Celtics top Mavericks in Game 5, win record 18th NBA championship
Celtics top Mavericks in Game 5, win record 18th NBA championship
ByTIM BONTEMPS
June 18, 2024, 2:09 AM
BOSTON -- Behind 31 points, 8 rebounds and 11 assists from Jayson Tatum and 21 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists from Finals MVP Jaylen Brown, the Boston Celtics blew out the Dallas Mavericks 106-88 to win the 2024 NBA Finals, winning a record-setting 18th NBA title on the 16th anniversary of when they won their 17th championship in this same building.
In doing so, the Celtics passed their forever rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers, for the most titles in NBA history.
"I mean, this is going to be a night that I will remember for the rest of my life, from the game, the celebration, these moments," Tatum said. "Over the last couple years, we had some tough losses at home in the playoffs. We've lost the NBA championship at home in front of our fans. We had a chance to beat Miami in Game 6 a few years ago and lost that one.
"So to have a big win -- the biggest win that you could have in front of your home crowd -- I felt like that was really important to go out there and do everything in my power to make sure we won this game tonight."
Boston, after having its worst game of the season in its first chance to close this series out Friday night, responded with a wire-to-wire victory Monday. Big performances from both Tatum and Brown allowed Boston to put the game away early -- much like it did back in 2008, when the Celtics routed the Lakers in Game 6 at TD Garden to win their most recent championship.
That allowed the Celtics to build a 21-point lead at halftime -- with a second Payton Pritchard half-court heave of the series emphatically sending Boston into the break with a comfortable lead, and sending the sellout crowd here at TD Garden into an absolute frenzy.
The crowd had been in a fervent state since before the game even began, but particularly when Kristaps Porzingis -- who had missed Games 3 and 4 with a torn medial retinaculum allowing dislocation of the posterior tibialis tendon in his left leg that he suffered in Game 2 -- checked into the game midway through the first quarter. Porzingis finished with just 5 points in 16 minutes but gave Boston some valuable minutes spelling Al Horford off the bench.
Kyrie Irving, meanwhile, continued to struggle in Boston, after admitting Sunday that he's had trouble playing against his former team at TD Garden. After going a combined 13-for-37 in Boston in Games 1 and 2, including 0-for-8 from 3, he finished with 15 points on 5-for-16 shooting in Game 5.
Brown earned his MVP award behind averages of 20.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5 assists across the five-game series, while also consistently guarding Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic.
"I can't even put into words the emotions. It's just I'm blessed and I'm grateful," Brown said. "This was a full team effort. We had a great team. My teammates were great. They allowed me to lead us on both ends of ball, and we just came out and performed on our home floor. It's just amazing.
"You know, it could have gone to anybody. It could have gone to Jayson. Jayson, like I can't talk enough about his selflessness. ... I can't talk enough about his attitude. It's just how he approached not just this series or the Finals but just the playoffs in general. And we did it together as a team, and that was the most important thing."
With the win, the Celtics finished the playoffs 16-3, second only to the 2016-17 Golden State Warriors (16-1) since the NBA went to four best-of-seven rounds of the playoffs in 2003 in what was an emphatic repudiation of Boston's recent playoff disappointments. The Celtics -- up until their Monday night victory -- had played more postseason games over an eight-season span without winning a title than any team in the history of the NBA.
That run included six trips to the Eastern Conference finals, including last year's loss in seven games to the Heat, after becoming just the fourth team ever to force a Game 7 after falling behind 3-0. There was also the loss to the Warriors in the 2022 NBA Finals after winning two of the first three games and holding a lead in the fourth quarter of Game 4, before seeing the Warriors celebrate their fourth title of the Stephen Curry era on Boston's famed parquet.
As a result, the title checked off boxes for many of Boston's top players. For Tatum and Brown, the 107 games they played together are the most by a duo prior to winning their first championship in NBA history.
"It means the world," Tatum said on stage. "It's been a long time. And damn I'm grateful."
Tatum had the fifth most career playoff points at the time of his first championship -- trailing only the late Jerry West, LeBron James, Dirk Nowitzki and Kevin Durant.
Horford, meanwhile, had played in 186 playoff games before his first title -- the most in NBA history for a single player before winning their first title.
"The first thing you have to do when you come here is you have to embrace that pressure," Horford said. "And I was OK with being in that position. I was OK if we were getting criticized and we weren't getting it done because I understood what it means playing here.
"Our group, we've had a lot of hardships the last few years. Last year, heartbreaker against Miami, Game 7. Year before, Golden State. It's been building up. But this team has been resilient, and we've continued to work. I'm so proud of Jaylen, and I'm so proud of Jayson. Those two guys continue to take steps forward. People all year criticizing them, all that expectation, all the pressure.
"They did it. And they've done it at a young age. They led our group. I'm just very proud of those guys and to put everything aside and focus on winning."
Monday was the culmination of a journey that began 11 years ago this month at Barclays Center when the Brooklyn Nets spun a blockbuster trade with Boston to acquire Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett for a bevy of draft picks, two of which eventually became Brown and Tatum in the 2016 and 2017 NBA drafts.
Soon after the draft, Boston came to an agreement to hire Brad Stevens away from Butler University to be the team's head coach, a job he served in for the next eight seasons before replacing Danny Ainge, the man who hired Stevens, as the team's president of basketball operations in 2021.
At that point, Boston was coming off a .500 season in 2020-21 and had lost in five games to the Nets in the first round of the playoffs. Since then, Stevens has methodically rebuilt the roster around Brown and Tatum via trades -- bringing back Horford that summer and Derrick White at the ensuing trade deadline -- that helped get Boston to the 2022 Finals. After the Eastern Conference finals loss to the Heat last spring, Stevens restructured the roster again, trading away fan favorite and former Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart in a deal to add Porzingis, then pouncing to acquire Jrue Holiday after the Milwaukee Bucks traded him to the Portland Trail Blazers.
Holiday, who won a title with Milwaukee in 2021, came up with multiple big performances during this postseason run, including Game 2 of the Finals when he scored 26 points on 11-of-14 shooting while the rest of the team went cold from 3-point range. Injuries forced Porzingis to miss all but six of Boston's postseason games, but he scored 20 points off the bench in Game 1 of the Finals, helping the Celtics get off to a strong start against the Mavericks, before providing an emotional boost with his return Monday night.
Stevens also made the bold decision to promote Joe Mazzulla from the back of the bench to be the team's head coach in the wake of Ime Udoka's suspension and eventual firing for violations of team rules shortly before training camp. Mazzulla has gone on to post a 121-43 record in the regular season over the past two years and Monday became the youngest coach to win an NBA title since Russell did it for the same franchise 55 years ago.
The Celtics had largely controlled the first three games of this series before the Mavericks responded with an absolute demolition of Boston in Dallas on Friday, winning by 38 points in the third-largest blowout in NBA Finals history and the largest loss for the Celtics in any game since the 2017 Eastern Conference finals.
But Boston responded to that performance with one of its most complete ones of the season in Game 5 -- and, as a result, set a new standard for winning in NBA history.
"This is unreal. I don't think it really has hit and settled in," White said. "This is a special group of guys, a special coaching staff that I'm just thankful to be a part of. Yeah, it's unreal. I'm just trying to enjoy the moment and not get too lit."