BOSTON-The Boston Celtics are once again champions of the NBAafter winning a landmark title Monday night that will reverberate from coast to coast and leave a legacy for the current pillars of this storied franchise.
The Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks 106-88 in Game 5 of the 2024 NBA Finals to win the series 4–1 and capture a league-record 18th NBA championship.
A sea of green and white confetti fell from the rafters at TD Garden before Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla, the youngest coach in at least 48 years to win a title, hoisted the Larry O’Brien Trophy. Most of the Boston police force was stationed outside the arena, with area bars ordered not to let anyone in after halftime and asked to close their doors and windows if the celebration of the championship was getting out of control. An hour after the match, Celtic fans were climbing the lamp posts on Causeway Street outside the arena.
Why all the fuss about the NBA’s greatest franchise of all time? For the Celtics, It’s been a long time. Boston ended 16-year drought and broke tie with rival the Los Angeles Lakers which existed since 2020.
“I mean, it’s going to be a night that I remember for the rest of my life, the game, the celebration, these moments,” Celtics All-NBA star and first-team man Jayson Tatum said. “I had to listen to all the crap people said about me, and tonight… it’s worth it.”
Tatum and Jaylen Brown, Celtics co-anchors since Tatum’s rookie season in 2017, can take their place among the Boston legends to hang banners in front of them. Tatum finished with 31 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds, while Brown added 21 points.
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Brown, who felt snubbed when he wasn’t named to any of the three All-NBA teams this season, is now on a hot streak for hardware. Monday, Brown won the Bill Russell Award for NBA Finals MVPwhich follows the MVP he won in the conference finals.
Brown averaged 20.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 1.6 steals and 0.8 blocks in the Finals. Tatum was better statistically (more points, rebounds and assists), but Brown was the more stable player who made decisive plays earlier in the series when the games were closer.
“I can’t even express my emotions in words, it’s just that I’m blessed and I’m grateful,” Brown said, overcome with emotion as he reflected on his MVP award, the award named ‘after Russell, the king of all Celtic legends and a mentor to Brown.
“It was a complete team effort,” Brown continued. “It could have gone to anyone, it could have gone to Jayson. I can’t talk enough about his selflessness, I can’t talk enough about his attitude and how he approached not just the series or the Finals, but the playoffs in general.
Boston never trailed in the series and led by 21 points at halftime, thanks to a 49-foot 3-pointer by Payton Pritchard to beat the second-quarter buzzer. The best team in the NBA all season, the Celtics won their 80th game out of 101 by crushing Dallas on the glass (51 rebounds to 35) and scoring 10 additional points on the foul line.
PAYTON PRITCHARD NAILS THE HALFCOURT HEAVE ????
The Celtics lead by 21 points at halftime.
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– The Athletic (@TheAthletic) June 18, 2024
Celtics Center Kristaps Porziņģis, out since Game 2 with rare tendon displacement injury near his left ankle, came back for the decider and scored five points. Jrue Vacations, who, like Porziņģis, was added last offseason to bolster this already rich roster, contributed 15 points. He is champion for the second time after winning in 2021 with the Milwaukee Bucks.
Tatum and Holiday have committed to playing for Team USA in the Paris Olympics, aiming to win a gold medal in the same summer months after a title. Holiday achieved that in 2021 when the Americans won gold in Tokyo.
Derrick White, a possible injury replacement for the Olympic team if needed, gave Boston 14 points and eight rebounds. He fell face first onto the field in the first half, cutting his lip and break a tooth.
“I would lose all my teeth for a championship,” White said.
The Mavericks, the No. 5 team in the West with only two rotation players over the age of 27, were led in the standings by Luka Doncic with 28 points and 12 rebounds. Kyrie Irvingthe former Celtics player, endured a tough Game 5 with 15 points on 5 of 16 shooting, which was worse than the score listed in the box.
Dallas changed its team at the trade deadline by dealing veteran big men PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford. These moves changed the trajectory of the Mavs but were not enough for them to seriously compete with the Celtics.
“(The Celtics are) a great team,” said Dončić, who played the series with bruises to his chest and lower leg. “They’ve been together for a long time and they’ve had to go through everything, so we just have to watch them, see how they play, their maturity and they have great players.
“We can learn from this. We have to fight next season.
Dating back to Brown’s rookie season in 2016-17, Tatum and Brown helped Boston win six conference finals and two NBA Finals and finally broke through on Monday night. They set an NBA record for playoff games played together (107) before winning a title.
Together, they suffered a defeat in the 2022 final against Golden State – they suffered a decisive loss in Game 6 at home – and nearly came back from a 3-0 deficit before falling in Game 7 of the 2023 Conference Finals against Miami. Tatum had the fifth most points in the playoffs at the time of his first title, behind Jerry West, LeBron JamesDirk Nowitzki and Kevin Durant.
Jayson Tatum wins his first Larry O’Brien trophy at just 26 years old ????
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– The Athletic (@TheAthletic) June 18, 2024
“I think (Brown) and JT should have split (MVP), but those two guys in particular have, you know, almost been like students and (have) become teachers in their own right,” teammates Irving said of Tatum and Marron from 2017 to 2019.
Al Horford, the Celtics’ 38-year-old center, played in the second-most playoff games (186) before his first title. Only Karl Malone (193) played more. Horford finished with nine points and nine rebounds in 32 minutes.
On the other end of the spectrum, Mazzulla, 35, is the youngest coach since the ABA-NBA merger in 1976 to win a title. Mazzulla is the sixth coach to win at age 35 or younger and the first since Bill Russell in 1969.
“I think the most important thing, something that has really occurred to me throughout this process, is that we can’t lose sight of the people who came before us,” he said. Mazzulla said. “And I want to make sure that every single person that worked for the Celtics, that played for the Celtics that didn’t win, knows that their work and what they did didn’t go unnoticed or that it wasn’t doesn’t play a role in where we are today.
For more on Game 5 of the NBA Finals, follow AthleticismThe live blog of.
The Celtics are the first NBA No. 1 seed to win heading into the playoffs since the Golden State Warriors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in five games during the 2017 Finals. Boston also ended its second-longest title gap in franchise history. The longest was 22 seasons, from 1986 to 2008 – the last of the Celtics’ titles until this one.
“I think when you look at their seven-year journey, there have been some highs, there have been some learning experiences for them with wins and losses,” Dallas coach Jason Kidd said. “and so understanding for us, we’ve been together for five months., some of us, so it’s a really positive journey that we’ve had here. And we’ll see what we can do when we get to the final, in just understanding that we have to play our best basketball.
“Unfortunately, Boston was better than us in that series and they won the championship.”
Get a copy of “Garden Party: Inside the Boston Celtics’ Run to the 2023-24 NBA Championship,” The Athletic’s commemorative book about the Celtics’ 2023-24 season. Order a copy today for $39.95, plus shipping and taxes. The books will ship on August 2, 2024.
Staff Writer James Jackson contributed to this story.
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