Final: Celtics 97, Mavs 90
Box Score | Highlights
Behind the Box Score
The Mavericks have held a double-digit halftime lead in three straight games. Similarly, Dallas has led after three quarters in seven of the last nine games.
Yogi Ferrell collected a career-high seven rebounds in this one.
Notebook
Maxi Kleber is turning into a pretty nice NBA player. He’s been a solid addition to the starting lineup, averaging 6.5 points and 5.5 rebounds in his last six games. But he was also averaging only 0.3 blocks per game in that time, which looks really weird in retrospect after seeing the way he swatted shots tonight. Kleber racked up four rejections in the first half alone against the Celtics, with a pair of them coming right before halftime in loud fashion.
Kleber has been a good defensive rebounder and finisher at the rim all season long, but now he’s starting to knock down jumpers too, which further opens up his offensive game and his teammates’, too. He’s a guy most people had probably never heard of before this season, but he’s quickly starting to make a name for himself not only Dallas, but around the league.
Talk about a game of runs. Dallas put together a 12-0 surge in the first half, and the Celtics had runs of 15-2 and 12-0 in the second half. There are always huge swings in every game, especially now that teams can pile up a lot of points very quickly with 3-pointers, but rarely do you see as many massive runs like we did tonight. This was an unusually competitive game considering the number of swings we saw, and it led to some pretty entertaining basketball. Despite the result, the Mavs are continuing to get better and they’ve shown twice now that they can stick with the Celtics, who at this point are looking like the class of the league.
What’s Next
The Mavs (7-18) will play the Milwaukee Bucks (12-10) on Friday at the BMO Harris Bradley Center at 7 p.m. Central.
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