Pritchard had little impact in the series, except for a similar heavyweight in Game 2. When he delivered his latest prayer, the TD Garden crowd roared with anticipation. Now confident the night and the season were theirs, the Celtics dominated the Mavericks, 106-88, to break a tie with arch-rivals the Lakers and win their record-tying 18th championship. For Boston, it was their first since 2008, after losses in the 2010 and 2022 Finals. Jaylen Brown received 7 of 11 media votes and was named Finals MVP, beating out Jayson Tatum.
“Words can't describe how emotional this is,” Brown said. “I'm so blessed and grateful. My teammates were great. They allowed me to lead the team offensively and defensively and we just performed on our home court.” [Finals MVP] “This award could have gone to anyone. It went to Jason. I can't say enough about his selflessness and attitude. We did it together as a team, that was the most important thing.”
Boston's win capped one of their most dominant seasons in recent memory. The Celtics went 80-21 overall (64-18 in the regular season, 16-3 in the playoffs) and finished 14 games behind the No. 2-seeded New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference. The Celtics' run, which included a sweep of the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals, marked their quickest title run since the Golden State Warriors went 16-1 in the 2016-17 season. Friday's blowout loss to the Mavericks in Game 4 was the Celtics' only loss in their last 12 games.
To shut out Luka Doncic and the Mavericks, the Celtics relied on their textbook winning formula: balanced scoring, plenty of outside shooting and energetic defense. Tatum overcame a slow start to take control in the fourth quarter, finishing with game-highs of 31 points, eight rebounds and 11 assists. Brown added 21 points and Jrue Holiday added 15 points.
“The last seven years have been a roller coaster, lots of ups and downs,” Tatum said. “I had to listen to all the bad things people say about me. Tonight it was worth it. Oh my God. We came together and won. That 18th flag has been hanging over our heads for years. It still doesn't feel real that we're going to make history. I'm still trying to process it all. But we did it.”
Doncic scored a team-high 28 points, many of which came after the Celtics already had a big lead, while Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving was again limited, finishing with 15 points on 5-of-16 shooting. Dallas had no reliable backup plan, and its star guards struggled early, shooting just 29.7 percent from 37 3-pointers.
“It's disappointing that we lost,” Doncic said. “I'm proud of every player that took the court, every coach and everyone behind the team.” [the scenes]Of course we didn't win the final, but it was a great season.”
Pritchard's stinging shot was his only point of the night, but Boston led 67-46 at halftime, and Brown called his teammate a “legend” and Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla called him “one of the best competitors and one of my favorite people in the world.”
The Celtics never trailed, building a 26-point lead in the third quarter and then handily winning against a Mavericks side that couldn't match their energy. Still, the TD Garden crowd spent much of the first half trying to let go of their worries. After missing his first four shots, Tatum ended a drive with contact midway through the second quarter, eliciting loud cheers of relief and slapping his hands on his chest. After a scoreless start to the fourth quarter, Brown found Kristaps Porzingis, who had missed two games with an ankle injury, to stomp the crowd into a frenzy.
Tatum and Brown each heard “MVP” chants as Boston put the finishing touches on their victory. When Mavericks coach Jason Kidd made a change to the starting lineup near the end of the game, Irving gave congratulatory hugs to his former Celtics teammates Tatum and Brown, as well as the Boston coaching staff. When Mazzulla cleared the bench with under two minutes to go, Tatum held his head in disbelief and hugged Brown. As the final buzzer sounded, green confetti rained down from the ceiling, and Tatum lifted his young son Deuce into the air in celebration.
In a raucous locker room after the game, Celtics owner Wyck Grousbeck smoked a cigar, the coaches splashed champagne and players took turns posing with the Larry O'Brien Trophy and green championship belts. On a whiteboard beneath a sign that read “Every Possession Counts” were written four words: “Flight to Miami at Noon.” The celebrations continued in South Beach.
Despite their impressive record and success, the Celtics aren't nearly as celebrated as past superteams, and the reasons are clear: They didn't have legendary stars like Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal or Stephen Curry, they benefited from the postseason injuries of Jimmy Butler in Miami, Donovan Mitchell in Cleveland and Tyrese Haliburton in Indiana, and they spent much of this season trying to escape the shadows of their last playoff disappointment.
Regardless of the opponent, Boston will return as a better, deeper, more focused and more disciplined team than the one that lost a 2-1 lead to the Warriors in the 2022 Finals and lost 3-0 to the Miami Heat in the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals.
