2022-2023 POST GAME DALLAS MAVS - AWAY

Celtics Wrap: Boston Bounces Back, Dominates Mavericks In Win
It didn't take much for the Celtics to run the Mavericks off the floor


NESN by Gio Rivera

The Boston Celtics found their way back into the win column and defeated the Dallas Mavericks 124-95 at American Airlines Center on Thursday night.

The Celtics remained atop the NBA standings and improved to 27-12, while the Mavericks ended their win streak at seven games and fell to 22-18 on their campaign.

ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
After back-to-back losses, the Celtics found their offensive momentum and put Tuesday’s atrocity in the rearview mirror. And they did so in cakewalk fashion despite a slow start.

While the matchup was highly anticipated with a pair of MVP contenders on the floor — Jayson Tatum and Luka Doncic — it wouldn’t be a head-to-head battle between the two. The two starts combined to shoot just 2-of-14 from the outside, with both credited to Tatum.

The Celtics were able to sustain uncharacteristic showings from Tatum and Brown, courtesy of some strong ball movement. Five Celtics finished with three-plus assists en route to a 29-assist night as a team. They also did their part in taking advantage of Dallas’ interior weakness and outrebounded the Mavericks 52-42.

And while the Celtics didn’t shoot particularly well for their standard, it didn’t take much to overcome a cold hand from the Mavericks. In fact, Celtics interim head coach Joe Mazzulla walked off the court with a spare four unused timeouts in his pocket.

STARS OF THE GAME
— Tatum started off in cold fashion but regathered to help the Celtics avoid a third straight loss. He notched his second career triple-double with 21 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists.

— Doncic entered the game with a 44.5-point average through his previous six games. While not nearly as dominant, Doncic did lead the Mavericks’ offensive push. He finished with 23 points with nine rebounds and went 0-for-6 from beyond the arc.

— Malcolm Brogdon was the voice of reason before the Celtics took the floor and he delivered off the bench. Brogdon led the reserve unit with 15 points, three rebounds and four assists.

WAGER WATCH
Before game time in Dallas, DraftKings Sportsbook set the odds of Tatum’s rebound total at 7.5 with -140 odds on the Over. The MVP contender himself cleared those odds with no issue and finished with seven rebounds in the first half alone. A $100 bet placed on Tatum would’ve resulted in a $171.43 total payout.

UP NEXT
After sweeping the season series over the Mavericks, the Celtics will wrap up their four-game road trip on Saturday. Tipoff against the San Antonio Spurs from AT&T Center is scheduled for 6 p.m. ET.

112288

Why the win tonight by a large margin. Simple unlike the last 10 games or so, 6 players were in double figures. You have to get everyone involved or the team gets stagnet and stale.

Go to see Brown and Tatum take a total of 34 shots collectively our of a team total 84.

Again Tatum shot 2/8 from 3 = 25%. it is a mystery that he let his long game go to crap over the last 3-4 years. The league average is 3.9%.

I know Dallas is a poor team and Doncic was hurt, but we out rebounded them 52/42, and I look at the winning margin and ball distribution that tells me they are back on track, at least for this game!

112288

I think this team's performance, good and bad, is essentially on the players.Joe M expressed it perfectly ,during a huddle, when he told them that they needed to be this team from now on. A coach only has so much control over game to game performance.The principles the coach espouses, pushing the pace, spacing, attacking the paint,and sharing the ball, are exactly what has put us in the position we are in, to wit: best record in the league. Admittedly, there have been two or three putrid performances of late, but there have also been games where we played well and simply shot the ball poorly. The body of work is the body of work , and our record is wayyy better than it was, at this stage , last season. All this pining for Ime makes zero sense to me. I know a lot of posters are critical of Mazulla's demeanor, time out policies etc. Maybe his excessive gum chewing is hurting the team. :bball:Personally, I'm not going to rush to judgement. Joe M may , or may not be the coach that this team needs, but Ime Udoka is not walking through that door, nor, in my opinion, should he.We freed up a roster spot today.I'm hopeful that that is a precursor to bringing in a big man who is more useful than Vonleh , Griffin, or Kornet.

A nice beatdown, especially after the one we just experienced.

What I don't understand is why Joe played Tatum 35 minutes, Smart 34 minutes and Jaylen 30. The game was LONG over. The chances of injury go up with fatigue. Once again I have to say that I'm not sold on Joe despite our record. I guess I'll have to see how we do in the playoffs. If we do well, then I'm a fool on a horse tilting at a windmill that's doing his job.

Tatum rose to the challenge of playing against Luka. Both MVP candidates. Tatum had the better game. I realize that this is just one game but oft-times decisions are made when the candidates are going head-to-head rather than at their season numbers. I was especially impressed with Tatum's 10 assists and only 2 turnovers.

The Js were a combined 2-7 after 1. All fgas were by Tatum. Brown contributed an assist and 2 turnovers. By halftime they were "up" to 5-17, with Brown at 1-4. Despite this we were up 18 because of the bench. Brogdon, Grant and Sam were a combined 9-16 for 26 points (RWill had one too).

Before the game Joe called out the bench, told them they weren't living up to their end of the deal. Regardless of what I think the players are listening to him and that's all that's really important.



Jaylen ended up 6-12. That's what makes the Js so dangerous. We know Tatum can score in bunches, more importantly every opposing coach knows it too, but Jaylen can take over a game too. He went 4-5 in the 4th for 9 points. Is 9 points a huge quarter? No, not even by Jaylen's standards, but 4-5 means they didn't know what to do to stop him and that occupies a coaches mindset. When someone is pure money every time they touch the ball the coach starts overthinking about how to stop them and that opens the game up for other players.

Jay King @ByJayKing
yesterday
Joe Mazzulla said Jaylen Brown asked to guard Luka Doncic tonight.

Luka was 7-23 for 23, 3 assists, 4 turnovers and 4 fouls.

John Karalis @John_Karalis
yesterday
Joe Mazzulla on what the team showed him about responding: they showed me they can do it once. Now they have to do it over and over again


https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401468732


Bob


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There's the margin and randomness I'm looking for.  95 points for the opponent which in today's NBA implies our defense really showed up and shut them down.  125 for us, which is good.  Not great but good and more than enough when your defense shows up.  

Insert The Bonnie Situation quote again.  Let's see if we are back for real and get another win tomorrow night against inferior competition and not get blown out by 30 for the D. White/Pop reunion.

db

P.S.  Not sure what DAL was thinking.  Very concerned about Luka.  With Luka grabbing his chest through most of the game, I'm surprised he did not collapse.  Ktron, are you sure Cuban is mentally present and not dreaming about the next set and episode of Shark Tank?  Just checking. Mark, your franchise player is playing so hard with zero help that he's grabbing his heart/chest during the game now.  Cuban should have walked over to the bench and pulled him from the game himself.  Jesus, go get this boy some help or you may have a Reggie Lewis situation on your hands.  Definitely wouldn't wish that on anyone. Any action by you would go a long way instead of crickets.  I'd be very concerned.  

db

dbrown4 wrote:There's the margin and randomness I'm looking for.  95 points for the opponent which in today's NBA implies our defense really showed up and shut them down.  125 for us, which is good.  Not great but good and more than enough when your defense shows up.  

Insert The Bonnie Situation quote again.  Let's see if we are back for real and get another win tomorrow night against inferior competition and not get blown out by 30 for the D. White/Pop reunion.

db

P.S.  Not sure what DAL was thinking.  Very concerned about Luka.  With Luka grabbing his chest through most of the game, I'm surprised he did not collapse.  Ktron, are you sure Cuban is mentally present and not dreaming about the next set and episode of Shark Tank?  Just checking.  Mark, your franchise player is playing so hard with zero help that he's grabbing his heart/chest during the game now.  Cuban should have walked over to the bench and pulled him from the game himself.  Jesus, go get this boy some help or you may have a Reggie Lewis situation on your hands.  Definitely wouldn't wish that on anyone.  Any action by you would go a long way instead of crickets.    I'd be very concerned.  

db

Db, I did not mean to imply that Cuban is mistake free. My counter point was that whatever decisions he may or may not be making has nothing to do with the running of his other businesses or Shark Tank.

