Game 2: Boston 105, Dallas 98

Despite a late flurry from the Dallas Mavericks that had them within five with less than a minute left in the game, Boston was able to close out another fantastic collective effort to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the series. Luka Doncic posted his first career NBA Finals triple-double with 32 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists, but was once again targeted with impunity defensively, and the rest of the Mavericks didn't offer much support for their ailing superstar.

Here are my three takeaways from Game 2 of the 2024 NBA Finals.:

How The Turn Tables

The Mavericks were able to slow down superstars like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Anthony Edwards en route to the NBA Finals by ignoring the likes of Josh Giddey, Kyle Anderson and Rudy Gobert and focusing their attention on the star scorers. As much as the Thunder and Timberwolves tried to pick on Luka Doncic's defense, they were unable to find any success because Dallas was able to crowd the paint with help behind him.

Dallas was comfortable trading lightly contested drives for open 3-pointers, particularly against Minnesota and its mediocre crop of outside shooters. Jaden McDaniels shot 54 percent from three in the conference finals but only attempted more than four 3s once in the series. Nickeil Alexander-Walker was just 3-of-14 from deep against Dallas and even Karl-Anthony Towns, the self-proclaimed best shooting big man of all-time, shot 24.2 pecent from 3 in the series (and he was 4-of-28 from deep in the four losses).

Meanwhile, Derrick Jones Jr., PJ Washington and Josh Green have all had stretches in the postseason where they shot like true snipers despite middling career numbers. Couple timely shotmaking from the supporting case with Doncic and Kyrie Irving's consistent marksmanship and Dallas look like one of the best shooting teams in the league when sharing the floor with Minnesota.

Now the tables have turned. Although Boston had an off shooting night from 3 in Game 2, its barrage in the series opener was indicative of the depth of floor spacers that Joe Mazzulla has at his disposal. And even while the Cs clanked a number of clean looks in Game 2, their spacing still contributed to an efficient evening of drive-and-dump off basketball. No matter what the percentages say on a given night, every player Boston puts on the floor must be respected as a lethal outside threat, which puts Dallas' defense, like all of those that have come before them in a bind.

Boston, though, is treating the Mavericks like they are Minnesota. The Celtics don't buy Jones Jr., Washington, Green or Maxi Kleber as reliable outside shooters at all, and so long as their attempts don't come from the corners, then they are fine with any possession that ends with them taking a shot rather than Doncic or Irving. It's a startling difference after Minnesota chased the ball around so fervently against the Mavericks because it was afraid of giving up open looks.

After dethroning Denver with a maniacal defensive effort, the Wolves were too amped up against a patient Dallas team. Watch how Jones Jr. punishes this aggressive Naz Reid closeout.

Now watch how Boston is treating Jones Jr. when he receives the ball on the perimeter.

As you can see, Boston is not closing out at full speed, and sometimes they aren't even running out to make a contest at all when Jones Jr., Washington, Green or Kleber catches the ball. Without an aggressive closeout to attack, Dallas' offense is relying heavily on this batch of unreliable shooters to keep pace with the best shooting team in the league.

Perhaps no possession illustrates how much the context has shifted for the Mavs between the past two rounds than this Daniel Gafford post up.

Does this remind you of anything from the Western Conference Finals? Remember when the Wolves resorted to trying to have Gobert score over Doncic in the post, prompting Luka to laugh at the Minnesota bench? After being able to influence the Timberwolves into out-of-character shot attempts, Dallas now finds itself in a similar situation, searching for offense on Gafford post ups against Tatum. Boston is showing the Mavs' role players no respect, and thus far those players haven't given Mazzulla any reason to change his approach.

Non-Luka Mavs are just 5-of-32 from deep so far in the Finals. Dallas can shoot better than it has in the first two games (mainly Irving, who doesn't have a 3-point make yet in this series), but not being able to beat Boston when it has an off shooting night of its own (10-of-39 in Game 2) is a bad omen for the competitiveness and length of this series.

Misses and Memes

You have to admit that, even if some of it is unfair, the social media criticism of Jayson Tatum's play in this series has been pretty funny.

One thing that is fair to say is that Tatum, if we are ignoring Jason Kidd's ploy to anoint Jaylen Brown as Boston's best player, has had the least responsibility of any Finals team's best player in a very long time. It is perhaps too much to say he has the least impact on winning, but it is certainly true that this Boston team can win games even if Tatum isn't its first, second or third best player on the night. Even on the stacked Warriors teams with Kevin Durant, neither he nor Steph Curry could away with shooting like Tatum has in the first two games of this series and have their team win comfortably.

In a way, it is a credit to the magnificent structure of the roster and the offense, as Tatum's ability to get down hill to kick start the Cs drive-and-kick game is really the only skill Tatum has to bring to the game on a nightly basis. Whether Tatum is cooking in his one-on-one matchups clearly doesn't have as much impact on the result as him simply putting his head down and getting the ball moving toward the rim on a consistent basis.

Paradoxically, some of Tatum's best scoring nights have come when he is in such a good rhythm from deep that he neglects attacking the paint. That helps explain why another off shooting night in Game 2 (6-of-22, 1-of-7 from 3) actually helped lead to a career-high 12 assists, as he was forced to probe the defense rather than spending too much time unpacking his bag on the perimeter.

