Marc Bertrand: Mavericks are “cooked” now

On Monday's edition of Zolak & Bertrand, Marc "Beetle" Bertrand made it clear the Mavericks are "cooked" now.

Marc Bertrand:

My big takeaway from that game last night is that Dallas should be so disappointed in themselves and really should pack it in and quit at this point because the Celtics opened the door for them to get a win last night and they couldn't walk through it.

Scott Zolak:

That's the spot. I'm the same way. I'm with you on that. After that game, I don't know how they slept because that's the game they had to have.

Marc Bertrand:

You're cooked now.

Scott Zolak:

The Celtics couldn’t shoot from the three spot. You even knew it, like around the half, and then into that third quarter where you're reading the numbers and it's dreadful shooting wise. Boston had like a four-point lead and then a six-point lead and I'm like this game is over and it's defeating for the Mavs. Like, that's the game they had to have. They came out. I thought they were ready to go. They were better in Game 2 than they were in Game 1 and they just don't have the stamina. They don't have the team, they don't have the matchups and say what you want about Luka, that's one of the weirdest things to watch in sports for me. You look at a guy like Jaylen Brown and how he's chiseled. Same thing with Tatum. These guys are chiseled, like Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday. They're all in great and phenomenal shape, that's every NBA player. I think they're the best athletes in the world for guys of their size to have the cardio and the type of days that they have and the amount that they have to train and to watch a guy like Luka, something out of a men's league, just off the back foot and low cut black sneakers with white socks find a way to score over 30 points. Then find a way to get double digit rebounds and assists. It defies sports and what works in sports and what looks the part. He does not look the part, but yet it's so freaking effective for him. It's mind boggling. It really is.

The Boston Celtics held off a late rally by the Dallas Mavericks in the fourth quarter, to win Game 2 of the 2024 NBA Finals on Sunday night at TD Garden by a 105-98 final.

Boston led by as many as 14 points in the closing minutes, before Dallas made it a two-possession game with a late run. Celtics point guard Derrick White made a timely blocked shot to kill the run for good, and effectively put the game away.

Jrue Holiday led the Celtics in scoring with 26 points, shooting 11-for-14 from the field (78.6%). Jayson Tatum struggled again shooting the ball on offense (6-for-22, 27.3%), but finished with 12 assists and nine rebounds, just one board shy of a triple-double.

The Mavericks handily out-shot the Celtics in the first quarter, but escaped with only a three-point lead at 28-25. Dallas shot 52.4% as a team, compared to 36.8% for Boston, including 1-for-9 from three-point range.

Jaylen Brown did, however, add another highlight-reel slam dunk to his finals resume.

The shots started to fall more in the second quarter, as the C's shot 12-for-20 (60%) as a team. Point guard Jrue Holiday continued his hot shooting, ending up with 17 first-half points on 7-of-9 (77.8%) from the field.

In the third quarter, the Celtics started to pull away. At one point, they went on a 25-11 run to go up by 13 points ad 80-67. Tatum scored eight points and continued his strong passing night to get up to 10 assists.

Dallas ripped off a 7-0 run to cut the deficit back down to six with the final seconds ticking away in the third, but that's when Celtics guard Payton Pritchard woke up the whole arena. Pritchard heaved it from nearly half-court and made the Hail Mary shot, putting the C's back up by nine entering the fourth quarter at 83-74, and drawing the loudest pop of the series so far.

The Celtics pulled back away to lead by as many as 14 points in the fourth quarter, after a White steal set up a Holiday three-pointer, then White drained a triple of his own to make it 103-89 Celtics.

However, the Mavericks wouldn't go away quietly. They rattled off a 9-0 run to make it 103-98 C's with just 1:15 left in regulation, then had the ball with a chance to cut further into the deficit.

But then, White delivered a clutch blocked shot and Holiday pulled down the rebound, and Brown took it the other way to lay it in and put the Celtics back up seven with 30 seconds left. That's how the score would hold, as the Celtics take their 2-0 lead to Dallas.

Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the Celtics and Mavericks takes place Wednesday night at American Airlines Center. Tipoff is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. ET.

Matt Dolloff is a writer and digital content producer for 98.5 The Sports Hub. Read all of his articles here.