Celtics outlast massive Luka Doncic performance to beat Mavs 125-112

Luka Doncic spun and spun and spun, eventually leaning back and pouring in a fadeaway two over Sam Hauser’s head. The second-year forward watched shot after shot rise up toward the rafters and down through the rim during a torturous Thanksgiving Eve for Boston’s switching defenders. But they knew they’d need to live giving up some of them.

“Know what you need to live with and know what you need to take away,” Joe Mazzulla said pre-game. “He can get it in a lot of different ways.”

Two proved better than one for the Celtics, who received 68 points, 17 rebound and nine assists from Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum as the league’s most powerful offense built a 27-point lead and answered each Dallas run on the way to a 125-112 win. Doncic scored 42 points with eight rebounds and nine assists on 17-for-28 shooting, but only Christian Wood stepped up in support of the Slovenian star.

Tatum, after Dallas pulled within nine points late, sent him packing at the rim with a powerful stuff and shouted toward him and the Celtics bench.

Derrick White, Al Horford, Marcus Smart and Tatum took turns on Doncic in the opening minutes as Joe Mazzulla returned to his original starting lineup after an eight-game stretch where Grant Williams started and injuries plagued the back court. Doncic overpowered White early with a tough fadeaway and three from the left wing. He tossed in an early leaner over Horford and his pull-up over Smart just rimmed out. A 15-point quarter from the MVP candidate, bent, but didn’t break Boston as Doncic’s teammates shot 3-for-9.

Brown took command of the ball in transition and scored seven points in less than two minutes to push the Celtics ahead, 26-14, on a left-handed layup running back his steal on Dorian Finney-Smith. Al Horford found him on the previous two scores finishing downhill on Dwight Powell, who Brown knocked out of the game with three early fouls.

Doncic resumed his attack for a fadeaway and leaner over Sam Hauser, but Malcolm Brogdon paced the Celtics’ double-digit lead with a pair of pull-up threes. Grant Williams and him grabbed consecutive offensive rebounds on the final possession of the quarter, Brogdon watching the clock with five seconds left from mid-range, passing up the shot, driving into the post and finding Brown cutting from the top of the post for a layup and 13 points as Tatum watched from the scorer’s table.

The Celtics led, 34-23, entering the second quarter and Tatum took over with…