Dallas Mavericks vs Boston Celtics Picks and Predictions January 25th 2025

Inconsistent Celtics Guarding Against Back-to-Back Losses, Visit Mavericks

The Boston Celtics will aim to avoid losing back-to-back games for just the second time this season when they visit the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday night.

Boston is coming off a 117-96 defeat to the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday, marking their worst loss of the season in terms of margin. The Celtics have been strong after defeats, with their only consecutive losses coming in late December against Orlando and Philadelphia.

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However, consistency has been an issue. Boston is 5-5 in its last 10 games, going 8-6 in December and 7-5 so far in January. With the All-Star break approaching, Jaylen Brown believes the team needs to stay focused and push through.

“Each game presents its own opportunities,” Brown said. “It’s been a tough month in January for us. We’ve just gotta continue to stay the course. We can’t really make excuses about why we’ve dropped games. We’ve probably dropped some games we should have won. But at this point of the year, we’ve just gotta put our best foot forward.”

Despite their recent inconsistent stretch, Brown remains confident in the Celtics’ potential.

“I’m not concerned, but it’s a part of just navigating the year,” he added. “Anything can happen. We just need to finish through the All-Star break strong and then get ready to gear up going in towards the playoffs and just continue to stay with it, stay the course, because I feel like we’re still the best team out there. We’ve just gotta put it all together.”

Shorthanded Mavericks Fighting Through Injuries

The Mavericks have struggled with injuries all season, but they remain a dangerous opponent. Dallas proved that on Thursday, defeating Oklahoma City 121-115 despite missing several key players.

Luka Doncic (left calf strain) has been out, and the Mavericks were also without Naji Marshall (illness), Klay Thompson (ankle), Dereck Lively II (ankle), Dwight Powell (hip), Dante Exum (wrist), and Jaden Hardy (ankle).

Still, coach Jason Kidd was proud of his team’s resilience in pulling off a tough win.

“The energy and effort on a back-to-back was at a high,” Kidd said. “The guys played hard. They executed the game plan. I thought this was a character win, maybe the best win of the season—short-handed, next-man-up mentality.”

Doncic has played just 22 games this season, missing more games (23) than he has played. Guard Spencer Dinwiddie believes that as long as the team can stay competitive, getting Doncic back will feel like a massive boost post-trade deadline.

“Right now, we talk about next-man-up, but it’s almost holding down the fort,” Dinwiddie said. *”You look at our injury report, it’s insane. You can make a starting five out of the injury report alone. That’s tough, but that’s part of the season we’re having.

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“As long as we stay in striking distance, we’re going to have basically the best trade-deadline acquisition anybody can have when you bring the MVP back (Doncic). Maybe earlier. Looking forward to that.”*

Mavericks Searching for Consistency

Dallas has lost five of its last seven games, and both wins during that stretch came against Oklahoma City. In Thursday’s victory, the Mavericks shot 45.2 percent from 3-point range (14-of-31), with Kyrie Irving leading the way, hitting 4 of his 8 three-point attempts.

Irving acknowledged that the team needs to build on its recent success.

“Now we got to build on that consistency,” Irving said. “The last few games, we have not been as consistent as we’d like. (It was a) gutsy win.”

With Boston seeking a bounce-back win and Dallas battling to stay competitive despite injuries, Saturday’s game will be a crucial test for both teams’ resilience and ability to adjust.