Celtics survive fierce shooting to win Game 2 of NBA Finals

Ironically, the toughest three-point attempt of all – a push at the third-quarter buzzer by Payton Pritchard, the night's only reserve guard – lightened the mood on a tense night and allowed Boston to bring back home. victory in the final period.

“The play of the game was Payton’s shot at the end of the quarter,” coach Joe Mazzulla said. “You see guys around the league passing up that shot or pretending they want to take it so their [shooting] the numbers are not wasted. He is proud to take this. It's winning basketball.

Celtics guard Derrick White fended off a late Mavericks comeback attempt by blocking PJ Washington at the rim in the final minute, and Jaylen Brown attacked the hoop for a dagger with 29.8 seconds left. Boston improved to 5-0 in these playoffs in games with fewer than five points in the final five minutes.

“I got soaked earlier [in the game]” White said. “Not being afraid to get soaked allows me to get [a block] that other people might not get. I believed in my abilities.

Boston's quick victory in Game 1 became a distant memory by the start of Game 2. The Celtics missed their first eight three-point attempts, coming up empty from outside until Al Horford finally connected from the left corner just before the end of the first quarter. Their slow start was made worse by Jayson Tatum's indecision: the five-time All-Star spent most of the start lost in his own head, turning down open scoring opportunities in favor of passing the ball to his teammates .

But the Celtics were able to take a 64-61 halftime lead because the Mavericks weren't able to provide enough help to Luka Doncic. The Slovenian star scored a game-high 32 points with 11 rebounds and 11 assists, but his teammates combined to shoot 2 of 17 from deep. Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving left a lot to be desired for the second straight game, finishing with 16 points on 7-of-18 shooting while facing constant boos from the TD Garden crowd.

After being listed as questionable on the pregame injury report with a chest contusion, Doncic was late to take the court for warmups and wore a bandage around his chest before the tipoff. Despite leading the Mavericks to Game 2 victories in their previous three series and chasing the offense in the midrange, Doncic was unable to maintain his frenzied scoring pace and only collected nine points in the second half.

“I was fine [physically],” he said. “We need to make some more shots. I think my turnovers and missed free throws cost us the game. I need to do a lot better in both of those categories.”

The Celtics finished 10 of 39 (25.6 percent) from deep, their second-worst outside shooting night of the playoffs. Tatum scored 18 points on 6-of-22 shooting, but he dished out 12 assists and regularly found Jrue Holiday cutting baskets to prop up Boston's volatile offense. Holiday paced the Celtics with 26 points and 11 rebounds, and he scored three points and pulled down a key offensive rebound to set up a three-point shutout on consecutive possessions in crunch time.

“[Tatum] “I was in the paint, getting double teams, making the right plays and finding myself,” Holiday said. “He has that vision as a playmaker.”

While all five of Dallas' starters finished in double figures, its second unit totaled just nine points. Coach Jason Kidd turned to backups Maxi Kleber and Dante Exum, but neither was able to make an impact. Kleber, who missed much of Dallas' playoff run with a shoulder injury, missed all four of his shots, leaving Kidd without enough production from his frontcourt rotation.

The series moves to Dallas' American Airlines Center on Wednesday for Game 3, with Boston in control, knowing it protected its home court — winning a pretty Game 1 and an ugly Game 2 — without getting a signature performance from Tatum. The Mavericks' to-do list remains unchanged: They need Irving to get on track, Washington to find his range and their bench players to contribute.

The sighs of relief will be deep for the Celtics, who lost Game 2 in the first round because they were dominated by Miami, which went red from deep. Then they lost Game 2 in the second round to Cleveland after their worst outside shooting performance of this playoff series. This time, they made sure the three-point line didn't decide the game by keeping their smarts and continuing to control the Mavericks' supporting cast.