The Boston Celtics surged to a 21-point halftime lead and never looked back, winning the 2024 NBA Finals courtesy of a 106-88 victory over the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5 at TD Garden on Monday.
Boston now owns the league record with 18 titles, breaking a deadlock with the Los Angeles Lakers. The Celtics are 18-5 all time in the NBA Finals.
All-Stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown combined for 52 points, 16 rebounds, and 17 assists to cap a dominant playoff run for the Celtics, who suffered just three defeats in four best-of-seven series. Brown was named Finals MVP.
“These last seven years have been a roller coaster. Up and down. I had to listen to all the shit people said about me,” Tatum told The Athletic’s Jay King, “Tonight was worth it.”
The Celtics never trailed in the contest after losing Game 4 in Dallas by 38 points.
Veteran offseason acquisition Jrue Holiday added a 15-point, 11-rebound double-double and applied constant pressure defense on Dallas’ star duo of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving.
Big man Kristaps Porzingis returned from a two-game injury absence and added five points in limited action. “How could I (miss this game)?” Porzingis exclaimed after the win.
It was the first championship for nearly every Celtic, including 35-year-old Joe Mazzulla, who became the youngest head coach to win a title since Bill Russell in 1969.
“We celebrate. Then we can breathe for a minute. Then we get ready to make another push,” said Brown of his team’s next steps, according to Spotrac’s Keith Smith.
An evidently hobbled Doncic dropped 28 points, 12 rebounds, and five assists, but no other Mavericks player added more than 15 points.
“It doesn’t matter if I was hurt, how much I was hurt. I was out there. I tried to play. But I didn’t do enough,” Doncic said, according to Mac Engel of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Dallas failed to top 100 points in all four defeats in the series. The team went just 11-of-37 from deep on Monday.
