The Boston Celtics not only have a chance to win the NBA Finals on Friday night, but they also have a chance to make history if they beat the Dallas Mavericks in Game 4.
A Finals win would give the Celtics a 16-2 record in the 2024 playoffs.
This marks the second-best record in playoff history since the league adopted a best-of-seven format with four rounds in 2003. The Celtics also become the 11th team to win a playoff game with two or fewer losses.
A sweep would put the Celtics at 80-20 this season, including playoff wins. Only two teams in franchise history have won more games in a season: 1985-86 and 2007-08, both of which had 82 wins, including playoff wins.
When Celtics forward Jayson Tatum was asked in his press conference on Thursday whether the team had a chance to make history, he couldn't help but poke a little fun at the team's critics.
“I didn't know that. That's really cool,” Tatum told reporters, which you can watch in the video player above. “But you guys will say I didn't play anybody to get here, so I'll just have to do it again next year.”
One of the constant criticisms of the Celtics' playoff run is that they haven't played against top-tier opponents because some of their opponents' best players are out with injuries, but that's something the Celtics have no control over, and considering most experts expected Dallas to win the series, it would be a great accomplishment if the Celtics beat the Mavericks.
Making history and becoming the greatest team of all time is something very special for the Celtics players. This roster is very well-built. Boston has very few weaknesses and Dallas will find that out firsthand in the Finals. Even when the Celtics aren't playing their best, and they haven't played their best offensively for most of the series, they are still capable of winning.
While the possibility of making history is nice, the most important goal is winning a fourth Finals. Nothing else matters to a team that has been chasing Banner 18 for over a decade.
