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Key events
Mavericks 13-16 Celtics, 3:56 left, 1st quarter
Tatum gets a jump ball and feeds White for 3.
But Porzingis and Tatum miss shots, and Irving throws an alley-oop to Lively for another emphatic shot as the shot clock expires. Timeout Boston.
Mavericks 11-13 Celtics, 5:08 left, 1st quarter
Doncic, Irving, Tatum and Brown are four of the best players in the NBA in the last 10 years. They are 0-for-10.
But Doncic takes a shot after the timeout and fouls Horford, who goes about 30 feet in the air on a Doncic pump fake. Free throw good.
Irving fouls White, who hits the first free throw, and… here comes Porzingis! The TD Garden crowd erupts.
White also does the second.
Irving misses a long shot and Brown scores the other end on a difficult shot.
Keeping with the color theme, Josh Green hits a 3, gets a rebound and hits another 3. Suddenly the lead is two.
Mavericks 2-9 Celtics, 7:26 left, 1st quarter
Nifty cuts off the tape from Holiday, who takes another Tatum pass and turns it up and inside.
Mavericks love their alley-oop dunks, don’t they? Jones takes that from Doncic.
Tatum picks up an airball. But after another wasted Dallas possession, Holiday breaks out in transition and scores. He has Boston’s first six points.
Doncic is 0-for-3. Brown is 0-for-4.
The crowd had a few words for former Celtic Kyrie Irving, who also didn’t score.
Doncic drives and puts the ball over his shoulder for a corner, but Jones misses.
At the other end, Al Horford hits a 3. That’s enough to force Dallas to call a timeout. For the first time, the Mavericks don’t have an early lead.
Mavericks 0-2 Celtics, 9:34 left, 1st quarter
Tatum feeds Holiday for the first points of the game, but more concerning for the Mavericks is that Doncic has already picked up his first foul.
More concerning for the Celtics is that Jaylen Brown is now 0-for-3. But Doncic is 0-for-2.
No surprises in the starting lineups. Porzingis is waiting on the bench.
Advice…
Did you know that the phrase “I don’t know who you are” matches the first line of the national anthem perfectly? Try it.
Tonight’s singer is Joel James, a Grammy-winning songwriter with a powerful voice who studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Before Berkeley, she made it to the not-quite-final group on American Idol.
I still wish I had bought the “Berkeley Football: Undefeated Since 1945” t-shirt I saw once.
Information at … 11:30? Or at 11:30? We’ll assume it’s the former.
If not, consider watching Afghanistan vs West Indies in a battle of unbeatens in the T20 World Cup.
What’s at stake…
The teams with the most NBA the championships are in reverse order, starting with number 5:
However, the Celtics haven’t won it since 2008.
Mavericks fans take credit breaking the internet with a meme of Luka Doncic impersonating LeBron James wearing sunglasses and headphones that look like IV lines.
Anyone else who really doesn’t understand much of the alleged memes?
The Porzingis Update
Boston’s 7-foot-3 Kristaps Porzingis is available and expected to play without restriction tonight.
That should help a Celtics team that had a lot of trouble responding to the 1-2 punch of Daniel Gafford and Derek Lively in the paint, especially in Game 4.
Preamble
Anyone else feel like we might be on the verge of seeing history?
A return after a passive of series 0-3 does not occur in NBA. Literally.
But after Dallas beat Boston in Game 4, anxiety among the most superstitious fans in the US is certainly growing.
Maybe it’s just the circles I’m running in, but the Celtics fans I know seem more demanding than cheering. And they’re asking it from a team that was outplayed in Game 4 — and, perhaps more troubling, benched by the coach. Joe Mazzula simply had no answer for all the wrinkles Jason Kidd threw at him, relying instead on his iron eight-man rotation to save the day despite being physically outmatched.
So will we see a self-fulfilling prophecy? If enough people say the Celtics are bound to screw him up, will they?
Or does the series end tonight?
Bo will be here shortly. Meanwhile, here’s Kyrie Irving on his return to the Garden:
“Now that I’m older and looking back, I definitely would have taken the time to get to know people in the community and talk to some of the champions that came before me,” Irving told reporters Sunday. “They have a championship pedigree here … They expect you to seamlessly buy into Celtics pride, buy into everything Celtics.
“And if you don’t, then you’re kicked out. I’m one of the people who is out. I’m totally fine with that, you know what I mean. I did it to myself.
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