Key events
Celtics 31-35 Mavericks, 9:19 left, 2nd quarter
Dončić hits another fadeaway, getting the nice roll.
Tatum unhinges the defense and passes to Brown for the dunk.
Then AGAIN, Dončić hits a long-range shot while clearly favoring one foot.
And AGAIN, Boston misses a 3.
And AGAIN, Dončić hits a fadeaway. He has 20 points. Twenty.
Then Dončić finally misses one, and Tatum finally scores.
Weird stats from the first quarter:
Boston is 1-for-9 from 3-point range but has hit all 10 free throws.
Dallas is 2-for-5 from 3-point range and 4-for-9 from the line.
Jayson Tatum is scoreless.
Celtics 25-28 Mavericks, end 1st quarter
Daniel Gafford misses two Dallas free throws after what seemed like a dubious call against Brown but looks correct on replay.
Porzingis, of course, draws the Celtics level.
But Irving drives and hits a tough runner, White misses yet another 3-pointer for Boston, and Irving hits another close-range shot.
Finally, the Celtics’ 3-point drought ends – thanks to Al Horford.
That’s with 5 seconds left. So the Celtics are only down one after the first quarter? Nope. They foul Josh Green on a 3-point attempt. Green misses the first but makes the next two.
Celtics 20-22 Mavericks, 1:30 left, 1st quarter
Dončić is bleeding and therefore has to go away for a bit.
Kyrie Irving tries to shove Jaylen Brown into Rhode Island – again, in the NBA, that’s perfectly legal – but Brown sticks to him and forces a turnover.
Porzingis hits some free throws. Good start from the Game 1 sensation.
Celtics 16-22 Mavericks, 2:24 left, 1st quarter
Dončić tries to get space against Jrue Holiday. He bangs into the Boston defender, then draws a foul. Again, I’ll lament the fact that the NBA rewards offensive players for engaging in sumo.
Celtics 16-20 Mavericks, 2:51 left, 1st quarter
Unbelievable from Dončić, who has been banged up every which way possible but hits a long 3-pointer while bouncing on one foot and favoring the other.
Celtics miss the other way, and Washington makes a layup.
Boston has missed all seven 3-point attempts. Tatum, who has been driving and dishing to misfiring teammates, gets a break, replaced by Horford.
Celtics 14-15 Mavericks, 3:39 left, 1st quarter
Dončić draws a foul on Tatum, who has an assist but has been held scoreless. The Dallas star then misses both free throws, with the second one looking especially ugly.
Boston’s Sam Hauser misses a 3 from Caitlin Clark range. Dončić follows with a Caitlin Clark turnover. (That’s why she’s not on the Olympic team – we can debate that at halftime if you like.)
After Brown travels, Dončić hits a nice fadeaway. Porzingis answers.
Celtics 12-13 Mavericks, 5:33 left, 1st quarter
As expected (by me, at least, not by the TV crew), the replay upholds the call of a foul on P.J. Washington, and Dallas loses a timeout.
Here comes Porzingis! He replaces Horford.
Derrick White hits both free throws.
I have just noticed that the Celtics are wearing strips of black with the name “WALTON” in honor of the recently deceased Bill Walton, one of the best and most colorful players the game has ever seen.
Celtics go on the break, and Kaylen Brown easily sidesteps Dončić for the emphatic slam.
Irving fouls Tatum. Duke fans aren’t sure how to feel about that. Looks like a shooting foul, but instead, it’s just possession to the Celtics. Porzingis draws a foul, and NOW they’ll go to the line. He makes both. It’s a one-point game.
And Porzingis follows up with a block at the other end.
Medi Pulaha asks: “Can I watch the game by my phone?”
I don’t know – can you?
(Seriously – depends on what you subscribe to. The ESPN app is your best bet if you’re in the USA. Or your streaming provider if it gets ABC.)
Celtics 6-13 Mavericks, 7:11 left, 1st quarter
I used the word “nice” twice in the last entry. It’s pretty here where I live. But it probably doesn’t seem that nice in Boston right now, where Horford has launched an airball from the corner.
Dallas is challenging a foul called against P.J. Washington. He got ball but also got a lot of the hand. This should be upheld after these commercial messages.
Celtics 6-13 Mavericks, 8:18 left, 1st quarter
Give the old guy an easy one! After a scramble for a rebound, Jayson Tatum comes up with it and flips it forward to Al Horford, who’s standing along under the basket for the dunk.
Tatum combines nicely with Jrue Holiday for another nice Celtics basket. But Dončić does one of his deceptive drives in which he looks like he’s walking through molasses but does enough to get the ball away and in. He already has 6 points.
Former Celtic (and former everything else) Kyrie Irving hits a long 2-pointer, and the Celtics call timeout.
