Despite Luka Doncic’s latest triple-double effort, the Dallas Mavericks fell to the Boston Celtics … [+]
Despite Luka Doncic’s laundry list of injuries — chest injury, right knee injury and left ankle soreness — the NBA scoring champion came out to play in the Dallas Mavericks’ Game 2 loss to the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals.
Immediately aggressive from the beginning of the game, the 25-year-old All-NBA point guard dominated from the start, scoring 15 points in the first quarter and posting 23 points by the end of the first half.
Not bad for a guy that was listed as questionable just hours before the game from an injury suffered in Game 1.
And yet, it wasn’t enough. Despite Doncic playing at an all-world level — he posted a triple-double with 32 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists — it never felt as if the Mavericks had control of the game as they fell by a score of 105-98.
Because realistically, they never did.
At halftime, Dallas still trailed by three points. It wouldn’t take long before the Mavericks trailed by as many as 13 points with Doncic beginning to show fatigue entering the last quarter.
The reality is this — it doesn’t matter what Doncic does, even if he fills up the stat sheet with his usual triple-double production. Dallas simply doesn’t have the talent to match up with a loaded Celtics squad that is now finally whole with the return of Kristaps Porzingis.
Even with the Mavericks putting forth a vastly better effort than they did in their Game 1 blowout loss, the Celtics had control of the game from the beginning of the second half until the end.
After a gutsy effort that saw his teammates let him down more than anything, Doncic said all of the right things to galvanize his team — he took ownership of the loss and rather than deflect blame on any of Dallas’ players.
“I think my turnovers and my missed free throws cost us the game,” said Doncic. “So I’ve got to do way better in those two categories.”
Yes, Dallas improved in a number of areas compared to their 107-89 loss to Boston. The playmaking was significantly better, going from just nine team assists in Game 1 to more reasonable 21 dimes in Game 2. The defense was better, holding the Celtics to just 25.6% from beyond the arc after Boston shot 38.1% from 3-point range in Game 1. Even the Celtics’ top star, Jayson Tatum, struggled throughout the night, going just 6-for-16 with just 16 points while committing six turnovers.
But it’s just not enough because Dallas doesn’t have the talent to keep up with Boston.
“That’s why they are the No. 1 team in the NBA with the No. 1 record,” said Doncic of the Celtics’ win after the game. “They have a lot of great players. Basically anybody can get off. Honestly, I think we didn’t do a bad job defending today. We took away threes. We contested more threes. And like I say, I had too many turnovers, and we missed a lot of free throws. So I think that cost us the game.”
Doncic consistently made plays — even the ones that didn’t show up on the stat sheet — only for his teammates to miss wide-open 3-point shots. The Mavericks went 6-of-26 from beyond the arc (23.1%), somehow converting worse than the Celtics’ own dismal shooting from 3-point range (25.6%).
When not factoring in Doncic’s own made 3-pointers — he went 4-of-9 from beyond the arc — Dallas went a putrid 2-of-17 (11.7%) on the long shot.
The Mavericks went a full quarter without a made 3-pointer from the time Doncic converted with 2:16 remaining in the second quarter until Dante Exum nailed a 3-pointer with 1:42 remaining in the third quarter.
It doesn’t help that Kyrie Irving — Doncic’s running mate — is still invisible in this series as he contributed just 16 points on 7-for-18 shooting with another zero on the box score for 3-pointers made.
While the box score shows Irving took 18 shot attempts, there was a long stretch in the third quarter when the Celtics started pulling away where the NBA champion was simply invisible. He took a total of two shot attempts during the third quarter where Boston outscored Dallas 29-23.
Through the first two games of this series, Irving is averaging just 14.0 points per game on 35.1% shooting from the field while going 0-for-8 from beyond the arc in what is supposed to be a revenge series of sorts as he makes his return to Boston. He’s now lost 12 consecutive games against his former team.
When the Mavericks — especially a fatigued Doncic — needed Irving the most, the only NBA champion in Dallas’ regular rotation was nowhere to be found.
“It wasn’t all on me, but I’m definitely taking the majority of it because my teammates look to me to convert a lot of these shots and ease the burden of not just Luka but everyone else and settle our team,” said Irving after the game. “We definitely made our dinner on the defensive end, but now offensively I have to play better.”
Doncic scored just three points on 1-for-6 shooting in the fourth quarter after carrying an overmatched Mavericks team during the entire game.
Following the game, Doncic’s explanation for what the Mavericks need to do to win games and overcome this 2-0 series deficit was simple — make shots, hit free throws and commit less turnovers.
“We’ve got to make shots,” said Doncic. “We’ve got to make free throws and less turnovers. Those three things I think are the key for a win — to win.”
Except the problem is the Mavericks simply don’t have enough firepower to do those things. As good as Dallas has been this postseason in knocking out top seeds such as the Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves, they’ve run into a juggernaut that many had pegged as the NBA champions coming into the season.
The Celtics have now won nine consecutive postseason games and have lost just two playoff games this year. Head coach Jason Kidd preached that the team needs to stay “positive” as they take things back to Dallas with the hope of turning things around.
“We’ve just got to stay positive,” said Kidd. “Some of us have been in this situation before, and so just take one possession at a time, and we’ve got to focus on Game 3, and that’s all.”
Dallas had had a nice run this postseason, especially when considering they entered the playoffs as a fifth seed. And as productive as young players such as P.J. Washington, Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford have been in helping elevate this team into an NBA Finals squad, they simply are no match for Boston’s depth and key pieces such as Jaylen Brown, NBA champion Jrue Holiday, Derrick White and Porzingis.
This current core of Celtics players have been through a lot of heartbreaks and shortcomings. They’ve been defeated four times in the conference finals since Brown was drafted in 2016 and have lost in the NBA Finals after holding 1-0 and 2-1 series leads.
It’s not happening this time around. The 2023-24 Celtics are too good and they will finally lay claim to what will be an NBA-record 18th championship.
Even if the Mavericks follow Doncic’s advice and make more shots, free throws and commit less turnovers as they take the series back to Dallas.