Tatum doesn't do himself any favors when it comes to the discourse. Despite playing an impactful floor game, the perception of his performance was more heavily influenced by his poor shooting. Instead of owning up to an off night, Tatum said that he is focusing on ways he can impact the game other than scoring, this in spite of the fact that he took a game-high 22 shot attempts in Game 2.

Nonetheless, pointing out all of the other things Tatum is doing that has helped Boston build its 2-0 lead isn't done with tongue-in-cheek. He really has made up for his inefficient scoring with excellent contributions in the other facets of the game. Saying he is setting good screens might be a stretch, but he has held up excellently defensively when guarding Doncic and Irving in isolation, he made a litany of good decisions on the drive and played a game-high 45 minutes.

That last bit is something that sticks out to me as an underrated part of Tatum's game. There have been so many instances this postseason where a team has fallen apart when its star player went to the bench. It doesn't even need to be a long break, either. Sometimes a star player resting for just a minute or two off the court completely flips a game around. And it isn't always a coach being stubborn about rotations. Edwards was gassed at several points against the Mavericks, necessitating a break despite the fact that Minnesota couldn't survive without him.

Boston doesn't have this issue with Tatum or Brown. Tatum hasn't played fewer than 40 minutes since Game 2 of the Cleveland series, and he's played more than 40 minutes in essentially every non-blowout this postseason. After taking an injury-riddled path to the Finals, Boston knows better than anyone that just having your best player on the court is extremely valuable, even if Tatum is shooting 32 percent from the field.

Happy Holiday/White Christmas

Joe Mazzulla might have his team two wins away from a title while playing an impeccable style of basketball on both ends of the floor, but now would be a good time to mention another Celtics coach with his fingerprints all over this team.

Brace yourselves, because what I am about to list is disturbing. These are the prices Brad Stevens paid for Boston's starting backcourt and supersub (at least in this series) center.

Derrick White: Acquired in February 2022 from the San Antonio Spurs for Josh Richardson, Romeo Langford, a 2022 first-round pick (25th overall, Blake Wesley) and a 2028 first-round pick swap.

Kristaps Porzingis: Acquired in June 2023 from the Washington Wizards for Marcus Smart (to Memphis), Danilo Gallinari (to Washington), Mike Muscala (to Washington) and a 2023 second-round pick (35th, Julian Phillips).

Jrue Holiday: Acquired in October 2023 from the Portland Trail Blazers for Robert Williams, Malcolm Brogdon, Golden State's 2024 first-round pick (14th) and Boston's 2029 first-round pick.

Although Williams and Brogdon were both solid rotation players for the Celtics, their inconsistent availability was an issue. Smart was the heart and soul of the team that made the run to the 2022 NBA Finals, but by replacing him with Holiday a few months later, Stevens actually managed to upgrade at the position.

The best asset here is that Golden State first-rounder, which wound up being a late lottery pick after a disappointing season for the Warriors. But wait! That Golden State pick was actually acquired from Memphis in the Porzingis deal as the price for Smart. On a related note: Stevens was named the 2024 Executive of the Year by a wide margin.

Holiday, whose impact I will detail in full in a forthcoming column, was Boston's best player on Sunday night. His impact on the game as an off-ball threat was stunning. He made a killing sitting in the dunker spot, slashed in from the weakside with impeccable timing and crashed the offensive boards when the opportunity arose. He had 26 points on 11-of-14 shooting, 11 rebounds (four offensive) and, oh yeah, defense is actually more of his thing.

The Damian Lillard trade swinging the title this season was certainly in play when the Bucks finalized the deal, but doing so in the Celtics favor would be especially hard for Milwaukee to stomach. What's worse is that Holiday clearly could have co-existed with Lillard and Giannis in Milwaukee, because he has perfectly refined his game as a low-usage (even low-dribble), high-efficiency outlet for Tatum and Brown.

Of all of the trades Boston made to construct this roster, the White move still makes the least amount of sense to me. It is a little hard to complain about a move that made San Antonio worse at the perfect time with Victor Wembanyama waiting for them at the top of the 2023 Draft, but not even getting meaningful draft capital for a player who so clearly was the perfect glue guy for any team on the brink of title contention is confounding.

White has been the perfect complement to Boston's other starters. He has just enough juice as a driver to get downhill and offer an actual threat at the rim, he knows how to get the ball moving from side-to-side and he is probably Boston's most comfortable high-volume shooter (he's at 40 percent on around nine 3-point attempts per game in the postseason).

And most valuable of all is White's knack for making the impossible, intangible plays that can't be drawn up on a clipboard. Like his game-winning putback in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals against Miami last season, White's shared chase down block on Washington in the closing minute of this game will be one of the defining moments of his career. Washington was fouled on the play, but White covered 90 feet in about five seconds to make a game-saving contest.

Without even factoring in the lottery luck that was required for Boston to get Brown and Tatum in consecutive years at No. 3 overall, with the Sixers and Lakers passing on each of them both times, Boston has owned the margins that often decide championships. Stevens picked out the pieces and Mazzulla has developed a playing style that so clearly aligns with the general manager's vision for the team. That kind of organizational synergy is worthy of a banner, and with two more wins, Boston will have its 18th.