The Boston Celtics fell to the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday night by a final score of 113-108. This game was all Mavericks for almost the entire duration, until midway in the fourth quarter the Celtics staged a comeback. Until the Mavericks hit some big shots in the final minutes of the game.
The Celtics came into the game started off shooting just 1-7 from the field and were playing very poorly on the defensive end. The Mavericks set the tone early by getting transition baskets and making tough shots.
The Mavericks got most of there points from behind the arch, they knocked down 17 threes. as for the Celtics they got not much scoring to start off the game with very poor offense at the half the Mavericks cruised into the half with a commending 64-45 halftime lead.
In the third quarter, The Celtics came out with much better defensively. They slowly chipped away at the Mavericks lead cutting it to 69-51 with 9:04 in the third quarter. But the Mavericks would make a surge ending the quarter on a 7-0 run making the lead 90-73.
The Mavericks started off cold but then the Mavericks started to shoot the ball extremely well they end up shooting 70% from behind the arch. this was all guided by Luka Doncic and Jalen Brunson. that kept the momentum going.
In the fourth quarter, The momentum sifted towards the Celtics. as they went on a 9-2 run cutting the lead to 96-86 with 9:13 to go in the fourth quarter. The Celtics started to play with energy and purpose as they cut the Mavericks lead to single digits.
In the final minutes, teams were going back and fourth on both ends of the floor. The Celtics would miss some big shots down the stretch as Jaylen Brown would miss a critical three that would have cut the defecit to 1 with 11 seconds left. The Mavericks would go on to slowly pull away, as the Celtics weren’t able to complete the comeback.
The Celtics had four players in double figures. Leading the way for the Celtics was Jayson Tatum with 25 points, Kemba Walker added 22 points. Marcus Smart also added 17 points, and Jaylen Brown had 24 points.
the Mavericks had three players score in double figures. Leading the way for the Mavericks was Luka Doncic with 36 points, Kristaps Porzingis added 19 points, and Dorian Finney- Smith had 11 points.
The Celtics fall to 23-25 on the season. They’ll take on the Rockets on Friday night at 7:30.