POST GAME DALLAS - HOME

Celtics-Mavericks takeaways: C's fall to Dallas again in crunch time

NBC SPORTS BOSTON BY JUSTIN LEGER

The Boston Celtics' five-game win streak was snapped Sunday as they fell to the Dallas Mavericks in a nail-biter, 95-92.T

Spencer Dinwiddie hit what ended up being the game-winning 3-pointer on an assist from Luka Doncic. Jayson Tatum had a chance to send the game into overtime, but the Celtics star couldn't get his 3 to fall at the buzzer.

Marcus Smart appeared to be fouled by Doncic on a 3-point attempt with four seconds remaining. Dallas challenged the call, however, and it was overturned to help seal the Mavs victory.

It was a familiar ending for the Celtics, who lost to Dallas on a Doncic 3 at the buzzer in November.

Along with the C's win streak, Tatum's five-game streak of 30+ points also came to an end. He finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds against a stifling Mavs defense. On the other side, Doncic finished with a game-high 26 points to go with eight assists.

Here are three instant takeaways from the Celtics' defeat, which brings them to 41-28 on the season. They'll begin a West Coast road trip Wednesday night with a 10 p.m. ET showdown vs. the Golden State Warriors.

Top defenses on display
The Celtics and Mavericks entered Sunday's action with the No. 1 and No. 6 defensive ratings in the NBA, respectively. The top-ranked units were on display as both offenses had major issues, particularly in the first half. The first quarter was a struggle on both sides with the two teams combining for only 38 points.

It marked the C's first game held under 100 points scored since Jan. 28. The Mavs scored less than 100 for the first time since Feb. 12.

Boston's inability to get shots to fall from beyond the arc turned out to be the difference-maker. While Dallas finished 40.5% (15-37) from 3, the C's were only 24.3% (9-37). Tatum and Jaylen Brown were a combined 13-for-39 from the field and 5-for-17 from long range.

The Celtics' usually-stout defense let its foot off the gas pedal in the third quarter, when the Mavericks exploded for 38 points. They were unable to bounce back in the fourth quarter with both teams scoring only 19 points in the final frame.

Al Horford does his part
Without Al Horford, this game could very well have been a blowout loss for Boston. The veteran big man was its best player on both sides of the court in what was an especially ugly offensive performance for the team.

Amid so much talk about Smart or Robert Williams deserving Defensive Player of the Year recognition, Horford showed he's still no slouch as a defender either. The 35-year-old was a thorn in Dallas' side all game and notched six rebounds, a career-high five steals and with two blocks.

Horford also was the Celtics' most efficient offensive player on the day with 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting. Only Tatum (21) scored more points for the C's.

Jaylen Brown makes Kevin Garnett proud
On the day of Kevin Garnett's jersey retirement ceremony at TD Garden, Jaylen Brown got "The Big Ticket" out of his courtside seat.

Brown threw down a monstrous dunk on Mavericks forward Maxi Kleber that got Garnett hyped. The Hall of Famer got up and celebrated with Brown after the play in what made for an iconic moment between Celtics greats of the past and present.

It wasn't the best day for Brown, who tallied 14 points on 6-of-16 shooting, but that moment with KG undoubtedly will be one he cherishes forever.

112288

Pissed me off the way we lost this game. We looked like the team 2 months ago, most of our shots were challenged, they doubled Tatum fast and we didn’t react well to it. The clean looks and easy ball movement weren’t there today. They moved the ball multiple times on the perimeter to gain the best look; maybe this was the one team we shouldn’t have went with the double big line up, since they are so committed to small ball and perimeter shooting. We actually defended Luka well and they defended our 2 J’s well.

Shame we lost this game on the day of KG’s ceremony, having said that we almost pulled out a game with 2 J’s off. Had a 3 point lead with a minute or so left, then Jaylen drives right into the defense and gets his shot blocked and next possession Tatum throws the ball away, too high and hard to a cutting Brown. Jaylen’s shot and efficiency have been off since the ankle, sure he’s fighting thru a few things, but wish he made better decisions. For such a talented player, he is still making mistakes, losing the ball too much IMHO, but he’s still my guy. Tatum was very off, it happens as he was unbelievable for a great stretch. Okay guys come back strong.

Cowens

This time of year expect playoff basketball with tight defense.

112288

The refereeing pissed me off.  Just call them even, will ya?!  Robert Williams gets a T?  When did that ever happen?  Ime got one too, and he never gets any.

They shot 40% from 3.  We shot 24%.  We should have lost by more than 3.

The Js were a combined 13-39.  They shot a combined 5-17 from 3.  Tatum, of course, has complete short-term memory loss when it comes to shooting 3s, as most shooters do have.  The next one is always going in, especially when they don't.  That provides a particularly painful experience to watch.  Tatum had 17 points on 5-13 shooting, 3-6 from 3, at the half.  He ended up with 21 points on 7-23 and 3-10 from 3.  That's 4 points on 2-10, 0-4 from 3, in the 2nd half for our superstar.  Their superstar on the other hand had 17 points on 5-8, 3-6 from 3, in the second half.

Smart was 4-12 and only had 4 assists vs 3 turnovers.

Grant was 1-6 and 0-4 from 3.  He's shooting 32.4% from 3 over his last 10 games.

White was 2-10, 0-4 from 3.  I'm seeing a pattern here.

The bright spot was Jaylen posterizing a Mav with a vicious dunk and then slapping hands with KG who was under the basket.  I thought I was going to just faint away from sheer joy when I saw that.

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401360833


Bob


.

