Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown referred to as Thursday’s sport in opposition to the Dallas Mavericks the “perfect time” to get again on monitor after back-to-back losses to start a four-game highway journey.
After permitting 123 factors after which a season-high 150 of their final two video games, the Celtics look to get well in opposition to reigning Western Conference Player of the Month Luka Doncic as a four-game highway journey continues at Dallas. It can be no simple feat with Dallas on a seven-game profitable streak, trailing solely Brooklyn’s 12-game run for the longest energetic streak within the NBA, heading into Wednesday’s play.
The Mavs have been off since a 111-106 victory on Monday at Houston after they overcame an 18-point deficit within the third quarter as Doncic completed with 39 factors, 12 rebounds and eight assists. The profitable streak is the Mavericks’ longest since their 2011 championship season, when present head coach Jason Kidd was the workforce’s level guard.
“I’ve been part of both, that’s kind of cool,” Kidd mentioned. “The guys in that locker room, again, you could easily say the new year, being on the road, and can’t wait to get back home. But the guys came out in the second half and Luka gets going without the 3-ball tonight. He trusted his team-mates. We showed up in the second half.”
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Dallas has defeated Houston 3 times through the streak, which dates again to December 21.
“Winning is always great,” Doncic mentioned. “The energy in the locker room is amazing, so to win seven in a row is pretty good, but we want more. I think today we (played poorly), but great teams come back and win games.”
‘Sense of humility’
Doncic is the primary NBA participant to file a minimum of 225 factors, 50 rebounds and 50 assists over a five-game stretch. Additionally, Mavs middle Christian Wood has averaged 20.9 factors and eight.6 rebounds over his final 10 video games. He has blocked a minimum of two photographs in all however a kind of contests. Even with out Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (sickness), Oklahoma City turned simply the third workforce to attain 150 factors in opposition to the Celtics in franchise historical past, as Boston fell 150-117 on Tuesday.
“You have to play with a sense of humility every night knowing that your opponent wants to beat you,” Celtics interim coach Joe Mazzulla mentioned. “We have to match that, and we didn’t, and we got outplayed in every aspect of the game.”
That mindset is particularly true when holding the NBA’s greatest file, which the Celtics nonetheless did on Wednesday regardless of shedding consecutive video games for the third time because the begin of December. On Tuesday, Brown scored a game-high 29 factors and Jayson Tatum had 27, however the Celtics have been no match because the Thunder had seven double-figure scorers, hit 20 3-pointers and shot 59.2 % from the ground.
“(Butts) kicked,” Brown mentioned. “You come out and you take it for granted, that’s what happens.”
The Celtics will try to comb the season sequence from Dallas, which was the No. 4 workforce within the West as of Wednesday.
Boston’s 125-112 house win over Dallas on November 23 snapped a four-game skid within the head-to-head sequence. Including that streak, the Celtics are 8-5 over the past 13 conferences.
“You’ve gotta just know the NBA’s fragile,” Mazzulla mentioned. “And so you’ve just got to constantly work at it, you’ve got to do the same things over and over again. It’s a test of your mindset, a test of your will, and it’s a test of how you’re able to handle success and adversity. So you’re going to have to constantly go through those things.”
