As the Celtics pursue title #18 and their first since 2008
Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics went up 2-0 over Kyrie Irving, Dereck Lively and the Dallas Mavericks Sunday night with a 105-98 win.
Tatum didn't shoot well - just 6-22 and just 1-7 from three point range - but he came close to a triple double with 18 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds.
That’s a great night even with the poor shooting.
For the Mavs, Irving finished with 16 points (7-18/0-3), six assists and two rebounds and Lively finished with two points and seven rebounds. Unlike Game 1, where he had five fouls, Lively finished with just one. And this is an amazing stat - Lively missed his first shots since the series with Oklahoma City, hitting just 1-3.
Despite Irving’s still-subpar outing - he’s now lost 12 straight games to the the Celtics - and Luka Doncic, who was listed as questionable a few hours before the game - Dallas stayed close.
Boston reached 103 with 3:34 to play and had to hold on for the win as Dallas put on a nice closing kick. With 55.1 left to play, Derrick Jones blocked a Tatum dunk but on the other end, Derrick White blocked a dunk attempt by PJ Washington that would have cut the lead to 103-100.
Jaylen Brown hit a layup with 29.1 left to put the lead back to seven and Dallas simply couldn’t make it up.
In a nice flex, Jon Scheyer and his assistants were in attendance.
The series moves to Dallas next on Wednesday but with a banged-up Doncic and Irving not playing particularly well, it won’t be easy for the Mavs to win this series.