This gives us a preview of what top defenses will look like in the playoffs after the riff-raff round is completed.  By the time the 2nd round rolls in, the phrase defense wins championships takes the place of "Winning In Spite Of".  At some point, all your cylinders have to be clicking.  If you defenses match up, then it goes back to scoring.  And as cowens/oldschool so illustriously points out, our two J's were exposed.  

Just another way to beat us.  While it was a loss during the time where no loss is acceptable, we didn't lose much ground.  PHI did manage to pull a victory from the arms of defeat last night.  Since the Heat have graciously narrowed the range for us, it's now at the very still manageable 4 in the loss column.  

Even assuming a loss @ GSW on Wednesday, which would be tragic since we would have given back all the momentum we have built over the last few weeks back with all our streaks, it wouldn't be the end of the world.  

Unless dboss has changed his mind, I'm thinking 4th/5th is best for us.  In another thread I made this point, but anything higher brings a potentially loaded BKN as your first round match up.  That will probably be the end of either MIA, MIL or PHI.  Whichever one of those teams loses to BKN will probably be dismantled from top to bottom.  Now BKN will eventually lose in/by the 2nd Round but they will have temporary proof they belong in the conversation.  Let those three teams have that unpinned hand grenade in a first round.  Somebody big is going home in the first round because of BKN.  They have something to prove.  

Good offense can beat good defense in the first round.  After that, it's all defense.  Everybody has to play defense.  That's when KD and Kryrie's legs will give out.  Then they're out.  BS or not.  This is definitely the reason PHI won't make it to the ECF.  Their defense is awful.  Swiss Cheese.
Embiid is a presence but that is about it.  Watch his defense, or at least what you can find.  Slim pickings. Defense is an all the time thing, especially after the fist round. Scoring, no matter how great, comes and goes. Exhibit A from us last night. You can count on scoring to win games. You can't count on scoring to win series. Not 4 times. Scoring gets you to the dance. Defense wins championships. Just like in golf. Drive (Score) for Show (regular season). Putt (Defense) for dough. (championship) Period.      

db

We reverted back to some bad 3rd quarter play in this one.

Hi,
I think that team-wide amnesia "how to shoot" set in last night. Hopefully, it's just a blooper.
On a bright side it seemed they didn't forget how to play defense.

AK

Just goes to show us that if the bench cannot come in and provide a little punch we can forget it.
If our starters played the way they’ve been playing the last few weeks we would have won going away. We are better than Dallas. Better personnel, better team. But Dallas is good enough that you cannot come out with a B level game and a D level bench. Smart turning down open shots? Midrange too? The J’s, pedestrian at best. Rob and Al were the strongest starters out there yesterday.
Our bench still sucks. White’s been off. Richardson was a better shooter if nothing else. We had our chance to strengthen it but Brad blew it IMO. Grant played like his Great Grand Pappy Ulysses S, and Peyton was Turning down open looks. Better never ever do that again Pritchard. You’ll be on the 3’oclock to Yuma if it happens again.
Like Ray Charles, we hit the road jack after tripping over ourselves. Time to ratchet it back up fellas!

Yep, Ktron.  If our past road record is any indication, we can expect to go 50/50 on this trip.  3-1 would be a gift, especially coming right out of the gate against GSW.  4-0 would be out-of-this-world.    

We got some help again last night.  PHI and CHI dropped one.  CHI's nightmares have just begun.  SAC was supposed to be the easy one.  Now they have hell to pay.  It may take a week or so but we should be in 4th by then.

But your are right.  I like this season-ending schedule from hell for us.  These are the caliber of teams you will meet in the playoffs usually in the 2nd Round and further.  We can't rely on "Winning In Spite Of..." after the first round as I mentioned in another thread.  

If we hold onto 4th/5th, then if the season ended today and everything went according to planned, we'd be playing MIA in which we match up against very well. Unless, of course, they draw BKN.  That would be the best route to the ECF.  But I'm counting chickens.  

We need to get back to being the steamroller.  In a series, it's ok to turn in a game like we did against against a DAL.  We'll bounce back.  And clearly, it's going to be needed Wednesday with Draymond now back.  Let me guess.  Now GSW want to make a run!!  Not so fast!!

db

I have not read a single post about this game.  i will go back and see what everyone thinks about the game and will comment accordingly.

This was a very competitive game that resulted in a 3 point loss.

With respect to our offense, we did not shoot the ball well and overall, our passing was lacking.  We did not show enough discipline.  As soon as the resistance came we did not keep the ball popping,  We settled.

On defense, I was perplexed that we were hell bent on trying to double Donci because that is what opened up a flood gate of open looks for them.  Doncic is a great player but I would not have double teamed him as much as we did.   i thought that was a tactical mistake. In games against a quality player, the focus has to be on defending the supporting cast at a high level.  Our rotation were too slow and we saw several plays where two guys tried to trap and could not recover in time to close out a shooter.

I was surprised that PP played deep into the 4th QTR.  He did not play badly but he missed several need to make wide open shots with the game on the line.  He was out there to shoot and ended up with zero assists in 17 minutes.  On defense he was the weak link.

The Jays struggled shooting the ball, 13/39 and 5/17 from deep.  We know there will be games when other guys need to make shots for us to win.

Ime played 8 guys and our bench especially G Will, and D White did not shoot the ball well.

All in all, I think we lost this game because of our defense, even though holding them to only 95 points was great but our constant double teaming backfired.

I still love our team but our bench depth is suspect.  We seem to lack reliable offense. Neither Grant nor Derrick have been shooting the ball well in our last 4 games. Against the Mavs they both shot 0-4 from deep.  White is 2-11 from deep in his last 4 games and Grant is 1-14.    In games like this where our main guns are struggling we have to have our main rotation guys score the basketball at a much higher rate.