BOSTON, MA — At first glance, the box score for Game 2 of the 2024 NBA Finals seems like a recipe for disaster for the Boston Celtics. Star Jayson Tatum struggled to find his shot, Dallas Mavericks leader Luka Doncic lit it up, and Boston shot under 26% from 3-point land.
Despite all these factors, the C's prevailed 105-98 over the Mavs on Sunday night and took a 2-0 series lead. This win marks Boston's ninth consecutive victory and its eighth win at TD Garden this postseason.
So, how did Boston successfully protect home court? Let's look at three Celtics takeaways from their hard-fought Game 2 win versus the Mavericks.
Jrue Holiday put up a near-perfect performance
Prior to Game 2, most of the media chatter was directed towards Boston's stars: Tatum and Jaylen Brown. However, first-year Celtic Jrue Holiday was arguably the MVP of the evening.
The 33-year-old finished with a team-high 26 points to go along with 11 rebounds, three assists, one steal, one block, and zero turnovers. He made 11 of his 14 shot attempts and was the only Celtic starter to shoot over 40% from deep.
“Jrue has been an example of just excellence,” Brown said in his postgame remarks. “Since he's been here, his role has been different from what it was the last few years on Milwaukee, and he's been able to adapt. Not a lot of guys can do that, be versatile, play different roles and different styles, and still have an effect on the game.”
Holiday wreaked havoc on both ends of the floor. The two-way guard was frequently tasked with guarding Doncic and he even forced a bad pass from the Mavericks' go-to guy with under five minutes left in the fourth quarter.
This kind of impact points to why Boston's front office handed the NBA veteran a four-year, $135 million contract ahead of the playoffs.
“Just the moment he came to our team in training camp, he kind of just had that presence about him,” guard Derrick White described. “He just knows how to win.”
The Celtics were able to win an ugly one
Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla has emphasized the importance of winning the 3-point battle for years. As a result of his squad's high volume of triple attempts, some wondered whether or not Boston could triumph when shots from beyond the arc weren't falling.
In Game 2, the Celtics shot a rough 10-for-39 on 3-pointers, which comes out to a meager 25.6% conversion rate. Yet, they overcame those shooting struggles and never lost confidence.
Just ask point guard Payton Pritchard, who was 0-for-1 from the field before notching one of the biggest buckets of the game in the dying seconds of the third quarter.
“The play of the game can't go unnoticed, the humility of our team, is Payton's shot at the end of the quarter,” Mazzulla declared. “You see guys around the league pass up on that shot or fake like they want to take it, so that their numbers don't get messed up. He takes pride in taking that, and that's winning basketball.”
Aside from 3-pointers, Boston also endured a brutal shooting performance from Tatum. The 2024 All-Star went 6-for-22 and couldn't get into an offensive rhythm.
“There are going to be times where I need to score, and obviously, I need to shoot better,” he said with some exasperation. “Golly.”
Holiday, Brown, and White helped pick up the slack on the scoring front, and Tatum did his best to pass out of his shooting slump. He had eight assists in the first half—tying a playoff career-high for a single half—and finished with a game-high 12 assists.
“Jayson makes greatness look easy,” Mazzulla said when asked about Tatum's Game 2. “He does it in a lot of different ways. He does it on defense, he does it on rebounding, he does it on passing, he does it on screening. He's a tremendous player and not hard to coach him. When he has the ability to affect the game in different ways, we're a different team.”
Another reason Boston got it done without bringing its A-game is because it won the margins in a few underrated parts of the contest. The Celtics were 19-for-20 from the charity stripe while the Mavs missed eight of their 24 free throws. In addition, Boston had 11 turnovers to Dallas' 15 and held a narrow 10-9 advantage on the offensive glass.
If the Mavs hit a few more free throws, cleaned up turnovers a bit, or gained one or two extra possessions, it could've been a different game. But, Boston did a better job at taking care of the little things.
Jaylen Brown delivered another clutch moment
After going up 14 points with less than four minutes to go in the fourth quarter, the Celtics started to falter. Dallas was getting to the line repeatedly and it rattled off a 9-0 run to cut Boston's lead to just five points with 1:15 on the clock.
When the C's needed to stop the bleeding, Brown was there. The three-time All-Star blew by Mavericks forward Maxi Kleber for a clutch layup that put his team up 105-98 with just 29.1 seconds remaining. That bucket sealed the win and gave Brown 21 points on the night—a higher scoring output than every Maverick outside Doncic.
“I got to the paint pretty much whenever I wanted, and I could be patient when I get there,” Brown said. “I had a few turnovers where I had a little bit more time to wait for the defender to make a choice, because those two-on-one reads are there, where you get to the paint, the defender is, the big is coming, you either kick it to the corner or if he drives down to the corner you kick it to the wing. But don't got to be in a rush. Just protect the ball, make the great decisions and trust your teammates.”
The trust between the Celtics has allowed them to use their depth to their advantage throughout the playoffs. Although Tatum and Brown are the top players on the team, they understand that every winning play doesn't need to come from them.
“We got a lot of weapons on our team, so we just got to trust what we've been doing all season long, trust our game plan,” Brown stated.
The Green Team will now travel to Texas owning a 2-0 series lead. Games 3 and 4, on Wednesday and Friday evening, respectively, take place in Dallas. The Celtics have enjoyed playing on the road this postseason, yet they know this is no time to relax.
“I think being on this team, the journey to this point has been, great, but we still know being up 2-0 means nothing,” Holiday said. “Job's not done. We have to do whatever it takes.”
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