BOSTON — Jayson Tatum put his hands behind his head and soaked up the spectacle as the TD Garden fans stood around him in support.
As he walked toward the bench, he put his arms around Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla.
The journey is complete.
The Boston Celtics once again stand alone among NBA champions.
Tatum had 31 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds and the Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks 106-88 on Monday night, winning their 18th championship and tying the Los Angeles Lakers for the most in franchise history.
Boston's latest title comes 16 years after hoisting its last Larry O'Brien Trophy in 2008. It marks the 13th championship won this century by one of the city's Big Four professional sports teams.
“This means the world,” Tatum said onstage after the team received the trophy from NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. “It's been a long time coming. I'm so grateful.”
Jaylen Brown finished with 21 points, eight rebounds and six assists and was named NBA Finals MVP.
“This is a joy for me, my brothers and my buddy Jayson Tatum,” Brown said after playing in his 107th career playoff game with Tatum, the most by any pair prior to winning a title.
Jrue Holiday added 15 points and 11 rebounds. Center Kristaps Porzingis, returning from a two-game absence due to a dislocated tendon in his left ankle, also lifted the team's spirits with five points in 17 minutes.
They helped the Celtics finish the postseason with a 16-3 record and an 80-21 overall record, a .792 winning percentage that ranks second in franchise history behind the 1985-86 championship team that finished with an 82-18 record (.820).
Now in his second season, the 35-year-old Mazzulla is the youngest manager to lead a team to a championship since Bill Russell in 1969.
“You have very few opportunities to achieve greatness in life,” Mazzulla said.
Luka Doncic had 28 points and 12 rebounds for Dallas, which avoided a sweep by winning Game 4 by 38 points but couldn't extend the series. The Mavericks are 3-0 in Game 5 games this postseason, with Doncic scoring at least 31 points in each game. He played through injuries to his chest, right knee and left ankle during the finals, but said those injuries aren't an excuse for Dallas' struggles throughout the series.
“It doesn't matter if I was injured or how injured I was, I was there,” he said. “I tried to play, but I just wasn't good enough.”
Kyrie Irving finished with just 15 points on 5-of-16 shooting, and the Celtics, who joined the Brooklyn Nets in the summer of 2019, have lost 13 of their past 14 meetings against the Celtics.
Irving thinks good things will come from this for the Mavs.
“This is pretty much a daily thing for us and we see it as an opportunity to build our future in a really positive way for us, competing for championships,” he said.
The NBA team is trailing in postseason series with a 0-3 record and is currently 0-157.
Mavericks coach Jason Kidd believes Doncic and his team will grow from this NBA Finals experience.
“The first thing is to go out there and play, I think that's the key,” he said. “Obviously we lost 4-1, but I think our team played well against the Celtics. Unfortunately, we didn't make shots when we should have, or we lost the ball and they took full advantage of us.”
Boston never trailed and capitalized on the energy of the Garden crowd to lead by as many as 26 points.
Dallas led 16-15 early in the quarter, but the Celtics ended the first quarter on a 12-3 run that included eight points from Tatum and Brown.
The Celtics came back to life in the second quarter, helping the Mavericks cut a 15-point deficit to nine. Boston ended the period on a 19-7 run, and Payton Pritchard's half-court buzzer-beater (his second of the series) put Boston up 67-46 at the half.
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, Janine Russell, and daughter Karen Russell gathered at TD Garden to pay tribute to the Celtics' latest generation of champions.
They watched current Celtics stars Tatum and Brown earn their first championship rings. The trade that sent 2008 champions Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to Brooklyn in 2013 gave Boston the draft picks that ultimately allowed them to select Brown and Tatum with the third overall picks in consecutive drafts in 2016 and 2017.
The All-Stars came into their own this season, leading a Celtics team built around the production and success of 3-point shots and a defense that was rated the best in the league during the regular season.
The two have reached at least the Eastern Conference finals as teammates four times.
They finally reached the finish line in their fifth playoff appearance.
Both players struggled offensively throughout the series, but improved in Game 5, combining for 31 points and 11 assists in the first half alone.
It displayed all the traits that have made Boston the toughest team in the NBA this season: spreading the team out, sharing the ball, wreaking havoc on defense, and then there was Derrick White getting knocked down by Derek Lively II, chipping a tooth.
“I don't mind losing all my teeth to win a championship,” White said.
And for the Celtics, it caps a hectic season that saw them lose in the finals to the Golden State Warriors in 2022 and then miss a comeback last season, losing at home to the Miami Heat in Game 7 of the conference finals.
Tatum vowed that night to erase the pain of those disappointments.
As he stood in a sea of confetti Monday night, he was reminded of what he'd accomplished by his 6-year-old son, Deuce.
“He told me I was the best in the world,” Tatum said. “I said, 'You're right.'”
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