The Mavericks didn’t need departed superstar Luka Doncic in their first visit to TD Garden since the NBA Finals. They didn’t need his face-of-the-franchise replacement, either.
With Anthony Davis not yet ready to debut for Dallas and two other starters unavailable, the Mavs defeated the Celtics 127-120 on Thursday night at TD Garden, snapping Boston’s four-game winning streak.
Boston’s backups made it interesting late, cutting the Mavs’ lead from 24 points to eight after head coach Joe Mazzulla pulled his starters with 9:35 remaining. But the Celtics couldn’t complete what would have been their second 20-plus-point comeback in five days, after they rallied from 26 points down to beat Philadelphia on Sunday.
The Celtics won all three of their home games during last year’s Finals and throttled the same Mavericks team two weeks earlier, winning 122-107 in Dallas on Jan. 25. But sustained success on the Garden parquet has eluded them this season. Boston is 4-7 in its last 11 home games. It lost just six times in Boston all of last season, playoffs included.
Six different Mavericks players scored at least 15 points as Dallas overwhelmed the Celtics with its pace and shot-making. Klay Thompson scored 23 of his 25 points before halftime, Spencer Dinwiddie added 20 points off the bench on 7-of-10 shooting, and Kyrie Irving — loudly booed by the Celtics faithful each time he touched the ball — went 3-for-6 from 3-point range to finish with 19 points.
Four of Boston’s starters scored in double figures, with sixth man Payton Pritchard scoring 21 to fuel the ill-fated comeback bid.
The Mavericks built an early lead thanks to Klay Thompson, who scored more points in the opening 4:03 (10) than he did in the entire first Celtics-Mavs matchup (six). A corner three by Stephen Curry’s former co-star put Dallas up 17-10 and triggered an early Joe Mazzulla timeout.
Boston’s biggest issue during that sluggish start was ball security. The Celtics had seven first-quarter turnovers — including four Irving steals — that led to 10 Mavericks points. Tatum and Brown each coughed the ball up twice, and the former also missed four shots at or near the rim. The Celtics as a team went 2-for-8 in the paint and 1-for-4 in the restricted area in the first quarter and trailed 32-23 despite an efficient 4-for-7 start from 3-point range.
Defense also was a major problem for the defending champions, particularly in transition. Dallas scored 19 fast-break points before Boston scored its first, and Thompson continued to torch them in the second quarter. The 34-year-old racked up 23 points in the first half — more than he’d scored in all but three of his games as a Maverick before Thursday — and Dallas led by as many as 18.
The Celtics cut it to 11 at halftime with a couple of late Tatum threes and a buzzer-beating transition layup by White. But the Mavs quickly rebuilt, and then extended their cushion by scoring 10 of the first 12 points of the second half. Dallas topped the 100-point mark before the end of the third quarter and took a 21-point lead into the fourth.
Mazzulla gave his starters one last chance to stage a comeback before sending in his subs with 9:35 remaining and Boston down 114-90. Mavericks coach Jason Kidd kept his regulars on the floor, and Boston’s unit of Pritchard, Sam Hauser, Jordan Walsh, Drew Peterson and Neemias Queta outscored them by 14 points before running out of time.
The Celtics’ bench will look different moving forward following the addition of veteran wing Torrey Craig, who was signed during Thursday’s game to fill the roster spot vacated by Jaden Springer’s trade to Houston. Craig, a 34-year-old journeyman who was cut by Chicago earlier in the week, reportedly is expected to join the team ahead of Saturday’s matchup with the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, though it’s unclear whether he’s healthy enough to return from the ankle sprain that’s sidelined him since Dec. 30.