It was Luka Doncic’s world at TD Garden on Wednesday night, the Celtics were just living in it.
The Dallas Mavericks superstar took over from the opening tip in a 113-108 win over Boston. Despite the Celtics showing fight down the stretch, a first half of settling for jumpers and lacking defensive effort was too much to overcome.
Doncic was as efficient as he has been all year, scoring 36 points on just 15 shot attempts while going 7-11 from three. Behind Doncic, Dallas built a 64-45 lead at the half. After a slow start to the third quarter, Boston finally found some energy near the end of the frame. After being booed by a limited capacity home crowd, the fans brought some life back to the Celtics as they cut the lead to 8 halfway through the final period.
From their, it was a familiar story that Celtics fans are tired of hearing. Missed three after missed three after missed three, with a number of open looks along the way. Regardless of the looks Boston missed, 47 attempts from distance on a night where the shooting wasn’t there and you aren’t playing against a true rim protector is hard to stomach.
The Celtics went just 11-47 from three (23.4%) and struggled from the opening tip with their shooting. While Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Kemba Walker each passed the 20-point mark, they combined to go just 7-28 from three.
Boston fell to 23-25 while the Mavericks improved to 25-21. Next up for Boston is a home matchup with Houston on Friday.