Celtics got 29 points from Isaiah Thomas and defeated the Mavs, 111-98

DALLAS – The chance to beat another beast from the Eastern Conference and poke out their chest some more didn’t come to fruition for the Dallas Mavericks.

Led by Isaiah Thomas, the Boston Celtics upended the Mavs, 111-98, Monday night at American Airlines Center, thus preventing Dallas from boasting about its supremacy against the elite teams from the East.

Two weeks ago the Mavs beat the defending world champion and current Eastern Conference-leading Cleveland Cavaliers, 104-97. But the Celtics were way too physical and much too efficient for the Mavs, who fell to 22-33 on the season.

Boston led for the balance of this game and had the Mavs running upstream all night. The last time the Mavs led, in fact, was 26-25 late in the first quarter.

The tempo, the pace, the momentum – of all it – belonged to the Celtics, who own the second-best record in the East at 36-19.

"Any time you put yourself into a deficit like that against a great team its; hard to get back into it," said forward Harrison Barnes, who scored 19 points. "I thought we made a little bit of progress, but unfortunately we couldn’t get over the hump."

It wasn’t like the Mavs didn’t have opportunities to derail the Celtics.

The Mavs inched within 83-82 of Boston late in the third quarter, then missed seven straight shots at taking the lead. Finally, the Celtics got clicking again behind Thomas, who tallied 29 points and dispensed eight assists.

With Thomas directing traffic, Boston used a 19-5 run to build its lead to 107-92 with 3:06 remaining in the game. In the meantime, the Celtics’ sticky defense totally disrupted the Mavs’ offensive attack and held them to a mere 16 points in the fourth quarter on 5-of-21 shooting.

"Well, we got within one," coach Rick Carlisle said. "Tantalizingly close, and we just had some opportunities that fell by the wayside."

Carlisle believes the Celtics are so well equipped that they can challenge the Cavs for the Eastern Conference title this season. They sure looked like world-beaters against the Mavs.

"They’re a very good offensive team, one of the best," Carlisle said. "And they’ve got a legitimate chance to get to the (NBA) Finals with that team out of the East.

"It’s a very good basketball team, so when you’re playing a team very beginning. I’m going to look at the film to make sure, but I just don’t think we were and I thought that was the big difference."

Other than Thomas, ex-Flower Mound Marcus star Marcus Smart (19 points), Kelly Olynyk (15), and Al Horford (11 points) gave the Mavs headaches. And former Mavs players Jae Crowder (10 points) and Gerald Green (10 points, 14 minutes) were also instrumental in Boston winning for the 10^th time in its last 11 games.

The Mavs didn’t help themselves by getting bogged down and getting off to a slow start. Things then reached a crescendo late in the second quarter when point guard Deron Williams was handed two quick technical fouls and an automatic ejection for arguing a call that didn’t go his way.

Williams drove down the lane and assumed he had drawn a foul. However, he was whistled for an offensive foul for hooking – replays didn’t reveal that – and Williams protested too vehemently and was subsequently tagged with a pair of technical fouls and the automatic ejection with just 35.6 seconds remaining in the first half.

The Mavs only trailed, 55-50, at the time of the ejection by Williams, who missed Monday morning’s shootaround with an illness. But Thomas scored seven straight points – three of them coming via free throws after he was fouled by Yogi Ferrell while attempting a 3-pointer with only 0.6 seconds left in the first half.

All of those mishaps left the Mavs behind, 61-50, at the half, and not in a very good mood.

"I just thought the beginning of the game was a microcosm of what our problem was tonight," Carlisle said. "You’ve got to be in a total hit-first mode and a total hard dispositional mode against a team like Boston that has those kinds of athletes, and for 48 minutes we just didn’t do it."

Ferrell came off the bench and led the Mavs with 20 points on 8-of-11 shots. He was attacking the basket ferociously, and also drilling jumpers at will after replacing Seth Curry early in the first quarter.

"He’s a professional basketball player," Carlisle said of Ferrell. "He’s supposed to play hard and play well.

"I don’t think building this guy up – he’s doing his job. His job is to play hard, make open shots, make simple plays and guard the best little guy on nights like tonight. He did some very good things and his job is to continue to do that.’’

Ferrell concurred that it is his job to play to the best of his abilities.

"I’m just going out there playing," he said. "At the end of the day it’s just basketball.

"I like playing the game and I like playing with these guys. That’s all it is to it.’’

Dirk Nowitzki and Wesley Matthews scored 18 points apiece for the Mavs, who now trail Denver by three games for the final playoff spot out West after the Nuggets humbled the Golden State Warriors on Monday, 132-110.

The Mavs play at Detroit on Wednesday, and then will take off for the All-Star break. Indeed, after getting outscored 28-16 in fourth quarter by the Celtics, the Mavs were quick to turn their attention to the Pistons.

"I think our biggest thing for us is starting games the right way," Barnes said. "We have to start off early and be in aggressive mode defensively and not let them get into a rhythm where it’s hard for us to stop them."

This story was originally published February 14, 2017 at 12:17 AM with the headline "Celtics got 29 points from Isaiah Thomas and defeated the Mavs, 111-98."