The Boston Celtics are now just two wins away from their 18th championship following a 105-98 win over the Dallas Mavericks in Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Sunday.

Jrue Holiday finished with a team-high 26 points and 11 rebounds for the Celtics. The veteran guard, who turns 34 on Wednesday, is in his first season with Boston after being acquired in a September 2023 trade.

This marks the second straight game in which the Celtics got a great performance from a player brought in during the offseason by president of basketball operations Brad Stevens. Kristaps Porzingis, whom Boston landed in a separate trade, starred in Game 1.

Jayson Tatum, Boston’s lone All-NBA player this season, struggled shooting the ball but nearly finished the game with a triple-double. Tatum finished 6 of 22 from the field and just 1 of 7 from 3-point range, but he scored 18 points, dished out a game-high 12 assists, and pulled down nine rebounds.

“I would say a lot of (my scoring) was JT. JT was attacking the basket, they were double-teaming him and he was making the right play,” Holiday said. “The way that he played tonight, the way that he led us — getting into the paint, making plays, finding me wide open — it was all about him.”

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Jaylen Brown finished with 21 points, seven assists and three steals for the Celtics, while Derrick White added 18 points and stuffed the stat sheet with five rebounds, three steals and two blocks.

Porzingis scored 12 points off the bench while adding four rebounds and two blocks.

Luka Doncic once again starred for the Mavericks. He scored a game-high 32 points while putting up 11 rebounds and 11 assists for a triple-double, in spite of the fact that he was questionable to play before the game due to injury.

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Former Celtics All-Star Kyrie Irving was Dallas’ next-highest scorer with 16 points, but he struggled from the field once again. He shot only 35.1% (13 of 37) combined in the first two games of the series and missed all eight of his 3-point attempts.

There were moments in the second half in which the Celtics appeared to be pulling away from the Mavericks, but Dallas was able to remain in touching distance up until the end of the game.

After Irving hit two free throws with just over 3 seconds remaining in the third quarter, Payton Pritchard banked in a buzzer-beater from just inside half-court. It was Pritchard’s only basket of the game.

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It appeared the Mavs were finished when White hit a 3-pointer to put the C’s up by 14 with just over three and a half minutes remaining, but Dallas was able to cut Boston’s lead down to five with 1:15 left on the clock.

With the game at 103-98 and the Mavericks in transition, White hustled to block a layup attempt by P.J. Washington and Brown was not far behind him.

“It was amazing. I think maybe D-White got it first and then JB got it second. But just the effort, right?” Holiday said. “They could have gave up the layup, but to go out there and get that block is elite.”

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The series resumes Wednesday with Game 3 in Dallas. TD Garden is hosting a ticketed watch party for Game 3.

Earlier in the series: