BOSTON — With 10:30 left in the third quarter of Game 2 and the Celtics down a point, Derrick White missed a long 3-pointer late in the shot clock as the Mavericks looked to gain momentum.
But Jrue Holiday seemed to track where the rebound was headed even before it had hit the rim. He ran in from the right corner to the right block and was waiting when the ball caromed right to him.
Holiday had a good look at the basket in a game where he was in an excellent offensive rhythm. Shooting wouldn’t have been a bad decision.
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But Holiday saw Jayson Tatum approaching from the other side. Tatum had struggled offensively up to that point. Whether Holiday was thinking that Tatum could benefit from seeing the ball go in on an easy basket or simply made a good play instinctively, he fed Tatum the ball.
Tatum laid it in as Kyrie Irving fouled him. Tatum made the free throw. The sequence seemed to spark him. He had 13 of his 18 points after Holiday made that pass. The Celtics never trailed again in the game.
The Mavericks pulled even again briefly, but Holiday answered with a running layup that put the Celtics ahead for good in their 105-98 victory that gave them a 2-0 lead in the NBA Finals.
Holiday had a team-high 26 points, a game-high 11 rebounds and another excellent game defensively, regularly matching up Irving and Luka Doncic at both ends of the floor.
After all the Jason-Kidd-inspired discussion about who the Celtics’ best player is Tatum or Jaylen Brown, so far in this series it’s been neither one.
That distinction has belonged to Holiday through two games as Boston moved within two games of the championship they brought Holiday in to help them get. Where would they be without him?
“Good thing we don’t have to find out,” Tatum said. “We’re very, very fortunate to have him and he was excellent tonight.”
Holiday has been an All-Star twice and an Olympic gold medal winner. At this stage of his career — Wednesday is both Game 3 and his 34th birthday — he’s hunting for another ring much more than personal accolades.
“I’m a utility guy. I’ll do whatever. I’m here to win. I feel like they brought me here to win, and I’ll do my best to do that,” he said. “But at the end of the day, this is (Tatum’s and Brown’s) team. I know it’s probably just as much my team as theirs, but again, I feel like I talked about this before, the pressure that they have on themselves to execute and to be great is a little bit different than my pressure.
“How they always handle themselves has been something that’s been so honorable. So it’s just, it’s slightly different,” he added. “They’re superstars and I’m here to support.”
That’s underselling his contributions. Holiday does a lot of tangible things very well. He’s an all-league defender. He’s been a good scorer, a good distributor and as he showed on Sunday, at times a terrific rebounder.
But his intangibles have been the missing piece for a team that needed an experienced veteran voice. While he wasn’t acquired in the same trade that sent Marcus Smart out, Holiday was brought in to replace a lot of what Smart gave the Celtics. But while Smart was great at bringing fire, sometimes it ignited the Celtics and sometimes it burned them. Holiday is rarely ever out of control and almost never makes a bad decision. He’s been easy to trust.
“He just is who he is. He’s got that demeanor, that killer-like mentality, and we respect it,” Jaylen Brown said. “He’s a great teammate and it’s just an honor to play next to him.”
Follow MassLive sports columnist Matt Vautour on Twitter at @MattVautour424.
