The Boston Celtics easily routed the Dallas Mavericks 106-88 on Monday night in Game Five of the 2024 NBA Finals, securing the storied franchise’s 18th championship and first since 2008.
The Mavericks had kept pace early in the game, but Boston went on a 9-0 run to end the first quarter, giving them a 10-point lead that grew to 21 by halftime. Dallas came all the way second half never within single digits.
The Celtics cruised through the regular season with the best record in the NBA and then did even better in the playoffs, never trailing in a series while winning 15 of their first 17 games. They opened a 3-0 lead over Dallas, but the Mavericks avoided elimination with a 122-84 victory on Friday night – the third biggest blowout in finals history.
That sent the series back to Boston, where the Celtics closed out the series. Boston’s 18 NBA titles are the most ever, with Monday night’s win putting them one ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers, who now sit in second place with 17 championships.
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Jayson Tatum had 31 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds and Jaylen Brown, who was named Finals MVP, added 21 points. Jrue Holiday finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Center Kristaps Porzingis also provided an emotional lift as he returned from a two-match absence due to a dislocated tendon in his left ankle, scoring five points in 17 minutes.
It helped the Celtics to a postseason in which they finished 16-3 and finished with an overall record of 80-21. That .792 winning percentage ranks second in team history, behind only the 1985-86 Celtics championship team that finished 82-18.
Second-year coach Joe Mazzulla, at age 35, also became the youngest coach since Bill Russell in 1969 to lead a team to a championship.
Luka Doncic finished with 28 points and 12 rebounds for Dallas, which failed to extend its streak after avoiding a sweep with a 38-point victory in Game 4. The Mavericks were 3-0 this postseason in Game 5, with Doncic scoring at least. 31 points in each of them.
Kyrie Irving finished with just 15 points on 5-of-16 shooting and has now lost 13 of the last 14 meetings against the Celtics team he left in the summer of 2019 to join the Brooklyn Nets.
NBA teams are now 0-157 in postseason series after falling behind 3-0.
Boston never trailed and was led by as many as 26 people who fed off the energy of the Garden crowd.
The Mavericks cut the 15-point deficit to nine in the second quarter, but Boston closed the period with a 19-7 spurt that was capped by a half-court buzzer beater from Payton Pritchard — his second shot of the series. – to give Boston a 67-46 halftime lead.
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Over the final two minutes of the first and second quarters, the Celtics outscored the Mavericks 22-4.
The Celtics never looked back.
Russell’s widow, Jeannine Russell, and his daughter Karen Russell were at TD Garden to greet the latest generation of Celtics champions.
They watched current Celtics stars Tatum and Brown earn their first rings. It was the trade that sent 2008 champions Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to Brooklyn in 2013 that gave Boston the draft picks it ultimately used to select Brown and Tatum third overall in back-to-back drafts in 2016 and 2017.
The All-Stars came into their own this season, leading a Celtics team that built itself around taking and making a lot of three-pointers, and a defense that was rated the best in the league during the regular season.
The duo reached the Eastern Conference finals at least four times before as teammates.
Their fifth deep playoff run together proved to be the charm.
After both struggled offensively at times in the series, Tatum and Brown hit a groove in Game 5, tallying 31 points and 11 assists in the first half.
It helped bring out all the traits that made Boston the NBA’s most formidable team this postseason: spreading teams out, sharing the ball and wreaking havoc on defense.
And it made for a dizzying two-year stretch for the Celtics, which saw them lose in the Finals to the Golden State Warriors in 2022 and then not return last season after a Game 7 home loss to the Miami Heat in the conference finals . .
