BOSTON – National Television. The calendar has moved to March. Floor at TD Garden to face the best Boston Celtics in the NBA.
Dallas coach Jason Kidd called it “a great test to see where we are with the new pieces.” With that in mind, let’s charitably grade Boston’s 138-110 upset of Dallas on Friday night as a C-minus for the non-conformistseven if the match was not as gloomy as the final score.
Granted, the Mavericks left plenty of room for improvement over the final 22 games of the regular season, but Kidd said he saw positive signs in his new team, especially up to the point where Dallas trailed 81-79 midway through the third quarter.
“It wasn’t the game we wanted, but we learned a lot about ourselves,” Kidd said. “We have some things to correct, but this is going in the right direction. We’re closer than we think based on the score.
The Mavericks got a monster game from Luka Doncic, whose 37 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists performance topped that of fellow NBA MVP candidate Jayson Tatum, who finished with 32 points and eight rebounds.
Afterwards, the MVP candidates briefly hugged each other, smiled and spoke on the court.
“He’s just a great guy,” Doncic said. “We both have a lot of respect for each other, which is incredible. We fought there.
Asked if he felt like there was a game in the game, with so much focus on MVP candidates, Doncic shrugged: “I don’t know. I think it’s for the media. They have the right to vote. »
The results of this evening and the 1-3 ranking of this road trip for the Mavericks, however, illustrate the difficult climbs faced by Doncic in the race for MVP and that of Dallas in the race for the playoffs.
When this trip began, the Mavericks were on a seven-game winning streak and were coming off a victory over Phoenix that moved them up to 6th in the West, a half-game behind New Orleans.
Now the Mavericks (34-26) are eighth in the West as they return to Dallas for a quick noon Sunday game against Philadelphia, trailing the sixth-place Pelicans by 1 1/2 games and seventh-place Sacramento by a half. -match.
It’s no shame, nor a surprise, to fall to a 47-12 Boston team that drained 21 of 43 3-pointers en route to its 10th straight victory, but Dallas ideally needed a score 2-2 on this trip. The Mavericks almost certainly would have done it without Max Strus’ 59-foot buzzer-beater in Cleveland.
“It was a three-quarter, 3-and-a-half quarter game, almost,” rookie Derek Lively II said of Friday’s loss. “We just have to be able to overcome some of the problems that we have. Just because our offense isn’t working doesn’t mean our defense should give up.
“There are times when other players are thinking about certain things, but I feel like we just have to… be able to trust each other in those times.”
PJ Washington had his third straight strong offensive performance, scoring 17 points and seven rebounds.
Washington made three 3-pointers in the third quarter alone, and it missed an attempt with 5:38 left in the period that could have given Dallas an 82-81 lead. The Mavericks remained within reach after three quarters, 102-90.
The Celtics, however, scored the first nine points of the fourth quarter and 12 of the first 14 to open the game.
There were several intriguing subplots. It was only Kristaps Porzingis’ second game against Dallas since his February 10, 2022 trade with Washington – and his first since April 1, 2022, when in a Wizards home victory he had 24 points and nine rebounds .
Porzingis scored 24 points and pulled down six rebounds on Friday.
Kyrie Irving has returned to Boston often since leaving in free agency following the 2018-19 season, but this was his first visit to TD Garden as a Maverick.
Unlike his return to Cleveland in the second game of this trip, where he received a video tribute and ovation, Irving was booed Friday every time he touched the ball. At the end of the match, when he was on the bench and the match was out of control, the fans were chanting “Kyrie sucks!”
Kyrie Irving on booing at TD Garden: “They have the right to boo. Based on my career record against them in the last few games, I haven’t won, so until I beat them, they everyone has the right to continue booing. I think that’s what makes sport and competitive sport so theatrical…
– Gary Washburn (@GwashburnGlobe) March 2, 2024
But this night was mostly about how the Mavericks would stack up against the Celtics — and whether Doncic or Tatum would make the more compelling case for the MVP.
That last answer was clearly Doncic, two nights after turning 25 with 30 points, 16 assists and 11 rebounds. effort in Toronto.
“At 25, he’s just getting better; I can’t wait to be 26,” Kidd joked, before turning more serious.
“He loves playing the game. He’s emotional.” He is fiery. He believes he can conquer the world. He can beat the world. And that’s what you want for your best player. At 25 years old, he is incredible.
Anyone who tuned in to ESPN on Friday night learned that Doncic is indeed playing MVP-caliber basketball. But what did the Mavericks learn about themselves during this evening of measurement?
“I think we can compete with the best,” Kidd said. “I don’t look at the score, but we really believe we have the talent to compete. You have to be consistent and understand that it is difficult to win this league; it’s difficult to beat the best teams.
“You don’t have to play perfectly, but you have to stay together. You have to stay consistent. And that’s what we’re fighting for right now, like everyone else in this league.
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