– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
Follow @Koiki_Sport Follow @ALOST_Official
BOSTON — Along with a shock and awe campaign not seen in the league for ages, this year’s NBA trade deadline also ripped a big hole in the space-time continuum. Case in point came Thursday night, when the Dallas Mavericks came back to Boston for the first time in eight months, but felt like eons ago with who was — and wasn’t — in Mavericks blue and white.
OK, Kyrie Irving was still with Dallas, and the incessant boing from the Celtics fans who once cheered him was still present. But it was his backcourt mate who stepped up big time to help deliver Kyrie a victory against his old team for the first time in four years.
Luka Doncic, right? Nope! Not anymore.
Klay Thompson, not far removed from tormenting Beantown as a longtime Golden State Warrior, scored 25 points as the Mavericks, with new teammate Anthony Davis watching from the bench, built a lead as much as 27 points before defeating the Celtics 127-120 inside TD Garden in a nationally-televised matchup.
Davis’ presence was the result of the shocking trade last Saturday that sent once-thought-of-untouchable Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers ahead of today’s trade deadline, and though his abdominal strain continued to keep him out of the lineup and delayed his Mavericks debut, Dallas was able to win its first game in the post-Luka era in a game where it played on the parquet of Boston for the first game since Game 2 of last season’s NBA Finals.
All but conceding defeat early in the fourth after entering the period down 21, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla took out both Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown at the 9:35 mark and did not play the superstars the rest of the game. Boston’s reserves, however, gave it a huge lift and brought hope to the crowd that a miraculous comeback was afoot. A Sam Hauser three-pointer with 2:25 remaining brought the Celtics to within 112-112.
Payton Pritchard scored 16 of his 21 points in the final stanza, where he made seven of his nine shots from the field. Brown led all Celtics scorers with 25 points.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Thursday evening’s game, with photos taken by ALOST staff photographer Erica Denhoff. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page, Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 48 pictures in total.
Follow @Koiki_Sport Follow @ALOST_Official
