Mavericks assistant coach Jared Dudley still finds pride in calling Boston his “second home” even as the Celtics have pushed Dallas to the brink of elimination.
After all, Boston is where Dudley developed into a “young man,” turning in a legendary career at Boston College in the 2000s before being taken by Charlotte in the 2007 draft.
Nearly 17 years after leaving Chestnut Hill, Dudley, 38, finds himself up against the toughest challenge he’s faced in the NBA, as a player or coach, one he is embracing.
“Everyone knows Boston fans are one of the best fans in the NBA,” Dudley told the Herald in an exclusive, after the Mavericks’ shoot-around Monday at TD Garden. “I’ve always felt ingrained (here). It’s an honor to play the Celtics.”
“If you want to win a championship you want to go against an organization like this to cement your legacy,” he added. “It’s been fun but it’s been difficult because they’re so good.”
Dallas blew Boston out in Game 4 on Friday, handing the Celtics their worst loss of the season and the third most lopsided defeat in Finals history, but still trail 3-1 in the series. No team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit.
Dudley said he felt “optimistic” about his team’s prospects in Monday night’s Game 5, while understanding the likelihood that Boston would come out flat, once more, was slim. The Celtics scored just 35 points in Friday’s first half, their lowest point total in any half this season.
“It’s a good nervous,” Dudley said of his team’s overall attitude after a relaxed but playful shoot-around. “You have to be on your heels to play the best, you have to be desperate which we are. We know their crowd is going to feed off them. We have to do the little stuff.”
It didn’t take long for Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown to make an impression on Dudley, who praised the duo in 2017 during an interview with the Herald when he was in his second stint with the Phoenix Suns.
“This team is setting itself up for the next 10 years,” Dudley said then.
He was right.
The Celtics are excelling, Dudley said, as Tatum and Brown have become “more willing passers.” The duo combined for 32 assists in Games 2 and 3, as Boston took the commanding 3-0 lead.
The additions of Derrick White and Jrue Holiday have solidified the team’s identity, Dudley said.
“The key with them is you can’t give Tatum any easy dunks off of turnovers, and you can’t give any open threes,” Dudley said. “I’d rather have White have the open three than Tatum, to get him going, because these guys are young guys, they want to play well, it’s the NBA Finals.”
“Their job is to score, our job is to make it difficult,” he added. “Even if you make it difficult, they can still make shots.”
After entering free agency in 2019, Dudley was rumored to have been interested in coming back to Boston in what would have been sort of a homecoming for the former BC Eagle. He wanted to provide his veteran presence to a championship-contending team, but the Celtics never made an offer, he said.
Instead, the San Diego native returned to southern California, joining the Lakers prior to the 2019-20 season. Dudley and the likes of LeBron James and Anthony Davis went on to win the 2020 Finals in the bubble.
Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd served as an assistant coach on that Lakers squad before he became head coach of Dallas in the 2021-22 season, Dudley’s first year as an assistant.
“Eventually I want to become a head coach,” Dudley told the Herald, “so (I’m) getting the experience with how J-Kidd goes and his game plans, his adjustments, me running the defense, helping with substitutions, getting on Luka (Doncic).”
If the Mavericks want to extend the series against Boston, Dudley said it will come down to guard Kyrie Irving finding himself. The Boston crowd relentlessly slung “Kyrie sucks” chants against the former Celtic in Games 1 and 2, when Irving combined for just 28 points.
Irving woke up when the series shifted to Dallas, scoring 56 points combined in Games 3 and 4.
“The fans are getting on him in a different way than booing. It’s personal,” Dudley said. “When it’s personal you want to be able to respond, sometimes you’re not in the right mind-frame or space, and even he’d tell you he struggled. It’s his job to find ways to overcome it.”
Dudley, on the other hand, acknowledged he has a “great personal connection” with Celtics fans and the city as a whole which he attributed to his four years at BC.
The 15-year NBA veteran ranks sixth all-time in scoring in school history, and Dudley was voted the ACC Player of the Year in 2007 and was a second team All-American.
“They know the accolades I’ve had in Boston, of showing them love,” he said. “I’ve done camps here, I’ve given back here, I’ve given to BC financially. It’s all love when it comes to Boston.”
