Post Game - Celtics vs. Dallas Mavericks - Friday, March 01 (W)

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401585487

Celtics-Mavericks takeaways: C's extend win streak to NBA-best 10 games

https://sports.yahoo.com/celtics-mavericks-takeaways-cs-extend-031608649.html

Nick Goss
Fri, Mar 1, 2024, 10:16 PM EST·4 min read




Celtics-Mavericks takeaways: C's extend win streak to NBA-best 10 games originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Three Key Storylines

The Jays lead the way offensively
Holiday's hot 3-point shooting continues
Doncic's triple-double not enough

Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd said before Friday night's game at TD Garden that the Boston Celtics were the best team in the NBA.

They proved him right.

The Celtics defeated the Mavericks 138-110 to extend their win streak to 10 games -- the longest for any team during the 2023-24 season. Boston's last loss was Feb. 1 to the Los Angeles Lakes. The Mavericks came into this matchup with eight wins in their last 10 games.

The Celtics led pretty much the entire game, but the Mavericks made a run in the third quarter and trimmed the deficit to 81-79 midway through the frame. The Celtics responded with a dominant stretch of their own, and by the middle of the fourth quarter, their lead was 20.

All five Boston starters scored in double-digits, led by Jayson Tatum (32 points), Jaylen Brown (25 points) and Kristaps Porzingis (24 points). The Celtics also were red-hot from 3-point range, hitting 21 of their 43 attempts.

The Celtics have the league's best record at 47-12, giving them a 8-game lead over the second-place Cleveland Cavaliers.

The C's will host Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors at the Garden on Sunday. But before we look ahead to that matchup, here are three takeaways from Celtics-Mavs.

Holiday heating up from 3-point range

One of the best developments for the Celtics over the last month has been Jrue Holiday hitting 3-point shots on a more consistent basis.

Holiday converted 55.2 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc in February (nine games), and his hot shooting has carried into March. The veteran point guard shot 3-of-3 on 3-pointers against the Mavericks, including one where he was falling out of bounds in the first quarter. It drew a great reaction from NBC Sports Boston color analyst Brian Scalabrine.



Holiday is now shooting 44.3 percent from 3-point range on the season, which would be a career high. He has hit 40 percent or more of his 3-pointers in just one of his previous 14 seasons -- the 2021-22 campaign with the Milwaukee Bucks.

Holiday's 3-point resurgence adds another dimension to Boston's offense. There are no bad 3-point shooters in the Celtics' starting lineup, and the group as a whole is now shooting an impressive 38.1 percent on these attempts.

Jays play another efficient game offensively

Jayson Tatum had a slow start Friday with just two points in the first quarter. But he turned it around quickly with nine points in the second quarter and 16 in the third quarter to help the Celtics increase their lead to 102-90 entering the fourth.



Tatum finished with 32 points on 10-of-19 shooting. He made five of his nine 3-point attempts, while also tallying eight rebounds and three assists in 37 minutes.



Jaylen Brown has been awesome offensively since the All-Star break. He scored 25 points on 11-of-20 shooting, along with seven rebounds, five assists and one steal in 31 minutes versus the Mavs. His five points early in the fourth quarter helped the C's push their lead to 18.



Brown is averaging 26.8 points -- 4.6 more than his season average -- on 60 percent shooting in the four games after the All-Star break. He's playing his best basketball of the season right now.

Luka Doncic's dominant performance not enough

There's a reason why Doncic is among the favorites for league MVP. He impacts the game in so many different ways.

His full offensive talents were on display against the Celtics. Doncic came out firing, hitting six of his first 10 shots and leading all players with 16 points in the opening quarter. He became more of a playmaker in the second quarter with six assists in the frame.



Doncic finished with a triple-double of 37 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists in 37 minutes.

It's the 40th 30-point triple-double of his career, which ranks third all-time and he's just 25 years old.

I wonder what all those critics who said that the Celtics really aren't as good as their record because the East is weaker than the west are saying today?  We just completely blew out the western conference team that was in 7th place heading into last night's game and was only 1 game out of 6th which would get them out of the play-in.

What amazed me was just how quickly this went from "why can't we put these guys away?" to putting those guys away.  We were up 6 after 1 and after a lousy finish to the 2nd we were up 7 at the half because we couldn't hold a 12 point lead.  It remained close through the 3rd with Dallas coming to within 3.  And then there was the 4th.  I missed most of the 3rd because I went out for dinner, but I found a bar with the game on (thank you Starlink!  You know the world has shrunk when you can get an NBA game on ESPN in the Galapagos) and watched the 4th.  We were up 12 after 3.  Nice, but a quick run and it's a game again.  Then the floodgates opened.  With just over 3 minutes gone in the 4th we were up 18 with a 10-2 start to the 4th, and it only got worse for Dallas after that.  The wheels just came off for them.  With 4 minutes left we were up 24.  Our biggest lead was 28.

This was a stunning display of offense by the Celtics.  55% on the game is amazing.  Granted Dallas' defense is mediocre at best but 138 points against an NBA team is still 138 points.  We shot 49% from 3.  NOBODY is beating us when we shoot like that (nor would we win if the other team shot like that, the difference is that we have the shooters to do it and most teams don't).

