The Dallas Mavericks took care of business against the Boston Celtics on Tuesday night.
Behind a stellar performance by two-time All-Star Luka Dončić. He led the Mavericks in scoring with 31 points, 10 rebounds, and eight assists in 38 minutes of play. Dončić hit some big three down the straight, including a dagger with 0.1 seconds left on the clock.
After the game, he was asked how confident he was on the game’s last two three-pointers.
“Honestly, I was more confident in the first one. It felt good out of my hands. On the second one, I was tired of running around the whole possession,” Doncic told FortyEightMinutes and other media in Dallas. “It got in, and that’s all that matters.”
One of the follow-up questions was how he felt with fans in attendance, and hitting the game-winning shot. Doncic replied: “Right after the game, I said, ‘Imagine if the whole crowd were there, it would be an even better feeling.’ There were a couple of fans, and he thanked everybody for coming. It feels better having a couple of fans.”
Head coach Rick Carlisle was asked about Doncic’s last-second shot and the team’s overall performance on Tuesday night.
“First of all, the two shots that Luka [Dončić] hit down the stretch, in the last minute [of the game, it was] just phenomenal. Both possessions were difficult. The first one was probably even more difficult than the second one because we were up against the clock, they had gone to a switching lineup, and he hit a tremendous one-on-one shot. The second one, we knew we had no timeouts; we knew we were getting the ball to him just to let him create. That step-back was right in front of me, and when that thing went up in the air, it was right online, and it was an amazing shot. Breathtaking stuff from Luka,” said Carlisle.
“In terms of the team effort, James Johnson got the defensive belt tonight, and he was terrific defensively. I think he was a plus-four on the door. Here is a guy that really hasn’t played any minutes; I’m not even sure how long, but I called him this afternoon, and I told him that we were plugging him into [Maxi] Kleber’s position, to play his game, be aggressive, and do what he does. The guy stayed ready, and he really delivered for us, so I am really happy for him.
“We had a lot of guys do a lot of good things. Boban Marjanović gave us a big lift; I thought Willie Cauley-Stein was good and a lot of guys at key moments. Jalen Brunson was good down the stretch, [Tim] Hardaway gave us scoring and shot-making when we had lulls during the game. Down the stretch, they are a team that can make runs. We made a few mistakes, but I loved the way we kept our poise, hung in, and made sure we got the ball in the right guys’ hands at the end.”
Jalen Brunson also had a big game for the Mavericks with 22 points, two rebounds, and two assists in 30 minutes. Tim Hardaway Jr had a solid 14 points, two rebounds, and three dimes off the bench.
“It’s a little bit of everything. Obviously starting over again zero, zero. Just figuring out where we came from. We know what that’s like, we know what we did as a team, and now we know what we did to get here,” said Brunson. “We got to keep getting better, keep moving forward, and we can’t stay satisfied. You got to keep working hard.”
Meanwhile, after the game, the Boston Celtics are searching for answers. First-time All-Star Jaylen Brown weighed in on the tough loss.
“It’s tough. It’s another heartbreaking loss. I think we played well in spots. We’ve just got to finish games better. Luka
“Dončić obviously got the switch and hit two tough shots,” said Brown. It’s tough. You’ve got a system, we stuck to it, and we lost tonight based upon that. When a guy gets it going like that, it’s tough but we’ve got to get the ball out of his hands for sure.”
The Celtics were able to play well down the stretch but came up short.
The Mavericks travel to Philly to take on the 76ers on Thursday, and the Celtics take on the Hawks on Wednesday night.