I remember the big mistake he made by not keeping Steve Nash and that was way before Shark Tank was even in any TV Moguls Think Tank. Between that mistake there were others and what owner hasn’t made some? What owner only owns a BB team and nothing else? I know of none. They all have large portfolios as does Cuban.
Cuban’s latest blunder was not keeping Brunson. He does have people who make those decisions and of course he’s involved so he has to take some of the blame just as he has to be given some of the credit for finagling his way into landing Luka.

Db, I’m pretty sure you’re kidding about him single handily having Luka pulled in Thursdays game. But for the sake of argument, no he shouldn't-ever. He has trainers and Doctors to address that. Doncic probably only has a bad cold as far as we know. Also, Luka always looks injured or under the weather every time they're getting their ass kicked. Don’t take my word for it. Watch some more and you’ll notice it too.

Back to Cuban, watch their home games. He already sits too close to the bench and can be seen standing outside of huddles at times. Its his team and he can do what he wants even if it isn’t the right thing to do. His commingling in the huddle and sitting that close is already too close to the border. That’s a bit much for me but pulling a player or sending down an order to do so is a bit much even for him. He would never go that far. IMHBAO LOL.

Yeah, Ktron, you know me by now and my exaggeration for effect! I just like picking on him, yet wish I could be him and have what he has. I'm just going by what I see and don't want anyone else to experience what Boston has had to endure with Bias and Lewis. Both were avoidable, tragic and sad. With a history of heart conditions in our family, I jump to the worst case scenario.

db

After losing 2 straight on this road trip, the Celtics needed to win this game.

Our shooting was much improved and I think the ball movement (extra passes) touching in the paint, spacing the floor provided great catch and shoot opportunities.  It seems to me that when the ball does not stick the Celtics shooting is better.

I thought the defense was outstanding.  

The Mavs do not look as good as they did last year at either end of the floor.  I agree with Ktron. They should have made an effort to keep Brunson however, there was some back dealing going on with the Knicks.

"Tom Thibodeau defended the Knicks' decision to hire the father of the team's new point guard, Jalen Brunson, despite his checkered past. Rick Brunson, who joined the Knicks in June as an assistant coach and helped them land his son in free agency in July, has faced sexual misconduct allegations in the past"    https://nypost.com/2022/09/27/knicks-defend-decision-to-hire-jalen-brunsons-father/

Several years back Mark Cuban was the big spender.

dbrown4 wrote:Yeah, Ktron, you know me by now and my exaggeration for effect!  I just like picking on him, yet wish I could be him and have what he has.  I'm just going by what I see and don't want anyone else to experience what Boston has had to endure with Bias and Lewis.  Both were avoidable, tragic and sad.  With a history of heart conditions in our family, I jump to the worst case scenario.

db  

I hear ya. Gotta admit, when I saw Luka holding his chest thats the first thing that came to mind.

dboss wrote:After losing 2 straight on this road trip, the Celtics needed to win this game.

Our shooting was much improved and I think the ball movement (extra passes) touching in the paint, spacing the floor provided great catch and shoot opportunities.  It seems to me that when the ball does not stick the Celtics shooting is better.

I thought the defense was outstanding.  

The Mavs do not look as good as they did last year at either end of the floor.  I agree with Ktron. They should have made an effort to keep Brunson however, there was some back dealing going on with the Knicks.

"Tom Thibodeau defended the Knicks' decision to hire the father of the team's new point guard, Jalen Brunson, despite his checkered past. Rick Brunson, who joined the Knicks in June as an assistant coach and helped them land his son in free agency in July, has faced sexual misconduct allegations in the past"    https://nypost.com/2022/09/27/knicks-defend-decision-to-hire-jalen-brunsons-father/

Several years back Mark Cuban was  the big spender.  

Naughty boy Dick Brunson:”)

I hope Cuban did a solid for Dirk signing well below what he deserved so that they could add players.
I don’t think players should ever be asked to do that. As Kobe once said {Hell no! You're the ones wearing suits. You figure it out}