The Celtics defeated the Mavericks four games to one, winning their first championship since 2008 and 18th overall, giving the Celtics the most NBA Championships of any franchise. For only the second time in NBA history (the first being 1975–1980) six different teams won six consecutive Finals. The Celtics' Jaylen Brown was voted the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player (FMVP), after averaging 20.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 5.0 assists per game.[2]
Joe Mazzulla led the Celtics to the NBA Finals in his second season as their head coach.
The Boston Celtics finished the regular season with the best record in the NBA, at 64–18.[3] In the first round of the playoffs, they faced the Miami Heat in a rematch of the previous year's Eastern Conference Finals, and won the series 4–1.[4] They then faced the Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round, winning again in five games. Finally, they swept the Indiana Pacers in the Conference Finals to reach the NBA Finals for the second time in three years and for the 23rd time in their history. Due to injuries to key players on all three opposing teams during their run through the Eastern Conference playoffs, the Celtics' path to the Finals was considered by media writers as one of the easiest in NBA history.[5] However, the Celtics' Kristaps Porzingis, their starting center, was also injured, suffering a soleus strain in Game 4 of the first round against the Heat. This caused him to miss both of the next two rounds.
A series win gave the Celtics their 18th championship, one more than the Los Angeles Lakers for the most in NBA history.[6] Their last win was in the 2008 NBA Finals. This is the Celtics' third Finals appearance where they played a team from Texas, as they previously defeated the Houston Rockets in the 1981 and 1986 Finals.[7][8]
Kyrie Irving faced his former team in the Finals, entering the series having lost his previous 10 games against the Celtics.
The Dallas Mavericks finished the regular season as the fifth seed in the Western Conference with a 50–32 record.[9] The Mavericks made the playoffs after missing the stage last season where the team finished 38–44. The Mavericks defeated the Los Angeles Clippers and the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first and second rounds, respectively, winning each series in six games.[10][11] They then defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Conference Finals 4–1 to secure their first NBA Finals appearance in 13 years. In their last appearance in 2011, the team, which featured current head coach Jason Kidd at point guard, won their first and only title.[12]
Kristaps Porziņģis returned from a month-long injury to score 20 points for the Celtics, 18 of which came in the first half.
Boston's Kristaps Porziņģis returned from injury after not playing in a game for 38 days and recorded 20 points and three blocks off the bench. Luka Dončić led Dallas with 30 points as the Celtics held the Mavericks to just nine assists on its 35 field goals as a team.[13] The Celtics led by as many as 29 in the first half. In the third quarter, a 20–6 Mavericks run sparked by key shots from Dončić and Kyrie Irving cut this lead all the way down to eight, but after a timeout Boston responded with their own 14–2 run to pull away.[14]
A moment of silence was held before the game in memory of Bill Walton, the two-time NBA champion—including in 1986 with the Celtics as their sixth man—and broadcaster, who died on May 27 of colorectal cancer at the age of 71. Walton's family was in attendance, and the Celtics players wore black shooting shirts bearing Walton's name with a tie-dye background while their jerseys had a black band with his name on the shoulder. Celtics team staff wore pins with a similar Walton tie-dye.[15]
Veteran guard and first-year Celtic Jrue Holiday led the team in points, with 26, and rebounds, with 11.
Jrue Holiday led the Celtics to a 2–0 series lead with 26 points and 11 rebounds. Jaylen Brown added 21 points and 3 steals, while Jayson Tatum recorded a near-triple-double of 18 points, 9 rebounds and 12 assists. For the Mavericks, Luka Dončić notched a triple-double of 32 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists in a losing effort, becoming the first player in Dallas franchise history to record a triple-double in the NBA Finals.[16]Kristaps Porziņģis injured his left leg late in game two.[17]
Jayson Tatum's 31 points helped stave off a late Mavericks comeback attempt in order to secure a 3–0 series lead for the Celtics.
Boston held off a Mavericks comeback by winning the game to move on the brink of their 18th title. The Mavericks had a 22–2 run to cut Boston's lead to 93–92 but the Celtics responded with a 13–7 run of their own to seal the victory. With 4:12 remaining in the game and the Celtics leading 93–92, Luka Dončić fouled out after being charged with a blocking foul.
As was done for Bill Walton prior to Game 1, a moment of silence was held before the game for Jerry West, who died earlier that same day at the age of 86. West's silhouette was the basis for the NBA logo, and he was an NBA champion as a player in 1972 with the Los Angeles Lakers and also a further eight times as an executive with the Lakers and Golden State Warriors.[18][19]
A blowout Mavericks victory spearheaded by Luka Dončić's performance (29 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists) prevented a series sweep by the Celtics.
