Tag: Celtics

Celtics call Pritchard 3 ‘play of the game’ in Game 2

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Payton Pritchard #11 of the Boston Celtics reacts after his made three-point basket against the Dallas Mavericks to end the third quarter in Game Two of the 2024 NBA Finals at TD Garden on June 09, 2024 in Boston, Massachusetts. Maddie Meyer/Getty Images/AFP

Payton Pritchard doesn’t care much about what his line in the stat sheet looks like, which is one of the many things that endears him to Joe Mazzulla and the Boston Celtics.

He was sent into Game 2 of the NBA Finals with 3.3 seconds remaining in the third quarter, with one mission: Take a desperation 3-pointer before time expires. It’s a low-percentage shot, and it’s no secret that plenty of NBA players won’t take them because it can hurt their stats.

Pritchard takes them happily. And this time, it worked.

A 34-footer, from the NBA Finals logo just inside the midcourt stripe, bounced off the backboard and in for a nine-point lead going into the fourth quarter. They were Pritchard’s only three points of Game 2, and they were an unforgettable part of Boston’s 105-98 win over the Dallas Mavericks.

“I think the play of the game can’t go unnoticed, the humility of our team, is Payton’s shot at the end of the quarter,” said Mazzulla, the Celtics’ coach. “You see guys around the league pass up on that shot or fake like they want to take it, so that their numbers don’t get messed up. He takes pride in taking that, and that’s winning basketball.”

READ: NBA Finals: Luka Doncic triple-double not enough for Mavericks

The play was one that the Celtics call for Pritchard. He caught the inbounds pass while building a head of steam, took three dribbles, stopped just in time and let it fly. It went in, he started jumping around like a madman and a sold-out crowd at TD Garden followed suit.

“The energy that Payton brings, him just having the (courage) to take that shot … it was definitely a confidence boost,” Celtics guard Jrue Holiday said.

According to SportRadar, Pritchard is one of five players in the NBA with at least 13 attempts from 30 or more feet in the final 3 seconds of a period this season. Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton went 5 for 20 in those moments, Denver’s Nikola Jokic went 1 for 16, Milwaukee’s Damian Lillard went 4 for 14 and Dallas’ Luka Doncic is 0 for 14 on those tries.

They’re all superstars, all max-contract guys who don’t have to worry if their 3-point percentage takes a tiny hit.

Pritchard — now 2 for 13 on such heaves this season — isn’t a max guy. Not even close. He sacrifices the numbers anyway, and that’s what Mazzulla was raving about after Game 2.

READ: NBA Finals: Celtics hold off Mavericks for 2-0 lead

“It shows belief he put me in that situation, knowing I could hit that shot.” Pritchard said. “To believe in me, it means a lot as a player.”

And it wasn’t some throwaway moment, either.

Dallas had just cut a double-digit deficit down to six, a very manageable margin going into the final 12 minutes. Pritchard’s shot wasn’t just three big points; it breathed life into Boston going into that closing quarter.

“He has the humility and selflessness to not care if he misses it,” Mazzulla said. “He practices it and has an understanding of how a shot like that can impact the end of a quarter and it can impact the run that a team makes. So, they had went on a run to end the quarter, and I thought that shot kind of gave us a little bit of poise and a little bit of momentum that we needed heading into the fourth quarter. That was big-time.”

Celtics hold off Mavericks for 2-0 lead

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Dallas Mavericks forward P.J. Washington (25) is blocked by Boston Celtics’ Derrick White (9) and Jaylen Brown (7) during the second half of Game 2 of the NBA Finals basketball series, Sunday, June 9, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

BOSTON — Jrue Holiday had 26 points and 11 rebounds, and Jayson Tatum made up for a rough shooting night with 12 assists and nine rebounds as the Boston Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks 105-98 on Sunday night to take a 2-0 lead in the NBA Finals.

Luka Doncic, who was listed as questionable to play less than two hours before the opening tipoff, scored 32 points with 11 rebounds and 11 assists — the first NBA Finals triple-double in Mavericks franchise history. But he missed a one-footed, running floater from 3-point range with 28 seconds left, ending Dallas’ last chance at a comeback.

Game 3 is Wednesday night in Dallas. The Mavericks need a win then or in Game 4 on Friday to avoid a sweep and earn a trip back to the Boston Garden, where the local fans are already making space in the rafters for what would be an unprecedented 18th NBA championship banner.

READ: NBA Finals: Celtics stars united as Kidd comment stirs debate

The Celtics won the opening pair in the NBA Finals for the ninth time. They have won the previous eight, and have never been forced to a Game 7 in any of them.

Jaylen Brown scored 21 points, Tatum had 18 and Derrick White also scored 18 points for top-seeded Boston. Kristaps Porzingis limped his way to 12 points. Tatum was 6 for 22 shooting and 1 of 7 from 3-point range; the Celtics were 10 for 39 from long distance overall.

