Luka Doncic got introduced Sunday night looking like a mummy.

Bulky wraps covered his ankles, knees and torso, as he slapped hands walking through a tunnel of teammates and under a shower of boos. Then Doncic shed his wraps and took the floor.

Hours later, this much was obvious for the Mavericks star: he better have more wraps when he gets home.

The Celtics punched, elbowed, hammered and bullied Doncic’s Mavs into a Game 2 defeat at TD Garden. Boston’s 105-98 win was no showcase of modern basketball; perfect spacing, gorgeous shooting and passes whipped from all angles to all corners.

It was a slobberknocker.

A game only a mother and sons of ’80s basketball could love.

A slugfest the Celtics would have lost any other year of the Tatum-Brown era, but instead used to power themselves to a 2-0 lead in the Finals. They held on, thanks to a Jaylen Brown layup with under 30 seconds left and countless bruising plays before it, including 10 steals and five blocks.

Jrue Holiday and Derrick White pressured Kyrie Irving all over the floor, and Irving stunk again. He had 16 points on 7-of-18 shooting, plus a couple turnovers. He’s now 0-of-8 from 3-point range in this series.

The chanting, spiteful crowd has been right both nights.

“Ky-rie sucks!”

At the other end, Tatum lowered his shoulder into Dallas centers on drives over again and again, and banged down low battling for rebounds. He finished with nine boards and a game-high 12 assists, most on kick-outs after penetrating deep into the paint on ugly, physical drives.

Tatum also saw plenty of Doncic on defense, as did Brown. For a second straight night, Brown collected three steals, including one where he picked Doncic’s pocket from behind before Boston cashed two easy points at the other end. The Celtics battered Doncic at both ends, turning the best player in this series — who somehow had the quietest triple-double in Finals history — into a piñata.

Boston chose violence because it had to. The Celtics were abandoned Sunday by their greatest advantage: 3-point shooting. They shot 25.6% from downtown, with Tatum, Brown and Al Horford all hitting 3-pointer apiece. Kristaps Porzings went 0-for-3, and specialist Sam Hauser was 0-for-5 from deep.

So without their soft touch, they balled their hands into a fist and attacked the Mavericks’ strengths — Doncic, Irving and stout rim protectors — head-on. And won.

Boston, MA – Boston Celtics’ Jrue Holiday drives to the basket past Dallas Mavericks’ P.J. Washington during Game 2 of the NBA Finals at the TD Garden . (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)

Boston took 34% of its shots at the rim, per Cleaning the Glass; charging again and again at a Dallas defense designed to stop layups and dunks and hitting almost all of them. For most teams, that percentage would rank about average this season. But for the space-and-shoot Celtics, it was one of their highest single-game marks of the year.

An outlier.

Boston became the NBA’s most efficient offensive team of all time because of the 3-point shot, not layups. Every player, from Tatum to Holiday, Al Horford, Payton Pritchard and down the bench, a shooting threat. But on a night when everyone except Holiday and White (6-of-12) went cold from deep, they changed course; flexing championship versatility and toughness.

Before Sunday night, the Celtics had been 1-4 when they shot under 26% from 3-point range and 4-8 in games when they shot below 30%. Not anymore. Despite that hideous 25.6% mark on Sunday, they won on basketball’s biggest stage, all but forcing a cracking Mavericks team to win Wednesday night or else.

The Celtics were dragged into the mud immediately in Game 2 over a slow, physical first quarter that put two fouls on the tabs of Irving and Holiday immediately. The Mavericks held a 28-25 lead at the end, a major confidence boost for a team that had lost just once this postseason when leading after the first quarter.

But Boston turned that muck into an advantage in the second, when Tatum drove into crowd after crowd, whipping out seven assists. Holiday was on the receiving end of three straight late in the quarter. The Celtics took a halftime lead, and led for more than 22 of the final 24 minutes.

Related Articles

Celtics fans up for Jaylen Brown’s challenge of being louder in Game 2 of NBA Finals

NBA Finals 2024: Jayson Tatum’s offense and the 3 big Celtics questions that will define Game 2

Celtics, NBA unveil newly renovated court at Boston Boys & Girls Club

Celtics must not slack off in another Game 2

Celtics’ Jayson Tatum makes surprising admission after NBA Finals Game 1

Dallas already reeked of desperation before Game 2, when coach Jason Kidd called Brown the Celtics’ best player in a lazy, public attempt to sow division between him and Tatum. Later, Doncic sprung up on the Mavs’ injury report pregame with a thoracic contusion AKA a chest bruise. Or boo-boo.

But the only thing truly questionable was Doncic being treated as if there was a non-zero chance he would play. He had a week off before Game 1, and rested for the final five minutes Thursday night. Dallas would have been dead on arrival without him Sunday.

Kidd’s explanation pregame  — three days after Game 1 — was that Doncic hurt himself diving on the floor or taking a charge in that game. He couldn’t even pick one answer.

And now, Kidd and the Mavs might have no answers for the Celtics, who proved they’re as capable of winning ugly in the Finals as they are playing the beautiful, well-spaced, 3-point game that made one of the greatest regular-season teams in NBA history.