BSJ Game Report: Celtics 125, Mavericks 112 - Tatum, Brown combine for 68 to hold off Luka Doncic

Everything you need to know about the Celtics' win over the Dallas Mavericks, with BSJ insight and analysis

IN A NUTSHELL

The Celtics came out hot, basically the complete opposite of their game in Chicago. They moved, they passed, they defended, and they held the Mavs to 49 first-half points while putting up 70 of their own. The 3-point barrage continued into the third, but the Mavs finally started hitting shots late in the 3rd and cut a 27-point lead all the way down to 9. The Celtics put one final closing run together at the end of the fourth to seal their 125-112 win.

Box Score

HEADLINES

Big-time bounceback: The Celtics looked nothing like the team that took the floor in Chicago. They moved the ball, they moved themselves, they read the game and reacted perfectly. They rebounded well, got star performances from their stars, and never gave the Mavericks a chance to get their footing. 

3-pointers falling again: The Celtics hit half their 3-pointers (17-34), including a perfect 4-4 from Al Horford, whose last one changed the game.

“Shooters shoot, man. So I’m gonna keep shooting the ball,” he said. “Spent a lot of time this summer and this season understanding what my role is. Have to stay ready and confident and keep shooting it.”

Derrick White was 3-6, Marcus Smart was 3-4, and Malcolm Brogdon was 2-4. As usual this season, the damage from deep is coming from players other than Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.

All Luka offense went nowhere: Luka Doncic spent the night backing everyone he faced down and scoring on fadeaways or short hooks. He scored at will, and finished with 42 points. The rest of the Mavs did nothing until the end of the third. Doncic had 1 assist until the 3:57 mark of the third, but 8 after that. The Celtics mostly did a great job of cutting off all his other options and living with his scoring. 

“We lost our offensive discipline which allowed them to get out in transition,” Joe Mazzulla said. “He had four of those assists in transition so a lot of that is because of our offensive discipline.” 

TURNING POINT

With the lead down to 11 and Dallas looking like it was going to keep whittling away at the lead, Horford hit a huge 3-pointer with 3:24 left to trigger a 10-2 run to put the game away. The sequence was capped by a monster block by Tatum on Doncic that turned into a Brown 3-pointer that brought the Garden to its loudest moment of the night. 

FIVE UP

Jaylen Brown: A monster game and a big bounce-back from the road trip where he finished with 12 turnovers in 2 games. In this one, he had 31 points on 72% shooting, 4 assists, 2 steals, and just 2 turnovers. 

“A lot of the turnovers that I had were just being careless with the ball,” Brown admitted. “It's not even a matter of anything the defense was doing, it’s just me not even -- just being too careless. … just focusing more on what's in front of us and taking care of the ball. And helping us win games is my emphasis right now.”

Jayson Tatum: 37 points, 13 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 blocks, including that huge one on Doncic. 

"We joked about it. I told him I had to block it because I didn't want him to dunk on me,” Tatum said. “He looked at me and was like, 'You thought I was going to dunk it?' I was like, 'You never know. You're tall enough where you can play above the rim a little bit.' Obviously, one of the best players in the league. A special talent. Somebody I respect. Just like competing against a guy like that."

The duel fueled him and Brown. Both were super aggressive getting into the paint, and for Tatum it resulted in 15 free throw attempts (he made 13). 

Al Horford: He tacked on 5 rebounds and 4 assists to go with his 14 points. 

Malcolm Brogdon: Once again really good in his role, hitting half his shots and this time pitching in on the boards with 6 rebounds. 

Marcus Smart: The hot shooting was one thing, but the real value is in the 9 assists, many of which were seeing-eye passes that dropped perfectly into a scorer’s hands. 

ONE DOWN

Grant Williams: 1-5 from the field, 0-3 from 3. He did have 3 assists, but an off night from the field.

TOP PLAYS

ONE TAKE KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- This team’s identity is on the offensive end this season. 

Getting Robert Williams back will certainly help the defense this season, but it won’t make Boston a defense-first team. This team is an offensive juggernaut and it’s going to stay that way. 

And frankly, why fight it? As long as having Williams helps bring the defense up into the top 10, they’ll be perfectly fine. But any insinuation that this group is suddenly going to start playing defensive-minded games where everything flows off their stops is probably silly at this point. 

These guys are good at this. It’s early, but they're on pace for the best offense of all time. I doubt they will sacrifice that to get down and dirty in the trenches. 

No, they've gotten a taste of the good stuff, and that's moving and getting passes and dunking on people. It’s racking up 30-spots in national TV duels. 

And just because they’ll be offense-first doesn’t mean they’ll be bad at defense. They can still be good at it. They’ll just not be exactly as good as they were last year. 

The question now is simply whether the defense will be good enough to be championship-caliber. The best defensive team doesn’t win every season. There is a balance that needs to be struck.

But Mazzulla is an offensive coach. He’s a former point guard and he loves scoring the ball. The team is taking his identity. This is who he and the team are now. Get the defense up to pretty good and they’ll be fine, even if it’s not great. 

Next Up: The Sacramento Kings visit on Friday night at 8