Dallas Mavericks ousted handily in Boston; Kyrie Irving jeered by Celtics fans

BOSTON — National TV. Calendar flipped to March. Parquet floor in TD Garden to face the NBA-best Boston Celtics.

Dallas coach Jason Kidd called it “a great test to see where we are with the new pieces.” With that in mind let’s charitably grade Boston’s 138-110 whipping of Dallas on Friday night as a C-minus for the Mavericks, though the game wasn’t as bleak as the final score.

Certainly, the Mavericks left ample room for improvement during the regular season’s final 22 games, but Kidd said he saw positive signs from his retooled roster, especially up to the point in which Dallas trailed 81-79 midway through the third quarter.

“It wasn’t the game that we wanted, but we learned a lot about ourselves,” Kidd said. “We have some things to correct, but it’s going in the right direction. We’re closer than we think from the score.”

The Mavericks got a monster game from Luka Doncic, whose 37-point, 12-rebound, 11-assist performance outshined that of the game’s other NBA Most Valuable Player candidate, Jayson Tatum, who finished with 32 points and eight rebounds.

Afterward, the MVP candidates briefly embraced, smiled and spoke on the court.

“He’s just a great guy,” Doncic said. “We both have a lot of respect for each other, which is amazing. We battled it out there.”

This night’s bottom line and the 1-3 finish of this Mavericks road trip, though, exemplify the uphill climbs faced by Doncic in the MVP race and that of Dallas in the playoff race.

When this trip began the Mavericks were riding a seven-game winning streak and coming off a win over Phoenix that moved them to 6th in the West, half a game behind New Orleans.

Now the Mavericks (34-26) are eighth in the West as they return to Dallas for a quick-turn noon Sunday game against Philadelphia, trailing the sixth-place Pelicans by 1½ games and seventh-place Sacramento by half a game.

It’s no shame, nor surprising, to fall to a 47-12 Boston team that drained 21-of-43 3-pointers en route to its 10th straight win, but Dallas ideally needed to go 2-2 on this trip. The Mavericks almost certainly would have done so if not for Max Strus’ 59-foot buzzer-beater in Cleveland.

“It was a game for three quarters, 3½ quarters damn-near,” rookie Dereck Lively II said of Friday’s loss. “We’ve just got to be able to work through some of the downs that we have. Just because our offense isn’t working doesn’t mean our defense should let up.

“There’s some times when some other players are in our heads about things, but I feel like we’ve just got to … be able to trust ourselves in those moments.”

P.J. Washington had his third consecutive strong offensive performance, scoring 17 points to go along with his seven rebounds.

Washington made three 3-pointers in the third quarter alone, and he missed an attempt with 5:38 left in the period that could have given Dallas an 82-81 lead. The Mavericks remained within striking distance after three quarters, 102-90.

The Celtics, though, scored the first nine points of the fourth quarter and 12 of the first 14 to blow the game open.

There were multiple intriguing subplots. This was only Kristaps Porzingis’ second game against Dallas since his Feb. 10, 2022, trade to Washington — and his first since April 1, 2022, when in a home victory for the Wizards he had 24 points and nine rebounds.

Porzingis on Friday scored 24 points and pulled down six rebounds.

Kyrie Irving has returned to Boston often since departing in free agency after the 2018-19 season, but it was his first TD Garden visit as a Maverick.

Unlike his return to Cleveland on the second game of this trip, where he got a video tribute and ovation, Irving was booed Friday every time he touched the ball. Late in the game, when he was on the bench and the game out of hand, fans chanted “Kyrie sucks!”

Mostly, though, this night was about how well the Mavericks would measure up to the Celtics – and whether Doncic or Tatum would make the more persuasive case for MVP.

The latter answer clearly was Doncic, two nights after turning 25 with a 30-point, 16-assist, 11-rebound effort in Toronto.

“At 25 he’s just gotten better; I can’t wait for 26,” Kidd joked, then turned more serious.

“He loves to play the game. He’s emotional. He is fiery. He believes he can take on the world. He can beat the world. And that’s what you want for your best player. At 25, he’s incredible.”

Anyone who tuned in to ESPN on Friday night learned that Doncic indeed is playing MVP-caliber basketball. But what did the Mavericks learn about themselves on this measuring stick night?

“That I think we can compete with the best,” Kidd said. “Not looking at the score, but we truly believe that we have the talent to compete. It’s being consistent and understanding it’s hard to win this league; it’s hard to beat the best teams.

“You don’t have to play perfect, but you have to stay together. You have to stay consistent. And that’s what we’re fighting to do right now, just like everyone else in this league.”

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