Celtics 2-7 Mavericks, 10:25 left, 1st quarter
Dončić hits a fadeaway jumper to get us started. The teams trade baskets, Boston turns it over, P.J. Washington hits a 3, and it’s a nice start for the Mavs.
Tipoff
Dallas has it.
Almost tipoff at last.
Luka Dončić is indeed in the unchanged starting lineup.
Other notes from the Game 1 boxscore:
– While all the pressure is on Jayson Tatum, his teammates led the way in the rout. Jaylen Brown had 22 points; Kristaps Porzingis, as already mentioned, had 20. Tatum chipped in 16 points. And 5 assists. And 11 rebounds. (But he had 6 turnovers, so the People Who Place Values On Athletes’ Heads were surely aghast.)
– Dallas’ marquee player, Luka Dončić, had 30. Kyrie Irving, however, didn’t hold up his end of the deal, scoring just 12 points on 6-for-19 shooting (0-for-5 on 3-pointers). Derrick Jones Jr. also had a rough night from the field, shooting 2-for-9.
– Celtics center Al Horford turned 38 last week. Years. Not points. If you think that seems old, bear in mind that I saw his father, Tito Horford, play in college.
– Dallas’ Daniel Gafford had an effective true shooting percentage of 103.1%. Math is complicated.
Speaking of ESPN and filling time until the game starts, one of the most peculiar pieces of TV programming in the USA is the “NBA Layup Lines” feed. At the moment, no one is shooting. It’s just a bunch of lights and some random images of fans waving as they realize they’re on camera.
If you’d rather revisit pregame media extravaganzas of the past, check out the iconic Chicago Bulls 1990s intro to the Alan Parsons Project song Sirius:
The Bulls still use the same music, and they’ve upgraded the animations, but it loses something without Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Luc Longley, Ron Harper and some other guy … from North Carolina, apparently.
ESPN is chatting with Kristaps Porzingis, the Celtics big man who had missed most of the playoffs with a calf injury but came back with 20 points, 6 rebounds and 3 blocks in just 21 minutes in the Celtics’ 107-89 Game 1 win.
Tipoff is in 41 minutes.
Preamble
Welcome to Game 2 of the NBA Finals. Or, as they like to call it in the sports punditocracy, another game in which Jayson Tatum must score 87 points on 80% shooting while getting 20 rebounds and 25 assists to lead the Celtics to a 187-84 win, or else his legacy is shot to pieces.
Seriously – we haven’t seen anyone put under this much pressure to win a championship since Charles Barkley roamed the NBA’s courts. Seems that he turned out OK, but we didn’t yet have the media machine that we have today.
Disclaimer alert: Yes, I went to Tatum’s school. Many, many years before him. Two other players who spent a combined two years at the same school – Kyrie Irving and Dereck Lively II – are playing for the Mavericks. And they’re playing quite well, which will be especially important tonight as Luka Dončić battles through a thoracic contusion, which will absolutely be the name of my next band. (My current band’s name is less medical.)
Thanks for joining me tonight. Please do email me your thoughts about this game, band names and the USA’s cricket victory over Pakistan.
Beau will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s how our panel of writers saw the finals unfolding (before the series began):
Celtics in six. The Mavericks have the star power but the Celtics are the better all-around team. Dallas’ defensive shift doesn’t match up as neatly with Boston’s offensive style as it did against the teams they knocked off in the West. Dončić’s sprained right knee looms large, too. Give him long enough, and Dončić can solve any defense. But is there any solution for the most athletic, smartest, switchable group in the league? And if Dončić is slowed any amount with an injury, the Celtics’ defense will close any potential openings. To push this to six or seven games, Dallas will have to make an unusual number of contested shots. Irving and Dončić can deliver, but they will need two other shooters, at least, to step up. Oliver Connolly
Mavericks in seven. Conventional wisdom says that the Celtics, who have been the best team in basketball all year long, should win the championship. But conventional wisdom has never come face to face with Dončić in clutch time. The Mavericks are firing on all cylinders, their role players are rising to the challenge, and having to deal with Irving on top of Dončić is a handful, to say the least. Claire de Lune
Celtics in four. Boston have been the best team in the league all season long. And while the Mavericks’ defense has reinvented itself since the deadline, they haven’t been in with an offensive monster like the Celtics. Tatum and Brown are right there with Dončić and Irving as an elite backcourt tandem. But Boston’s superior if not deeper supporting cast, who have been together longer, can light it up from anywhere and have no weak link on defense, will make the difference as Luka and co run out of pixie dust. Bryan Graham
Mavericks in seven. The Celtics are the better, more experienced team. But their nasty habit of playing with their food leaves the door open long enough for Dončić to dazzle and Irving to exact sweet revenge. Their Mavericks supporting cast, also a few shades greener than the C’s, continue to step up behind Washington and Gafford. It’s a fun series that ends in Boston tears, a few memes and, perhaps slightly further down the road, a roster reset around Tatum. Andrew Lawrence