Boston Celtics 2 Wins From NBA Championship As Finals Shift To Dallas

BOSTON, MA — Amid some silly efforts to anoint a "best player" on the Boston Celtics in a desperate attempt to distract and divide the NBA's premier team all season, the Celtics showed in the first two games of the Finals how many different players making so many critical plays can pave a path toward a championship.

The 26 points and 11 rebounds from Jrue Holiday, the massive fourth quarter 3-pointer and decisive block from Derrick White, the dagger drive from Jaylen Brown in the final minute and the buzzer-beating bomb from Payton Pritchard to end the third quarter could all be considered defining moments in Sunday night's 105-98 victory against the Dallas Mavericks in Game 2 of the NBA Finals.

But it's when all those individual highlights are taken in totality — on a night when First Team All-NBA superstar Jayson Tatum missed 16 shots but also dished out 12 assists in a near-triple-double — that you craft a story that shifts to Dallas for Wednesday night's Game 3 two victories away from culminating in an 18th world title.

(Also on Patch: Their Time Is Now: Boston Celtics Play For Banner 18 In NBA Finals)

Mavericks coach Jason Kidd attempted — successfully in some media and talk show circles — to create a stir over the weekend when he said it was Brown, not Tatum, who was Boston's best player. But while Dallas is proving a team that may rise only as high as the burdened shoulders of their superstar Luka Doncic can lift them, the play the Celtics have exhibited from nearly every player in the rotation on both ends of the floor has been the winning formula through two games.

"I do not prefer one or the other — I prefer both," Holiday said of any Brown/Tatum debate following Sunday's Game 2. "Both of them are superstars. And it's being shown out here on the biggest stage of the world."

If the Mavericks win one of the next two games at home, the Celtics will return to Boston for Game 5 on June 17 on the cusp of a crown. If not, the next time the Celtics are seen in Boston will be aboard a row of Duck Boats for a championship parade.

"Effort makes up the difference and your mindset," Brown said after Game 2. "I think we played harder than them tonight. I think that's going to be the key. If we're going to win, we've got to be the harder-playing team."

One concern late in the game may have been an apparent injury to Kristaps Porzingis just one game after he returned from missing the previous 38 days with a calf strain. But while he sat at the end of the fourth quarter in favor of Al Horford, Porzingis tried to assure after the game that he won't be missing any more time this close to the finish line of history.

"I'll die out there if we need it," he said before adding, "I don't think there is one guy in the locker room that's feeling perfect where nothing hurts. Everybody's banged up. (The Mavericks) are probably more banged up than us. So we're going to keep clashing until somebody gets the job done.

"And we want to believe that it's going to be us."

NBA Finals Schedule

• Game 1: Celtics 107, Mavericks 89
• Game 2: Celtics 105, Mavericks 98
• Game 3: Wednesday, June 12, at Dallas, 8:30 p.m. EDT
• Game 4: Friday, June 14, at Dallas, 8:30 p.m. EDT
• Game 5: Monday, June 17, at Boston, 8:30 p.m. EDT (if necessary)
• Game 6: Thursday, June 20, at Dallas, 8:30 p.m. EDT (if necessary)
• Game 7: Sunday, June 23, at Boston, 8 p.m. EDT (if necessary)

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)