallas franchise historical past. “They’ve a variety of nice gamers. Principally, anyone can get off.”

Doncic, who was listed as questionable to play lower than two hours earlier than the opening tipoff, had his tenth profession playoff triple-double. However he scored solely three factors within the fourth, changing a three-point play with 1:15 left as Dallas scored 9 in a row to chop a 14-point deficit to 103-98.

After Derrick Jones Jr. blocked Tatum’s dunk try, White ran down the court to block — together with Brown — P.J. Washington’s potential dunk. Brown made a layup on the different finish, after which Doncic missed a one-footed, operating floater from 3-point vary with 28 seconds left, ending Dallas’ final probability at a comeback.

“He was nice,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd mentioned. “Luka is a particular participant — if not the perfect participant on the planet — and he causes an issue. … He’s in a position to create open alternatives and we simply didn’t benefit from them.”

Video games 3 and 4 are Wednesday and Friday in Dallas. Boston has not misplaced on the highway this postseason, however the Mavericks have to snap that streak to keep away from a sweep and earn a visit again to the Boston Backyard, the place the native followers are already making area within the rafters for one more banner.

It was the ninth time the Celtics have gained the opening pair within the NBA Finals. They’ve gained the earlier eight, and have by no means been compelled to a Recreation 7 in any of them.

A day after Kidd tried to sow dissension within the Celtics locker room by calling Brown — not Tatum, an All-NBA first-teamer — the workforce’s greatest participant, Boston confirmed why it doesn’t matter.

Kristaps Porzingis limped his option to 12 factors for top-seeded Boston. Tatum was 6 for 22 taking pictures and 1 of seven from 3-point vary; the Celtics had been 10 for 39 from lengthy distance total.

Kyrie Irving, who’s drawn the animosity of the native followers ever since slicing brief his keep in Boston in 2019, scored 16 factors; he has misplaced 12 video games in a row towards the Celtics.

In contrast to their 107-89 victory in Recreation 1, when Boston went 7 for 15 from 3-point vary within the first quarter to dash to a 17-point lead, the Celtics missed their first eight makes an attempt from lengthy vary on Sunday. Dallas led your complete first quarter.

Tatum was scoreless within the first and had solely 5 at halftime, when he was nonetheless 0 for 3 from 3-point vary. Boston was nonetheless simply 5 for 30 from lengthy distance when Peyton Pritchard banked in a half-courter on the third-quarter buzzer to provide Boston an 83-74 lead.

That excited the gang, which beforehand had spent most of its time serenading Irving with boos and semi-vulgar chants. Irving acknowledged the taunting by shaking his head.