Sometimes a basketball game ends well before the final buzzer.
Other times, it doesn’t truly begin until the team that built a comfortable lead suddenly finds itself uncomfortable, fighting the tide of a momentum shift, and desperate to hold its ground.
In Game 1 of the NBA Finals Thursday night at TD Garden, the Celtics’ poise in the second scenario allowed them to exhale ever so slightly and experience the first.
The Celtics seized the series opener in front of a raucous — and then briefly, and rightfully, nervous — Garden crowd, defeating Luka Doncic and the Mavericks 107-89.