Kyrie Irving, who’s drawn the animosity of the local fans ever since cutting short his stay in Boston in 2019, scored 16 points; he has lost 12 games in a row against the Celtics.

READ: NBA Finals: Celtics’ formula leaves Mavericks searching for solution

Unlike their 107-89 victory in Game 1, when a fast start from 3-point range staked them to a 29-point, first-half lead, the Celtics missed their first eight attempts from long distance and were around 20% for most of the game.

Tatum scored zero points in the first quarter and had only five at halftime, when he was still 0 for 3 from 3-point range.

Boston was still just 5 for 30 from long distance when Peyton Pritchard banked in a half-courter at the third-quarter buzzer to give Boston an 83-74 lead.

NBA Finals 2024 Boston Celtics vs Dallas Mavericks

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Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum, right, fends off Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving during the second half of Game 1 of basketball’s NBA Finals 2024 on Thursday, June 6, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

The Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks dispute the Larry O’Brien Trophy in a best-of-seven NBA Finals series.

The Celtics, who finished with the best record this NBA season, hold the home-court advantage in the series against Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks, who are back in the Finals for the first time since 2011.

Boston reached the NBA Finals after sweeping Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference while the Mavericks disposed of Minnesota Timberwolves in five games over at the West.

Celtics stars united as Kidd comment stirs debate

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Boston Celtics’ Jaylen Brown, left, and Jayson Tatum jump before Game 1 of the basketball team’s NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday, June 6, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

The Boston Celtics, coming off an authoritative game one victory over Dallas in the NBA Finals, aren’t about to let Mavericks coach Jason Kidd get in their heads going into Game 2.

In comments widely interpreted as a bid to sow discord in the Celtics ranks, Kidd twice told reporters on Saturday that Jaylen Brown is Boston’s “best” player — but Brown and star teammate Jayson Tatum didn’t bite.

“No reaction,” Tatum said as the teams spoke to reporters ahead of Sunday’s game two in Boston. “This is a team sport, right. We understand that.

“We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t have JB on our team and we can say that for a lot of guys.

“We have all played a part in getting to where we’re at, and we understand that people try to drive a wedge between us. I guess it’s a smart thing to do or try to do.

READ: NBA Finals: Mavericks plan to get Celtics to fight among themselves

“We’ve been in this position for many of years of guys trying to divide us and say that one of us should be traded or one is better than the other. So it’s not our first time at the rodeo.”

Brown led Boston’s scoring with 22 points and was dominant on the defensive end in Thursday’s 107-89 victory.

“Jaylen is their best player,” Kidd said when asked about the difficulty of containing him. “Just looking at what he does defensively, he picked up Luka (Doncic) full court. He got to the free throw line. He did everything, and that’s what your best player does. Just understanding he plays both sides, defense and offense, at a high rate. And he’s been doing that the whole playoffs.”

Brown and Tatum are familiar with the question of which is the team’s top star — long a favorite topic of media debate.

As always, Brown said, the Celtics are tuning it out, even though this time it comes from a coach whose three trips to the NBA Finals as a player included a championship run with Dallas in 2011.

READ: NBA Finals: Celtics formula leaves Mavericks searching for solution

“We’ve been just extremely focused on what our roles and our jobs are,” Brown said.

“We have all had to sacrifice. Jason (Kidd) has had to do that at the highest of levels, right, and I respect him and tip his cap for it.

“Right now, at this point, it’s whatever it takes to win and we can’t let any outside interpretations try to get in between us.”

Instead, Brown said, the Celtics are focused on finding more ways to unsettle the Mavericks’ star duo of Doncic and Kyrie Irving.

“We’ve got to be ready because they are really good after a loss,” Brown said.

That is just what Kidd is counting on.

“I think there’s no panic with this group,” Kidd said. “We didn’t play well in game one … but it’s a series and we don’t just look to capitalize on just one game.

“We believe that we can respond in game two.”

Mavs plan to get Celtics to fight among themselves

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Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown, fornt, and Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving vie for the ball during the first half of Game 1 of basketball’s NBA Finals, Thursday, June 6, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

BOSTON — Jason Kidd couldn’t figure out how to stop the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

Now he’s hoping they will get in their own way.

The Mavericks coach seemed eager to sow dissension in the Boston locker room on Saturday when he singled out Jaylen Brown as the Celtics’ best player — words transparently designed to irk Jayson Tatum, an actual NBA first-teamer who was sixth in the voting for the league’s MVP.

Asked during his off-day media availability about a game-plan to defend Brown, Kidd said, “Well, Jaylen’s their best player …” prompting reporters to perk up and wonder: Did he really say that? (It was the final question of his news conference, so there was no follow-up.)

