The followingnoon promised to be very beautiful at the TD Garden, very hot for the reception of the Mavericks and the withdrawal of Kevin Garnett’s jersey. But the Mavs and the Luka Doncic – Spencer Dinwiddie duo ruined the first game of the followingnoon by giving the Texans a 95-92 victory on two 3-point shots in a money time where Boston multiplied the failures. Dallas continues on its good momentum with now a record of 42-26 once morest 41-28 in Boston.
Luka Doncic is the man of the match with 26 points at 8/16 including 4/10 at 3-pts, 8 rebounds, 8 assists and 3 steals, very well supported by the Spencer Dinwiddie trio (18 points at 5/14 including 3 /6 from afar), Dorian Finney-Smith (19 points at 7/11 including 4/7 at 3-pts) and Jalen Brunson (14 points at 6/12). Opposite Jasyon Tatum was very well slowed down, he who was very hot recently. He signs only 21 pints at 7/23 including 3/10 at 3-pts and 11 rebounds. Jaylen Brown is barely more skilful with 14 points at 6/16. The Celtics are shooting a horrible 37.5% including 9/37 from afar, and were in the game thanks to their defense and 11 offensive rebounds.
In the wake of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, the Celtics started the game better to lead 12-5. But in a first quarter where the two teams struggled a lot, like the 3 points scored by Boston in 5’53, Dallas ended up coming back. The two teams neutralized each other, but Boston finished the first half much better with a 15-5 to make a mini-break, even though Dinwiddie was 3-pts, 47-38.
Boston seemed in control following returning from the locker room, but the Dinwiddie – Doncic duo took matters into their own hands, helped by Jalen Brunson, to reverse the momentum with a 22-8 win. A new game then began with much more festive attacks and a crossover that saw Dallas take the lead following 3 quarters 76-73. But the Mavs had a complicated start to the last act, silent for the first 3 minutes, which allowed the greens to settle in the lead thanks to the duo Payton Pritchard and Robert Williams. In this match where the two teams had a lot of big shortages, it arrived at the wrong time for Boston who spent more minutes without scoring, result 5’34 from the end everything was still to be done for the two teams, whose attacks struggled to find solutions.
Al Horford unlocked with a 2+1 before a Brown layup to put Boston in prime position, but DFS 3-pt and Dinwiddie on a 2+1 quickly brought Boston back. In this money time, Boston still continued to lead the race with a very quick response from Tatum then 2 shots from Smart following a failure from Doncic, 92-89 with 2’38 remaining. The two teams chained failures, until a big shot at 3-pts from Doncic to reset the counters to zero. In this end of match, it was with the first team which did not screw up its possession and with this small game Doncic attracted the defense on a drive to serve a Spencer Dinwiddie totally open with 11.6 seconds remaining, bingo, +3 .
The referees then whistled a foul by Luka Doncic on Marcus Smart on a 3-pt attempt, challenged by Jason Kidd. If there was contact from Doncic on Smart’s hand following the kick, the rules state that the defender can legally initiate contact once the ball is gone. Result new possession for Boston and this time the shot of Tatum did not find the target.
