The Boston Celtics executed another effective game plan against the Dallas Mavericks in their 105-98 win in Game 2 of the NBA Finals, but the triumph did not come free of controversy. Once again, officiating is commanding some unwanted attention in the aftermath of a crucial contest.

With the Mavs trailing by five with less than a minute to play, Derrick Jones Jr. made a clutch block on a driving Jayson Tatum to give his team, specifically PJ Washington, a golden fast-break opportunity. Derrick White and Jaylen Brown were in pursuit, as the former got credited with a ferocious block of his own. The play produced a thunderous reaction in TD Garden and clinched a 2-0 series lead for the Celtics.

But not everyone agreed with the referee's decision to swallow his whistle in that situation. Before Washington goes up for his dunk attempt, he receives a push in the back from Brown. White also makes contact with his hand on the block. The latter can arguably be considered incidental contact since the C's guard is making a play on the ball, but the shove is far tougher to justify.

Fans will continue what has become a fairly recurring practice and divert their attention to the Last Two Minute Report upon its release. While Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd seems confident in his opinion of the late-game sequence, he is not making excuses.

“Looked like a foul,” Kidd said postgame Sunday night, via ClutchPoints (originally from @cjzero) “But it wasn't called, so it wasn't a foul.”

Mavericks had their chances to steal Game 2

Assuming the L2M Report confirms the 2011 NBA champion's suspicions, it will be interesting to see how he and his team respond. If PJ Washington was sent to the free throw line, Dallas could have cut the deficit to three points with 50 ticks remaining on the clock. Much like Kidd is implying, though, there is no sense in considering hypothetical scenarios.

Besides, the Mavs squandered plenty of chances and lacked in multiple areas en route to this Game 2 defeat. Simply put, they left points on the board that could have rendered any controversial no-call invalid. Dallas went just 16-of-24 from the charity stripe (66.7 percent), while Boston drained all but one of its 20 free throw attempts.

After closely examining the box score and reflecting on the eye test, one is likely to determine that such a disparity proved to be the ultimate dagger to the Mavericks' winning prospects. They also caught fire a bit late in the fourth quarter, as the Celtics held them to 47 points in the second half. Luka Doncic finished with another triple-double (32 points on 12-of-21 shooting, 11 rebounds and 11 assists), but Kyrie Irving failed to post the noteworthy effort his squad needed from him.

Although Jayson Tatum continued to struggle with his shooting stroke (6-of-22), he dished 12 dimes and grabbed 12 boards. Jrue Holiday picked up the offensive slack with a magnificent night– 26 points on the strength of a 78.6 field goal percentage and 11 rebounds–, and Jaylen Brown and Derrick White each stamped their mark on the matchup on both ends of the floor.

Officiating notwithstanding, Dallas incurred too many self-inflicted wounds against a team of Boston's caliber. The Western Conference champions will have to tighten it up in Game 3 in order to prevent the outcome from potentially being affected by external factors.