Tatum said it won’t work.

READ: NBA Finals: Attitude, not environment, key for Mavericks in NBA Finals fightback

“We understand that people try to drive a wedge between us. I guess it’s a smart thing to do — or try to do,” Tatum said. “We’ve been in this position for many years, of guys trying to divide us and say that one of us should be traded, or one is better than the other. So it’s not our first time at the rodeo.”

On that, Brown agreed completely.

“We’ve been just extremely focused on what our roles and our jobs are. We have all had to sacrifice,” he said. “Right now, at this point, it’s whatever it takes to win. And we can’t let any outside interpretations try to get in between us.”

Drafted third overall in back-to-back years, Brown and Tatum have emerged as one of the NBA’s best duos, combining to lead the Celtics to the Eastern Conference finals five times in their seven seasons together. But even with the success — 64 wins this year, the league’s No. 1 overall seed, and a second trip to the NBA Finals — they have had to combat speculation that there wasn’t room in the locker room for both of them.

Although Tatum’s career numbers have been better, Brown is the highest-paid player in the league — a quirk of timing and age that gave him the first shot at a supermax contract extension that will earn him more than $300 million over five years. Brown also outplayed Tatum in the 2022 NBA Finals, was the MVP of this year’s conference finals and outscored Tatum 22-16 in the Game 1 victory over Dallas on Thursday night.

That may explain why Kidd said on Saturday — twice — that Brown was Boston’s main threat.

READ: NBA Finals: Celtics’ formula leaves Mavericks searching for solution

“Jaylen’s their best player,” the Mavericks coach said. “He did everything, and that’s what your best player does. Just understanding how to play both sides — defense and offense at a high rate — he’s been doing that the whole playoffs.”

But no one else seems to think so.

Tatum averaged 27 points, eight rebounds and five assists this season, and Brown averaged 23, 5.5 and 3.6. And even with Brown outscoring him in Game 1, Tatum’s numbers are also better in the playoffs so far. (And besides: The real star of the opener was Boston big man Kristaps Porzingis.)

Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said he’s not worried about internal rivalries getting in his team’s way, as long as his players “focus on the truth.”

“What goes on in our locker room, how we communicate with each other, how we build relationships with each other and how we treat each other on and off the floor, that’s the most important thing,” he said.

The Mavericks have their own Big Two, with five-time All-NBA first-team guard Luka Doncic teaming up with Kyrie Irving to form an All-Star backcourt. Irving, who teamed with LeBron James to win the 2016 NBA championship in Cleveland even as they struggled to co-exist, said he tries not to pay attention to talk pitting him against his teammate.

“I’m just here to play basketball,” Irving said. “You’ve got to be selfless in your approach. Obviously, you’re not going to get it right all the time, but as a teammate, you just want to push those other things to the side that don’t really matter or get you better as a team. So we just leave it to everybody else to argue whose team it is and who has the most responsibility. It’s all our jobs to be prepared.”

Celtics’ formula leaves Mavericks searching for solution

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Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown, left, celebrates with center Al Horford, center, as the Celtics lead the Dallas Mavericks during the second half of Game 1 of the NBA Basketball Finals against the Dallas Mavericks, Thursday, June 6, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

BOSTON — When the Boston Celtics make a ton of 3-pointers, forget it. They’re probably not going to lose.

That was surely something the Dallas Mavericks understood before Game 1 of the NBA Finals — and if they, or anyone else, somehow were unaware of that fact, it was on full display in the opener.

The Celtics made 16 3s, outscoring the Mavericks by 27 points from long range, in their 107-89 victory Thursday night. Both teams have an off day Friday and are scheduled to resume practice Saturday. Game 2 is Sunday night in Boston.

“We’ve got to be better,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. “Nerves or not being in this situation, we can’t use that as an excuse. It’s just basketball, and we’ve got to be better at the game of basketball on Sunday.”

And it’ll start with doing a better job on 3s — either making more, giving up fewer, or both. Consider these trends for the Celtics this season:

READ: Porzingis returns, Celtics open NBA Finals with big win over Mavericks

— When making 16 or more 3s, Boston is 51-6. When making 15 or under, the Celtics are 26-14. That’s still a very good mark, but at least opponents have a realistic chance of winning when that happens.

— When the Celtics make more 3s than their opponent, they’re 61-5. When they don’t, they’re 16-15, basically a coin-flip to see who wins.

— When the Celtics make at least four more 3s than their opponent, they’re 49-3.

— When factoring in both the regular season and the playoffs, not only has Boston made more 3s than anyone else (1,572 so far this season, 24 away from matching the league’s total-season mark the Celtics set last year), but the Celtics also have a better percentage this season than any other club. They’re at .3852 for the season now, a whisker ahead of Oklahoma City’s .3851.

