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 in the NBA Finals.
Luka Doncic, who was listed as questionable to play less than two hours before the opening tipoff, scored 32 points to go with 11 rebounds and 11 assists for the first NBA Finals triple-double in Mavericks franchise history. But he missed a one-footed running floater from 3-point range with 28 seconds left, ending Dallas’ last chance at a comeback.
Game 3 is slated for Wednesday night in Dallas. The Mavericks need a win then or in Game 4 on Friday to avoid a sweep and earn a trip back to TD Garden, where the local fans already are making space in the rafters for what would be an unprecedented 18th NBA championship banner.
The Celtics won the opening pair of contests in the NBA Finals for the ninth time. They took home the title the previous eight times and were never forced to a Game 7 in any of them.
Jaylen Brown scored 21 points, Tatum added 18 points and Derrick White also put up 18 points for top-seeded Boston. Kristaps Porzingis limped his way to 12 points. Tatum was 6-for-22 shooting and 1-of-7 from 3-point range; the Celtics were 10-for-39 from long distance overall.
Kyrie Irving, who has drawn the animosity of the local fans ever since cutting short his stay in Boston in 2019, scored 16 points; he has lost 12 games in a row against the Celtics.
Unlike Boston’s 107-89 victory in Game 1, when a fast start from 3-point range staked the Celtics to a 29-point lead in the first half, they missed their first eight attempts from long distance and were shooting around 20% for most of the game.
Tatum scored zero points in the first quarter and had only five points at halftime, when he was still 0-for-3 from 3-point range. Boston was still just 5-for-30 from long distance when Payton Pritchard banked in a half-court shot at the third-quarter buzzer to give the C’s an 83-74 lead.