The Dallas Mavericks won their second game in a row with a 113: 108 loss to the Boston Celtics on Wednesday at TD Garden.
Luka Doncic scored 36 points – 24 of them in the first half – for the Mavericks who improved to 25-21 to hold the seventh seed in the Western Conference.
For the 23-25 Celtics hanging by a thread in a playoff spot, Jayson Tatum scored 25 points with nine rebounds.
The Celtics chased the Mavericks in the second minute of the game, and Doncic single-handedly quickly got things out of reach.
He finished the first half with 24 points in the 8-of-9 shooting from Field, including an impressive 5-of-6 out of three.
The Mavericks outperformed the Celtics from the deep and went from beyond the arc with 13 to 23, but Doncic alone fared better than the Celtics, since Boston only hit four out of 24 shot attempts out of three.
None of the other Mavericks game he hit double digits in the first half, with Kristaps Porzingis and Jalen Brunson scoring nine goals each, but they didn’t need to do more than they had already considered Dallas closed by 22 points, 22 points clear half to 64-45.
Mavericks run 64-45 half
Celtics – 4-24 three-pointers
Mavericks – 13-23 three-pointers
That’s all you need to know.
The Celtics defense came alive midway through the third half, keeping Doncic down to just seven points, but Porzingis was there, bringing his total to 19 to keep Boston buried .
In the end, Doncic’s 36 points and eight rebounds, combined with a double-doubles from Porzingis and Dorian Finney-Smith (11 PTS, 9 REB), helped fend off a late Celtics indictment for the win.
Doncic’s strong start brought the Celtics back early as the team couldn’t counter with their offensive power on either side of the ball.
Jaylen Brown led the Celtics with 12 points at break, while Tatum only had nine and he to Half had a game-low of minus 23.
In defense, Marcus Smart and Luke Kornet each blocked a shot and Brown had two steals, but the Celtics’ small-ball line-up couldn’t break the soaring Doncic.
Days after Evan Fournier a mi Serable debut and shot 0:10 from the field, it was Moritz Wagner’s turn to have a less than ideal start to his Celtics career as he tried no shot and spun the ball more than twice in his 7:19 on the hardwood in the first half.
I have to imagine that we’ll see Grant or Kornet here soon. Wagner either doesn’t understand how Boston plans to cover PnR or can’t do it.
Moe Wagner with the big rush … to save the ball for a bucket for a wide open Mavericks player. Celtics down 74-51. You’re now 4 for 27 off the arch. They shoot a total of 32.7 percent. Against 22nd best defense.
Boston used an 8-0 run in the middle of the third run to get closer, and they started the fourth with a 6-2 run when they eventually made it one Made 10-point play by less than 10 minutes – with Tatum and Brown on the sidelines for much of it and Kemba Walker leading the charges.
The thing about the Celtics is they try the defense later to improve in the games and it’s hard to stop and an NBA team that has confidence. It is too late. (Plus, those third uniforms are hideous.)
Tatum finally got into the fun late in the game when he turned two steals into buckets and helped the Celtics score five points in eight seconds, giving them a two-point -Deficit with 16.4 seconds left.
But it was just too little, too late. The Celtics ended the night with 41.5 shots from the field and a mediocre 23.4 percent of three against the eighth worst defense in the league.
Both teams are back in action on Friday at 7:30 pm. ET. The Celtics will host the Houston Rockets while the Mavericks will continue their East Coast Road swing against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
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Ref: https://bleacherreport.com
