Jrue Holiday praises Payton Pritchard for his incredible buzzer-beater three to close out the third quarter in Game 2
One of the most impressive aspects of the Boston Celtics is they have four or five players who are capable of being the team's best performer on a given night.
And in Game 2 of the 2024 NBA Finals on Sunday night, that player was Jrue Holiday.
The veteran point guard was fantastic at both ends of the floor. He scored a team-high 26 points on 11-of-14 shooting, along with a team-leading 11 rebounds. He also tallied three assists, one block and one steal in 41 minutes as the Celtics earned a 105-98 victory to take a 2-0 series lead.
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Holiday made playoff history by becoming the first player ever to score 25-plus points, tally 10-plus rebounds, shoot 75 percent or higher from the field and have zero turnovers in an NBA Finals game.
Holiday also is the first player with 38-plus points and zero turnovers through the first two games of an NBA Finals since Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan in 1998, per Stathead. That's some pretty good company right there.
"I'm a utility guy. I'll do whatever. I'm here to win," Holiday told reporters after Game 2. "I feel like they brought me here to win, and I'll do my best to do that. But at the end of the day, this is (Jayson Tatum and Jaylen 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.
"And, again, I've always been honest about that and how they always handle themselves has been something that's been so honorable. So it's just, it's slightly different. They're superstars and I'm here to support."
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Holiday is averaging 19 points, 9.5 rebounds, four assists and one steal per game in the series so far. He's a dark horse candidate for Finals MVP, but there's still a long way to go.
The Celtics have only won two games, but it's easy to feel good about their chances of claiming Banner 18 right now. They have outplayed the Mavericks by a wide margin at both ends of the floor through two games, and Holiday is driving much of that success.