18 ftas for Dallas and only 13 for us.  They can't complain about the refs giving us the game, although they will anyway on the Comments From The Other Side thread.

18 fast break points for us vs 10 for them.  So we ran well, and we shot from range well.  Running well forces the defense to collapse to stop the fast break.  Hitting from 3 makes them pay when they do.

An uptempo game that had 94 fgas by both teams in a regulation 48 minutes.  If only we did that every game.  That is Russell-era level fgas.

We had 8 blocks.  That is a lot of blocks.  DWhite with 2 and Al with 2.  One of Al's blocks was this phenomenal chase down block at the rim on a Dallas fast break.

Tatum had a very bad start, goose eggs across the board in the 1st, but Jrue made up for him.  Great first quarter by Jrue with 8 points on 3-3, 2-2 from 3 with one of them a falling right out of bounds almost behind the backboard shot (:40).




Tillman with a nice 15 quality minutes.


Sean Grande
@SeanGrandePBP
In his final game as a 25-year old, Jayson Tatum just passed Devin Booker on the NBA’s all-time scoring list for players under 26. He’ll finish 6th on that list, 3rd among players that played in college.

(With that other dude getting big in the rear-view mirror...)





Luka with 37/11/12 and only 2 turnovers.  He is only the 4th player to ever do that against the Celtics, and the last one to do it in regulation was Oscar Robertson back in 1965.  He's only 25 years old and two days. He already has 10,880 NBA points and he still has another 363 days to add more. He's averaging 34ppg this season. At that rate, assuming he plays 70 games before he turns 26, he'll end up with 13,260 and be in 3rd place.


Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
yesterday
With a ridiculous 1.26 points/possession the last 13 games, the Celtics not only have the NBA’s #1 offense, but the most efficient offense in league history. The gap between them and #2 in that span (Oklahoma City 119.5) is larger than the gap between #2 OKC and #19 Denver.


The Celtics now have a 10 game winnings streak, the first 10 game winning streak in the NBA this season.  If you look at the current standings you'll see that the next best 10-game record is a bunch of teams that are 7-3 in their last 10.  That means we have picked up 3 games on the entire league.

Jay King @ByJayKing
yesterday
The Celtics have won 10 consecutive games. Their average margin of victory during the streak has been 19.1 points per game.


In his post-game presser Jaylen was asked what he thought about the Celtic fans booing Kyrie and chanting "Kyrie sucks!".  Jaylen said "the fans do what they do, and maybe it has an effect and maybe it doesn't, but we should boo every star player that comes into our arena; Jokic and the rest".  I agree 100%.  Let'em all have it.










Bob


.

I am getting more and more excited about the play of Holiday these last few weeks. He is finally looking totally comfortable with this team, is shooting great, and taking shots when they are there instead of passing them up. His defense is awesome. Just so loving his game, along with DWhite

Love the win and the way we are playing, guys instinctively know where to go to get open looks and everyone is looking to make the extra pass. We got so many open 3’s off swinging the ball and movement. J’s are getting theirs and getting easy looks time and again for their teammates. Tatum has moments from the top he reminds me of Magic Johnson. How unselfish and efficient is Holiday? Gets his hands on the ball so much on defense. Tatum and Brown might have put up bigger numbers seasons past against a weak defense like this, but they like setting up everyone for easy looks/finishes.

We are building and building and playing our best basketball of the season. In the future when you have a player running full speed like that and a bad angle, just let him finish Zinger; don’t put your body in harms way, your too valuable to us.

The Celtics are winning because they have great symmetry.

They have achieved  mathematical equilibrium with Kristaps at center and 2 wings plus 2 combo guards.

Their spacing is impeccable which allows them to attack from different angles.  We can look at the win/loss numbers and know that this team is better than any team that we have seen over the last 10+ years.  Behind those wins we will find a team that sees the game in front of them in a way that enhances their ability to make the correct play.  The key is very much related to moving the ball and doing so consistently.  They are a very connected team so that a single ignition point seems to ignite a chain reaction that encompasses  every player on the court.  Their runs are characterized by a barrage of great plays from everywhere on the court.  They are overwhelming teams with the magnitude of their execution.  

Last night they bent the Mavs back and forth like a piece of wire until they snapped.

The pundits sure spend a lot of time talking about JT and the MVP award.  That award will be given to the player who scores the most points or close to the most points per game.  JT talked about that and he stated that there are guys who will score more points and he also stated that him scoring less points is more helpful to the team because the players around him are highly skilled shot makers.  He gets it.  His #1 goal is to win an NBA Championship and he is willing to sacrifice to contribute to that ultimate goal.  

I was watching the ESPN halftime show and there goes Perk railing on Tatum because he only scored 11 points in the 1st half and using that to suggest that an MVP has to do more.  He gave no consideration to the fact that JB and KP were also in double digits scoring or the fact that the Celtics put up 66 points by halftime.

We have seen a pattern of play this near where JT takes a backset while JB and KP carry the scoring load in the half but then in the 2nd half JT takes over.  Last night was a perfect example of that pattern.  JT smoked the Mavs in the 2nd half and down the stretch.

Overall this was another great game by a Celtics team that is fully engaged in the task at hand.

Really liked coach using Tillman over Luke last night. Luke is fine against lumbering big men, but Tillman is better suited against faster bigs. This is a nice luxury. I thought Tillman looked good and hope we resign him.

Celtics17 wrote:Really liked coach using Tillman over Luke last night. Luke is fine against lumbering big men, but Tillman is better suited against faster bigs. This is a nice luxury. I thought Tillman looked good and hope we resign him.

Celtics17

The Celtics are not as good when Like Kornet is on the floor.

He has the worst offensive and defensive rating on the team.

https://www.nba.com/stats/team/1610612738/players-advanced

His 5.7 net rating is the lowest on the team.  I would estimate that we are around 5 points worse with him on the floor.

He is just not on the same level as our other rotations guys (AH +10.6, SH +11.1 and  PP+11.4) net ratings.

I liked what I saw from Tillman.  His physical presence was obvious.  The Celtics do not get to the big dance unless they are able to beat several very physical teams like The Bucks, Cavs, Heat and Knicks.  Tillman fills a need on this team.

We have 4 remaining B2B games.  I think it would be beneficial to get Tillman minutes in those game plus other games.   We only have 23 games remining so we have 1/4 of the season to get him fully integrated into the rotation.  Does this mean that Kornet sees less floor time?  Yes it does.

dboss wrote:

Celtics17 wrote:Really liked coach using Tillman over Luke last night. Luke is fine against lumbering big men, but Tillman is better suited against faster bigs. This is a nice luxury. I thought Tillman looked good and hope we resign him.

Celtics17

The Celtics are not as good when Like Kornet is on the floor.

He has the worst offensive and defensive rating on the team.

https://www.nba.com/stats/team/1610612738/players-advanced

His 5.7 net rating is the lowest on the team.  I would estimate that we are around 5 points worse with him on the floor.

He is just not on the same level as our other rotations guys (AH +10.6, SH +11.1 and  PP+11.4) net ratings.

I liked what I saw from Tillman.  His physical presence was obvious.  The Celtics do not get to the big dance unless they are able to beat several very physical teams like The Bucks, Cavs, Heat and Knicks.  Tillman fills a need on this team.

We have 4 remaining B2B games.  I think it would be beneficial to get Tillman minutes in those game plus other games.   We only have 23 games remining so we have 1/4 of the season to get him fully integrated into the rotation.  Does this mean that Kornet sees less floor time?  Yes it does.

Exactly we needed that physical type defender, power guys can get into KP and AH, doesn’t mean they will not have their moments, but at least they won’t get too worn out having to bang with a physical big night after night in a 7 game series. Now we have that Paul Silas/Charles Oakley type to match them for stretches to keep our main guys fresher.

Yeah Perk is a big blowhard, it’s obvious there are 48 minutes to a game. Tatum has shown throughout his career, once he gets going he just scores in bunches so well, taking over games. He’s done that his whole career, come on Perk, you watch this team, how can you be so dumb?

cowens/oldschool wrote:Yeah Perk is a big blowhard, it’s obvious there are 48 minutes to a game. Tatum has shown throughout his career, once he gets going he just scores in bunches so well, taking over games. He’s done that his whole career, come on Perk, you watch this team, how can you be so dumb?

Exactly. Was thinking the same thing. There are 48 minutes in a game. Perk is all about sensationalism. It is not one of his better qualities.

Thanks in large part to Porzingis we were close on the offensive glass and had some second chance points. We still need to get players to do a better job limiting opponents opportunities, boxing them out and keeping them off their offensive boards. Still, at least we’re grabbing a few more of our own. Hopefully we’re trending toward better rebounding on the offensive end, to go with our productivity on the defensive end.

Well, I couldn't have asked much more from our team than what they left out on the floor last night.  Well, beating the crapola out of the high flying GSW's tomorrow wouldn't hurt!  I think we will see a little better defense from them than "D" is silent Dallas.

JT has changed his tone ever so slightly.  Did you catch it post-game interview?  He opened with, "We're a pretty good team...."  (understatement of the year!!) But he doesn't do it in an overbearing, obnoxious, overly confident way.  Just in a matter of fact, nice guy way.  I think he might have even surprised himself last night with the team's overall performance.  He still threw in we have a long way to go, however he all but said we've made some more progress.

Enjoy the ride folks.  Lather. Rinse. Repeat.  Dang that was some good basketball! At Kryrie's expense, too. That's all we have to do against scorers. We contained Kryrie. Luka went apeshit. BFD. It ain't ever gonna be enough.  

db

There was a story somewhere, not exactly sure where it was as someone just mentioned it to me, that Perk had a problem with the Celtics.  This might. Explain his pick pick picking at them as if he were a GM and new the in’s and outs of this team.  I am going to try to find it tonight

DBoss, Cowens

Totally agree on Tillman. Love his physicality. As you stated, there is time to get him up to speed before the playoffs. If he can get acclimated, I think he can give us some meaningful minutes in the playoffs.