“I think they are the best 3-point shooting team in the NBA, so sometimes (it’s) really hard to take those away,” Mavericks guard Luka Doncic said. “Especially when they have five guys out and they can all shoot. Obviously, we’ve got to make more.”

READ: Porzingis a big problem in NBA Finals for Mavericks team that cast him off

And it was a team effort for the Celtics in Game 1. That has to be what makes it doubly scary for Dallas — because just about everyone in Boston’s rotation was part of the prowess from deep.

Jayson Tatum and Derrick White each made three 3s, while five other Celtics each made two. It was only the seventh time in NBA playoff history that seven teammates made at least two 3s in a game; it was the second such instance for Boston in this year’s playoffs, and the first time it ever happened in an NBA Finals.

“They are going to make some 3s at times, but we want to make them tough,” Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving said. “When they are at home, they shoot incredibly well.”

Boston led by 29 in the first half, then Dallas got the margin down to eight in the third quarter. It looked manageable — that is, until the Celtics started making 3s again. Tatum hit a 3, pushing the lead to 16. Al Horford hit another, and the lead was 19. Jaylen Brown hit another; lead up to 22.

Crisis averted. Collapse warning lifted. The game wasn’t in doubt again.

“When they cut it to eight, that’s when the game started,” Brown said. “I liked how our team responded. We stayed composed. Offensively, we got to our spacing and was able to push that lead back out and make some plays on offense.”

Made some plays on defense, too. A lot of them, actually. That was a theme all night for Boston; Dallas didn’t reach 25 points in any quarter of Game 1.

Dallas had five assists through three quarters — the fewest by any team in the first 36 minutes of any game in the last three seasons. The Mavericks aren’t exactly a high-assist team; they had the 19th-most in the regular season, but five through 36 minutes is almost impossible considering Doncic and Irving are on the team.

But that’s how good Boston’s defense was. It took away fast-break points (Dallas finished with only six), and one of the reasons why the final margin wasn’t even larger is because the Mavericks managed 16 second-chance points.

Translation: Nothing came easily for Dallas.

“Everyone was really locked in on the defensive end,” Horford said. “The things that we needed to do, we just wanted to be very solid throughout.”

The Mavericks finished Game 1 with nine assists, five fewer than their lowest in any other game this season. Doncic has 27 games so far this season alone where he’s had a triple-double of points, rebounds and assists — but Dallas’ entire team didn’t manage such a triple-double in Game 1.

“Just great individual defense,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “Everybody has to take on the challenge of guarding those guys. They’re an amazing team and they put a ton of pressure on you with their ability to score. Everyone is going to take their matchup personal, have personal pride in individual defense.”

It has been Boston’s formula all season — 3s on one end, stops on the other. And in Game 1, it worked like a charm.

Celtics pay tribute to Bill Walton before Game 1

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A display honoring basketball great Bill Walton appears on a screen before Game 1 of basketball’s NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks, Thursday, June 6, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

BOSTON  — Bill Walton only spent one full season with the Boston Celtics. His impact was unforgettable.

The franchise paid tribute to the sixth man on its 1986 championship team before Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night. Walton’s family was in the crowd for a pregame moment of silence that was interrupted by a fan yelling, “We love you, Bill!”

Commissioner Adam Silver called Walton a friend whose evident love for basketball game helped spread the game around the world, including on a 2004 trip to the Great Wall of China.

READ: Bill Walton, Hall of Fame player, dies of cancer at 71

“I can’t think of a better ambassador for the NBA than Bill. He enjoyed talking to every single person,” Silver said before the game. “It’s a sad moment in the league.”

The Celtics nodded to Walton’s Deadheadedness by coming out in black shooting shirts that said “Walton” with a tie-dye background; team staff wore pins with a similar design. The players’ jerseys had a black band with Walton’s name on the shoulder.

“Bill was a champion at every level and the embodiment of unselfish team play,” the public address announcer said, while both the Celtics and Mavericks players applauded. “He derived great joy from basketball and music, and deeply cherished his moments with teammates and friends. We are proud to call him one of the greatest Celtics who ever lived.”

Walton, who died on May 27 at the age of 71, was a three-time national player of the year at UCLA, leading the Bruins to the NCAA championship in 1972 and ’73 during a record 88-game winning streak. He was the runner-up for NBA MVP in 1977, when the Trail Blazers won the NBA title, and won the award the next year.

He also played four seasons for the Clippers – and missed three others with foot injuries – before arriving in Boston in 1986, giving the Celtics enough to push them past the Houston Rockets in the NBA Finals for the franchise’s unprecedented 16th championship.

He was limited to 10 games the following season by foot injuries and retired before going on to a successful second career as a broadcaster — and Grateful Dead follower. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1993.