BOSTON — Jrue Holiday had 26 points and 11 rebounds and Jayson Tatum made up for a rough shooting night with 12 assists and nine rebounds as the Boston Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks 105-98 on Sunday to take a 2-0 lead. NBA Finals.
Luka Doncic, who was listed as questionable less than two hours before the opening tipoff, scored 32 points to go along with 11 rebounds and 11 assists for the first NBA Finals triple-double in Mavericks franchise history. But he missed a one-foot running floater from 3-point range with 28 seconds left, again ending Dallas’ last chance.
Game 3 is Wednesday night in Dallas. The Mavericks will need to win Game 4 to avoid a Mavericks sweep and travel back to TD Garden, where the home fans will be in for an unprecedented 18th NBA Championship banner.
The Celtics won the opening pair of games for the ninth time in the NBA Finals. They had won the title eight previous times and had never forced a Game 7 in any of them.
Jaylen Brown scored 21 points, Tatum added 18 points, and Derrick White added 18 points for top-seeded Boston. Kristaps Porzingis led the way with 12 points. Tatum was 6-of-22 shooting and 1-of-7 from 3-point range; The Celtics were 10-of-39 from long range.
Kyrie Irving, who has drawn hostility from local fans since cutting short his stay in Boston in 2019, scored 16 points; They have lost 12 games in a row against Celtic.
Unlike Boston’s 107-89 victory Game 1While a fast start from 3-point range led the Celtics to a 29-point lead in the first half, they missed their first eight attempts from long range and shot 20% for most of the game.
Tatum scored zero points in the first quarter and had just five points at halftime, while he was 0-for-3 from 3-point range. Boston was still 5-for-30 at the third-quarter buzzer when Peyton Pritchard hit a half-court shot to give the C’s an 83-74 lead.
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