One of the most impressive things about the Boston Celtics is that they have four or five players who can be the team's best performers on any given night.
And on Sunday night in Game 2 of the 2024 NBA Finals, that player was Jrue Holiday.
The veteran point guard was outstanding on both ends of the court, scoring a team-high 26 points on 11-of-14 shooting and also grabbing a team-high 11 rebounds. He also had three assists, one block and one steal in 41 minutes as the Celtics won 105-98 and took a 2-0 series lead.
Holiday made playoff history by becoming the first player to score at least 25 points, have at least 10 rebounds, shoot at least 75 percent from the field and have zero turnovers in an NBA Finals game.
Per Stathead, Holiday is also the first player to score 38 or more points and have zero turnovers in the first two games of the NBA Finals since Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan in 1998. That's some pretty good stuff.
“I'm a utility player. I'll do anything. I'm here to win,” Holiday told reporters after Game 2. “I feel like they brought me here to win and I'm going to do my best to win, but at the end of the day, this is (Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown's) team. I know it's my team as much as it is their team, but again, like I said before, I feel like the pressure that they put on themselves and to play well is a little different than the pressure that I put on them.”
“And again, I've always been honest about it and the way they've conducted themselves has always been very honorable. So it's a little bit different. They're superstars and I'm here to cheer them on.”
Holiday is averaging 19 points, 9.5 rebounds, four assists and one steal per game so far in the series and is a dark horse candidate for Finals MVP, but he still has a long way to go.
Though the Celtics have only won two games, it's easy to believe at this point that they have a chance to win Banner 18. The Celtics have outscored the Mavericks by a wide margin on both ends of the court through two games, and Holiday has been a big driving force behind that success.