With the offseason additions of Porzingis and Holiday, Celtics president Brad Stevens assembled the NBA's best talent, Mazzulla oversaw a team of complete players that started 11-2 and never looked back. Boston ranked first in offense and second in defense during the regular season and fourth in offense and third in defense during the playoffs. Defying a longstanding reputation for letting leads slip away or fumble late in games, the Celtics went 21-12 in games trailing by five points or less in the final five minutes of regular-season games and 6-0 in such games in the playoffs.
“We've had some tough losses at home in the playoffs the past few years,” Tatum said. “We lost the NBA championship at home in front of our fans. We had a chance to beat Miami a few years ago and lost. To get the biggest win in front of our home crowd, I felt it was really important to go out in this game and give it my all and make sure we win.”
A nervous Mazzulla successfully urged Tatum and Brown to take better care of the ball and trust his offensive philosophy, which relies heavily on catch-and-shoot three-pointers. Astonishingly, eight Celtics players have made at least 100 three-pointers this season.
Defensively, the Celtics' versatility was their selling point. They used aggressive switching tactics to harass opposing perimeter stars like Doncic and Irving. The addition of Porzingis bolstered the Celtics' inside defense and rim protection, helping stymie the offense of 38-year-old center Al Horford, who won his first championship in his 17th season.
“You can't bring a philosophy or a way of playing to the team unless you have guys who are willing to embrace it and be disciplined,” Mazzulla said. “These guys have been through a lot in the league. They know what it takes. It's been fun to watch them grow as a team throughout the year and take it seriously again. We have guys in this locker room who are determined to win from day one. They deserve all the credit.”
Boston's long-awaited championship finally completed a saga that began in 2013 when then-Celtics president Danny Ainge traded Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for role players, future first-round draft picks and a pick swap. By giving up two of the faces of the 2008 championship team, Boston secured the draft picks it used to acquire two of the faces of this year's championship team: Brown in 2016 and Tatum in 2017.
It took some tough times and countless reforms for the Celtics to fully recover. Boston hired Stevens out of Butler University to spearhead the rebuild, but he won just 25 games in his first season. The Celtics slowly climbed the ranks, but as Tatum and Brown developed, countless stars came and went, including Isaiah Thomas, Irving, Kemba Walker and Gordon Hayward.
Brown recalled getting a call from Ainge at 4 a.m. while vacationing in Spain in 2017.
“Don’t ask me why I stood up,” he said. “Danny asked me, ‘What do you think about Jayson Tatum?’ I remember playing with him at a Top 100 camp. He was my roommate. [Kevin Durant’s] Elite camp. We played in various matches as the same team. [high school games]”We were roommates again at the Under Armour All-American Game. I'd had a lot of experiences with him. We had a lot of respect for each other. I said, 'I think that's a great choice.' Fast forward from there, and we've been winning ever since.”
As the big names around them have come and gone, one consistent tenor has emerged for Tatum and Brown: Boston has always been good enough to make the playoffs, but not good enough to win them. The Celtics have reached the Eastern Division finals six of the past eight seasons, but prior to this year they had only made it once, losing in the finals to Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson.
After repeatedly hitting a wall, Ainge left the team and Stevens was promoted from coach to president in 2021. When Stevens' successor as coach, Ime Udoka, was fired in 2023 for an inappropriate relationship with a female colleague, Boston turned to Mazzulla, 35, who had only a few years of G League coaching experience.
Amid personnel changes and off-court drama, Tatum and Brown developed into All-NBA players and the Celtics refused calls to break up their star wing duo. In a series of masterful trades, Stevens acquired Horford, Derrick White, Porzingis and Holiday, building an experienced two-way team around a two-way star forward and poised to exact revenge after last year's humiliating, season-ending loss to the Heat in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals.
“We learned from every mistake,” Brown said. “Every adversity made us stronger and tougher. You could see that throughout the season. We made every sacrifice. We played at a high level both offensively and offensively. We didn't skip a step. Every moment we fell short, every moment we felt like we let the city down, every moment we let ourselves down, it all added up to get us to this moment. The doubters may be quiet now, but they'll be back next year with something to say.”
Sure enough, the Celtics channeled those painful memories into eight months of losses, erasing any doubt they were the best team in the league this season.
“At the Celtics, it's the [in the TD Garden rafters]”It's been a while since we've won,” Tatum said. [media] People will probably say I didn't play anyone to get here, so I'll just have to do it again next year.”
