Everything you need to know for the Boston Celtics' road game against the Dallas Mavericks on February 3, 2026: where to watch, listen, stream info, TV channel, and what happened last game.
If this Celtics-Mavericks matchup feels familiar, that’s because it should.
These two teams shared the biggest stage two summers ago, trading blows in the 2024 NBA Finals with everything on the line.
But if that series was about who could survive the moment, this one is about who’s best positioned to thrive going forward. And right now, the contrast couldn’t be sharper.
Boston (31-18) enters this game in a place that would’ve felt almost unimaginable during that Finals run.
No Jayson Tatum, no panic.
No Jaylen Brown on certain nights, no problem.
Payton Pritchard stepping into star-sized usage and delivering.
Derrick White continuing to tilt games without needing recognition.
Neemias Queta turning into a nightly interior force.
Joe Mazzulla pushing the right buttons with a roster that no longer feels fragile when circumstances change.
This is a Celtics team that’s learned how to win without needing everything to go perfectly.
Two years ago, Boston’s Finals identity was built around execution and precision. Today, it’s built around newfound depth, adaptability, and confidence in the next man up. That’s not a small evolution - it’s the difference between a contender and a program.
Dallas (19-30), meanwhile, arrives at this matchup with far more questions than answers.
The Mavericks are staring down a trade deadline that feels less like an opportunity and more like a reckoning.
Daniel Gafford, Klay Thompson, and D’Angelo Russell all sit squarely on the block, symbols of a roster caught between timelines.
Cooper Flagg is the future. Anthony Davis is the present - or at least he’s supposed to be.
Everything else feels negotiable.
Where Boston has used the past year to clarify its direction, Dallas is still trying to define one.
The Mavericks are balancing asset management, financial pressure, and competitive pride all at once, and it shows. This isn’t a team gearing up for another Finals push; it’s one trying to get through the next 72 hours intact.
So when the Celtics and Mavericks share the floor again, it won’t just be a Finals rematch.
It’ll be a reminder of how differently each franchise’s roads have gone since meeting on basketball’s biggest stage.
How to Watch Celtics vs. Mavericks
Boston Celtics at Dallas Mavericks Information
Game Date: February 3, 2026
Game Time: 8:00 PM ET
TV Channel: NBC (National) NBC Sports Boston (Boston) & KFAA-TV (Dallas)
Radio: 98.5 The Sports Hub (Boston) & 97.1 FM The Eagle (Dallas)
Location: American Airlines Center, Dallas, TX
Live Stream: Peacock, Fubo & NBA League Pass
Feb 6, 2025; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard (11) drives the ball against Dallas Mavericks center Daniel Gafford (21) in the second half at TD Garden. (David Butler II/Imagn Images)Missed any of Sunday’s win over Milwaukee? Here what happened at TD Garden:
Every time Giannis Antetokounmpo’s name starts floating through the NBA rumor mill, Celtics (30-18) fans instinctively do the math.
Salary matching. Asset packages. Who stays, who goes, and whether there’s a clean path to adding one of the five best players on the planet.
It’s natural. When a talent like that even sniffs availability, every front office is obligated to pick up the phone.
But as the Bucks (18-28) drift further into dysfunction and the league collectively waits to see if Milwaukee finally blinks, this moment feels less like an opportunity for Boston - and more like a reminder.
A reminder of why the Celtics shouldn’t trade for Giannis.
Look no further than where these two franchises are right now.
Boston just absorbed a rough loss to Atlanta (24-26), responded with a professional dismantling of Sacramento (12-38), and continues to stack wins despite missing Jayson Tatum entirely and managing Jaylen Brown’s health carefully.
The Celtics aren’t perfect, but they’re stable. They know who they are. They have an identity that holds up even when stars are out, and depth that doesn’t evaporate the moment something goes wrong.
Milwaukee, on the other hand, feels like a team trying to outrun a reckoning.
When the Celtics last played the Bucks, it should have been a get-right spot.
No Giannis. A struggling opponent. Boston jumped out early, then completely froze after halftime. Milwaukee fed off the chaos, trash talk escalated, and the Celtics never recovered. It was one of those losses that didn’t just sting - it lingered, precisely because it exposed how quickly things can unravel when rhythm disappears.
Now zoom out.
That Bucks team is 10 games under .500. The Damian Lillard experiment failed. Chemistry is fractured. Antetokounmpo himself has publicly questioned effort, selfishness, and cohesion - the kind of comments that don’t come from a player feeling secure about the direction of things. His name dominates deadline conversations, not because teams are bored, but because Milwaukee’s grip on this era is slipping.
That matters when you’re talking about a trade of this magnitude.
Yes, Giannis is still Giannis. But the Celtics aren’t one desperate swing away from relevance. They aren’t staring at a closing window. They’re navigating a season without their franchise player and still sitting near the top of the East because their foundation is intact. They’ve built a roster that survives turbulence - something Milwaukee very clearly has not.
And that’s where the conversation usually goes off the rails.
The Celtics don’t have the clean assets to win a Giannis bidding war outright. Their draft picks are devalued by success. A Jaylen Brown-centric package doesn’t make sense for a Bucks team that would likely want a full reset. Any realistic offer guts Boston’s depth, flexibility, and long-term stability - the very things that have allowed them to tread water during this strange, Tatum-less season.
More importantly, it asks the Celtics to abandon patience at the exact moment it’s paying off.
Boston doesn’t need to chase chaos. They don’t need to detonate a roster that has proven it can adapt, respond, and win ugly when necessary. Trading for Giannis doesn’t just bring greatness - it brings risk, mileage, health questions, and an ecosystem that would suddenly have to bend entirely around him.
That might make sense for a franchise searching for direction.
It doesn’t for one that already has it.
The smarter play for Boston has always been the same: monitor the market, protect flexibility, and be far more concerned with where Giannis ends up than whether he’s wearing green. If Milwaukee does move him, the Celtics’ best outcome is a Western Conference exile - not a blockbuster that reshapes their own identity.
Giannis Antetokounmpo is a generational player. That’s not the debate.
The debate is whether this version of the Celtics should sacrifice continuity, depth, and control to chase him.
And right now, watching one team steady itself through adversity while the other teeters under the weight of its own uncertainty, the answer feels clearer than ever.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION:
Remember to join our CELTICS on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other Celtics fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that's free too!
Tom Carroll is a contributor for Roundtable, with boots-on-the-ground coverage of all things Boston sports. He's a senior digital content producer for WEEI.com, and a native of Lincoln, RI.