BOSTON — Kristaps Porzingis didn’t want to make predictions about how his body would respond heading into the NBA Finals after he spent more than a month on the sideline with a calf injury.
Just fine, it turned out.
Jaylen Brown scored 22 points, Porzingis made an immediate impact by adding 20 points off the bench, and the Boston Celtics powered past the Dallas Mavericks 107-89 on Thursday night in Game 1 of the best-of-seven championship series.
Derrick White finished with 15 points for Eastern Conference champion Boston, which led by 29 points in the first half and connected on 16 3-pointers in a powerful start to its quest for a record-breaking 18th NBA title.
Porzingis, a 7-footer who had been sidelined since April 29, also had six rebounds and three blocks in his 21 minutes on the court.
“Tonight was affirmation to myself that I’m pretty good,” Porzingis said. “I’m not perfect, but I can play like this and I can add to this team.”
The last Boston player to enter the court for pregame warmups, he said he received a jolt of energy from the home crowd, which erupted when he emerged from the tunnel.
“The adrenaline was pumping through my veins,” Porzingis said.
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla wasn’t concerned about the layoff affecting Porzingis’ aggressiveness.
“That’s the KP that helped us get to where we are today,” Mazzulla said. “It doesn’t matter how long the guy is off, he’s going to make plays.”
All-Star forward Jayson Tatum finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds, among the six players who scored in double figures for the Celtics, who have home-court advantage for the series after posting the best record in the regular season. Game 2 is Sunday night in Boston.
“Getting back to this point and being here is really a big deal,” Tatum said. “But two years ago we won the first game, and we know the outcome of that series. We still have a lot of work to do.”
The Celtics won the franchise’s 17th league title in 2008 and have been back to the NBA Finals twice since then without adding a banner. They lost in 2010 to the Lakers as the series went all seven games, and they held a 2-1 edge on Golden State in 2022 before the Warriors won three in a row.
The Lakers have added another title since beating Boston, with their 2020 championship pulling them even with the cross-country rival Celtics for first place in NBA history.
Dallas cut the deficit to eight points in the third quarter, but Boston answered with a 14-0 run to quickly pull away again.
“That’s when the game started,” Brown said.
Luka Doncic led Dallas with 30 points, and P.J. Washington added 14 points and eight rebounds, but Dallas couldn’t find offensive consistency beyond that, totaling just nine assists on its 35 field goals for the game. The Mavericks didn’t score 25 points in any quarter.
Doncic said the lopsided loss wouldn’t diminish the spirit of a team that lost the opening game in three of four series this postseason. The Mavericks won the Western Conference as a No. 5 seed, securing the third NBA Finals trip in franchise history.
“Either you lose or you win,” Doncic said. “First to four, we’ve got to focus on the next game.”
Dallas faced the Miami Heat its two previous trips to the title round, losing in 2006 and winning in 2011 as each series went six games.
Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving, a former Celtic, struggled throughout, finishing with 12 points. He received a loud and extended chorus of boos Thursday when he was introduced before the game. After tipoff, the jeers returned whenever he touched the ball.
The treatment came after Irving went back and forth with Boston fans and was fined for using an obscene gesture during a 2022 playoff visit to TD Garden while playing for the Brooklyn Nets.
“I thought it was going to be a little louder in here,” Irving said, adding that he’s “expecting the same thing” on Sunday.
“The crowd’s trying to get me out of my element,” he added. “It’s not the first time I’ve lost in Boston. I don’t want to make it a habit.”
This was the 11th straight loss to the Celtics for Irving, an eight-time NBA All-Star.
The host showed little rust from their 10-day layoff after sweeping the Indiana Pacers to win the Eastern Conference.
The Celtics flowed with energy throughout, sharing the ball in the halfcourt and getting it to shooters for open 3s. They also attacked the interior of the Dallas defense and got to the rim for several dunks.
Meanwhile, apart from Doncic, who shot 12-of-26 from the field, Dallas struggled early to get into its sets and couldn’t find a consistent groove offensively.
The Mavericks led by one point midway through the first quarter. The Celtics responded by outscoring the visitors 44-16 to make it 58-29 in the second.
Things changed over the next 12 minutes of game action when Dallas used a 35-14 run, including 15 points by Doncic, to cut Boston’s lead to 72-64. The Celtics, though, were up 86-66 entering the fourth.
Dallas had just five assists through the first three quarters, the fewest any NBA team has had through 36 minutes in any game in the past three seasons.
“We’ve got to move the ball,” Dallas coach Jason Kidd said. “The ball got stuck too much.”
Porzingis ended his 10-game hiatus when he came off the bench with 7:17 left in the first quarter in place of starter Al Horford. With the exception of a white compression sleeve on his right leg, it was hard to tell Porzingis was coming off an injury.
He got into the mix quickly, knocking down a pair of free throws after being fouled by Doncic. A possession later, the 28-year-old Latvian connected for his first field goal when he dropped in a short jumper over Doncic.
He wasn’t done.
Minutes later, he got loose in the paint for a two-handed dunk over Derrick Lively. On the Mavericks’ next possession, Porzingis was there to swat away Jaden Hardy’s layup attempt. The Celtics pushed the ball upcourt and got the ball back to their big man, who calmly buried a 16-footer.
It was part of a 17-5 surge by Boston over the final 5:24 of the quarter in which Porzingis went 4-for-5 from the field, scored 11 points, blocked two shots and grabbed three rebounds. Boston carried a 37-20 lead into the second quarter.
Porzingis finished the half with 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting.