Jayson Tatum Has Learned He Doesn’t Need “Luka Magic” to Win

When he’s at his best, his sharpest, his uncanniest, Luka Doncic defies physics and reason—hitting shots no one else would attempt, threading passes no one else would see, to teammates who didn’t even know they were open. “Luka Magic,” they call it. So when Doncic drove hard into the paint late in the third quarter Sunday, then flipped a looping, no-look pass, you just sort of assumed that something special would happen.

Jayson Tatum had cut off Doncic’s path to the hoop. Kristaps Porzingis was converging. So Doncic pirouetted and zinged the ball over his right shoulder, toward an awaiting P.J. Washington on the opposite side of the court. But on this night, in Game 2 of the NBA Finals, the magic fizzled at the worst times. Jaylen Brown leaped to snag the pass, then fired ahead to a sprinting Jrue Holiday for an easy dunk, short-circuiting the Dallas Mavericks’ comeback in the third quarter.

It was not the defining play of the night but was maybe the most symbolic, as the Boston Celtics survived their own sloppy play, repelled every Dallas surge, and secured a 105-98 win for a 2-0 lead in the series.

Doncic was mostly brilliant—putting up 32 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists—except for his eight turnovers (the second most he’s logged in a playoff game) and the four free throws he clanged, all while playing through a chest injury sustained three nights earlier.

“I think my turnovers and my missed free throws cost us the game,” Doncic said, sounding as exhausted as he looked late in the game. “So I’ve got to do way better in those two categories.”

It was an honorable, even admirable, attempt to take the blame for the Mavericks’ woes, on a night when the Celtics gave them every opportunity to steal the win. And if Doncic wanted to keep going, he could have pointed to his withering production in the second half (six points in the third quarter, 1-for-6 shooting in the fourth). But Dallas has much bigger issues in this series than the occasional Doncic misfire.

Start with his costar, Kyrie Irving, who could muster only 16 points (on 18 shots) in Game 2 and whose own costly turnover late in the fourth quarter, with the Mavericks down 10, effectively sealed the loss. Or with the general malaise of the Mavericks offense, which produced 21 assists Sunday but remained largely stagnant. Or with the Dallas defense, which, frankly, just can’t plug every gap against a Celtics lineup that can attack from every position and every angle.

When it wasn’t Holiday (26 points), it was Brown (21 points), and when it wasn’t Brown, it was Tatum (18 points) or Derrick White (18 points). Or it was Payton Pritchard, who hit a 3-point heave from midcourt at the third-quarter buzzer.

“That’s why they are the no. 1 team in the NBA, with the no. 1 record,” Doncic said. “They have a lot of great players. Basically, anybody can get off. Honestly, I think we didn’t do a bad job defending today. We took away 3s. We contested more 3s.”

Through two games of the Finals, every preconceived notion about the series has held up: that the Celtics are deeper, more versatile, and—given their age and experience—more poised. And better than any team Dallas has faced to this point, with more firepower than the Minnesota Timberwolves, more depth than the Oklahoma City Thunder, and more options than the Los Angeles Clippers.

“They are better than all the teams we’ve played,” Washington said. Asked what makes the Celtics better, he said, simply, “Everything. Their record says that they have been the best team all year. They have two superstars; they have a lot of great role players. And they play team ball.”

Boston, which has buried opponents all season with 3-pointers, endured a horrendous shooting night in Game 2, making just 10 of 39 shots from the arc. Tatum was particularly bad, making just six of 22 shots and just one of seven from 3-point range. But he never stopped attacking or leveraging his size and strength advantage. And, with his jumper failing him, Tatum did his best Luka impression—driving, drawing crowds, and firing passes to open teammates. Tatum’s 12 assists were one shy of the most he’s ever had in a playoff game.

“Every time I’d take a couple dribbles, there was, like, three people right there,” said Tatum, who finished one rebound short of a triple-double. “So we got a bunch of shooters on our team and guys that can space the floor. They kept leaving Jrue open. So it wasn’t like I had to do anything spectacular. It was just about finding the open guy.”

Two years ago, Tatum and Brown staked the Celtics to a 2-1 Finals lead over the Golden State Warriors—but they were eventually undone by their own frailties, by stubborn isolation play, untimely turnovers, and poor decision-making. They found ways to lose when it looked like they should win. The difference now is that they’re finding ways to win when the stats suggest they should lose.

Moments after Doncic’s looping pass got picked off, Tatum found himself similarly stuck, walled off by a double-team of Dereck Lively II and Josh Green just outside the paint. There was nowhere to go and no clean shot to take. Tatum paused, pivoted, then bounced a quick pass to a cutting Holiday for an easy layup.

Two years ago, maybe Tatum would have forced the shot. Or thrown it away. But the Celtics have evolved a bit since 2022.

“It has a lot to do with that I’ve been here before and we didn’t win,” Tatum said. “We’re so close to what we’re trying to accomplish. Why would I let my ego or my need to score all the points get in the way of that?”

Correction: A previous version of this article stated that Jayson Tatum’s 12 assists on Sunday were a playoff career high. He had 13 against the Warriors in the 2022 Finals.