DALLAS — Jayson Tatum scored 31 points, Jaylen Brown added 30 and the Boston Celtics held off a Dallas rally to beat the Mavericks 106-99 on Wednesday night and move to within 3-0 of a record 18th championship in the NBA Finals.
Brown had eight rebounds and eight assists as the Celtics extended their franchise record with their 10th consecutive playoff win and improved to 7-0 on the road this postseason. A win on Friday in Dallas would give the Celtics the series title and break their tie with the Los Angeles Lakers for the most NBA championships.
Boston also improved to 10-1 in the upcoming playoffs without Kristaps Porzingis, the 7-foot-2 Latvian who injured a tendon in his lower left leg in Game 2 and was sidelined less than two hours before the game.
The question is whether Porzingis will be able to perform for the remainder of the series, but that may not matter: 156 teams have faced a 3-0 deficit and never pulled off a comeback victory in an NBA playoff series.
The Mavericks nearly pulled off that epic comeback and avoided a blowout defeat, 13 years after Dallas came from behind again in the NBA Finals to beat Miami for their only championship.
Boston used a 20-5 run to take a 91-70 lead early in the fourth quarter, but Dallas used a 22-2 surge to pull within one point with 3 1/2 minutes left.
The problem was, after a failed challenge with 4:12 left and Luka Doncic picked up his sixth foul, Kyrie Irving, who scored 35 points, made a jump shot to put Dallas within one.
Tatum and Brown rescued the Celtics from there, helped by Derrick White, who scored 16 points. The trio scored Boston's final 13 points, moving the Celtics within one win of winning their first championship since 2008 and their second since 1986.
The game appeared to be over early in the fourth quarter, but the score remained at 93-90 for more than three minutes, including when Doncic was called for a blocking foul on Brown while driving.
The Mavs had nothing to lose in this challenge: it meant saving their superstar from disqualification.
Without Doncic, Dallas trailed by two before Brown made a pull-up jumper with a minute left. P.J. Washington, Irving and Tim Hardaway Jr. all missed 3-pointers in the final minute, snapping a 13-game losing streak against Irving's former team.
As a rapt Dallas crowd braced for its first Finals game in 13 years, Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs quarterback and Mavs fan Patrick Mahomes was frequently on the move near center court.
The Mavericks used the momentum they gained from their two losses in Boston to take their largest lead of the series, leading 22-9, as Doncic and Irving drove to the basket and each made a 3-pointer.
The Celtics fought back to finish the first quarter with a 21-9 lead. Sam Hauser made two of his three 3-pointers in the first half to cap a winning streak that started with four points from Brown and a 3-pointer from Tatum.
Defense dominated the opening seconds of the second quarter, with Boston leading 5-2 after the first six minutes, before Irving and Tatum traded 3-pointers to launch a scoring spree.
