Mazz: Celtics would’ve lost that game a year ago

On Monday's Felger & Mazz radio program, the guys react to the Boston Celtics' gritty Game 2 victory over the Dallas Mavericks despite the team's poor shooting.

Parts of conversation abbreviated for clarity.

Felger: Celtics are making them look like a 5-seed, aren't they?  

Mazz: They really are. Yeah.  

Again, the Kyrie part of it, I'm sure we'll get to in-depth. But I will tell you that in my opinion, I am far more impressed with last night's win than I am with the Game 1 win. How long have we been saying, can they win when they don't make their threes? 

What happens then? Can you win another way? I thought Dallas played better last night and when I say play better, I don't mean “played great.” I mean that they are clearly outmanned in terms of talent. The Celtics have a deeper team, not to be confused with the bench, but a deeper team. They have more options.  

I thought Dallas did a good job overall of controlling the pace of the game, challenging the Celtics out on the perimeter, and forcing the Celtics to try to win a different way last night. 

The Celtics missed open shots, too. Don't get me wrong, but the bottom line is they had to win a different way. And they did. 

They played defense. They went to the bucket. They shot free throws and MADE them, unlike The Mavericks. And so overall it required something different. My two cents: they would have lost that game a year ago. 

Felger: They were under 26% from beyond the arc. 

Mazz: Oh, brutal.  

Felger: But they did keep shooting them. Yes, they shot 39 of them. They kept shooting and shooting and shooting them. So, it's not like they really did anything too different. 

Mazz: But they played defense. If it's a rock fight, then win the rock fight. 

I'm not sure that they would have been able to sustain it at the defensive end a year ago if the shots didn't go in. They would have shut it down and that would have been the end of it. 

And so again for that, I give them credit. I'm more impressed that you can win a game at this stage when it doesn't go the way you want it to go, when it's not your game, then what? And they won it anyway. 

Listen to Felger and Mazz from 2-6 every Monday-Friday on 98.5 The Sports Hub, with hosts Mike Felger, Tony “Mazz” Massarotti, and Jim Murray “Big Jim”. You can listen live in the Sports Hub App and subscribe to their podcasts here. Follow @FelgerAndMazz on Twitter to keep up with the show!

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.