Led by Luka Dončić's 29 points, the Mavericks staved off elimination with a 122–84 blowout victory to cut Boston's series lead to 3–1. Kyrie Irving added 21 points for the Mavericks, while Tim Hardaway Jr. scored all of his 15 points in the fourth quarter. As for the Celtics, Jayson Tatum led his team with 15 points while Sam Hauser added 14, and Jaylen Brown and Jrue Holiday scored 10 each. The loss ended a 10-game postseason winning streak, which began when the Celtics defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
Jaylen Brown was awarded Finals MVP after averaging 20.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5 assists per game in the series.
Sixteen years to the date after they won their 17th title, the Celtics won their 18th title to break a tie with the Los Angeles Lakers for the most championships in NBA history. Jayson Tatum led the Celtics with 31 points, eight rebounds and 11 assists in a 106–88 blowout victory.[21]Jrue Holiday scored the first three buckets of the game for the Celtics.[22]The 'Jays' (Tatum and Brown) started the game strong with their three-point shooting. After missing games three and four with a torn medial retinaculum and dislocated posterior tibialis tendon, which would require surgery to heal, Kristaps Porziņģis checked into the game midway through the first quarter to fanfare.[23] The Celtics finished the first half of the game with a 21-point lead, which culminated with Payton Pritchard's buzzer-beating half-court throw, which was the longest shot made in the NBA Finals in the past 25 years, since 1998.[24][25] The Mavericks never recovered or led at any point during the game.[26]
It was a full team effort and I share this with my brothers and my partner in crime Jayson Tatum. He was with me the whole way, so we share this shit together.
In the losing effort, Dončić scored 28 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, three steals and seven turnovers on 12-of-25 shooting, including 2-of-9 shooting from the three-point line. Similar to Games 1 and 2, Kyrie Irving struggled with a 5-for-16 shooting night, finishing the game with 15 points, nine assists, three rebounds and a steal.[26] The Celtics notably had a significant edge on the glass with a 51–35 rebounding advantage, and went 17 of 20 (85%) from the free throw line compared to the Mavs' 7 of 13 (53.8%).[22]
Jaylen Brown was voted the Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP), after averaging 20.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 5 assists.[2] Brown edged out Tatum who averaged 22.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 7.2 assists per game for the series.[28]
With the win, the Celtics finished with the second-best postseason record (16–3) since the NBA went to four best-of-seven rounds of the playoffs in 2003, only behind the 2016–17 Golden State Warriors, who went 16–1.[21]
Impact
Among the many Celtics who won their first NBA championship is Al Horford, who had previously played 186 playoff games without one.
This was the first championship for the Celtics since the 2008 Finals and 18th overall, making them the NBA franchise with the most championships. The Celtics finished the playoffs with a 16–3 record. Until their victory, the Celtics played more postseason games over an eight-season span without winning an NBA title than any team in the history of the NBA.[21]
Aside from Jrue Holiday, who won a title with the 2021 Milwaukee Bucks, every player on the Celtics won their first championship. Al Horford set a record for the most playoff games without an NBA championship before winning one with 186.[29] Only Karl Malone has played more playoff games (193) and never won a championship.[30]
Among the many international players on the Celtics, Horford, Porziņģis and Neemias Queta represent the first Dominican-,[31][32] Latvian-,[33] and Portuguese-born[34] players, respectively, to win a championship. Tatum and Brown's 107 playoff games played together represent the most by a duo prior to winning their first championship in NBA history.[21] For the coaching staff, this represented head coach Joe Mazzulla, and assistant coaches Anthony Dobbins, Amile Jefferson, D. J. MacLeay and Matt Reynolds's first NBA championship—as well as the second for Charles Lee (2021), and fourth for Sam Cassell (1994, 1995, 2008 as a player). It also represented the first championship for 2023–24 NBA Executive of the Year Award winner, Brad Stevens, and the culmination of a ten-year rebuild that began when he originally joined the Celtics in 2013 as the head coach.[35]
The NBA playoff pool was at a record $33,657,947 (USD), which is distributed to each of the 16 playoff teams. Boston's share of the NBA's playoff pool prior to the victory was $7,202,498. By clinching the championship they tacked on another $4,856,937 in winnings, bringing their total to $12,059,435, the most a team has ever won from the postseason bonus money pool. Dallas' share ended up at $5,899,422.[36][29] The victory triggered a contractual bonus of $1,183,200 for Holiday.[37] In total, Holiday's achievements in his first season with the Celtics netted him around $2.8 million, which represents every incentive bonus in his contract.[38][39]
The Finals was televised in the United States by ABC (including local affiliates WCVB-TV in Boston and WFAA in Dallas) for the 22nd consecutive year. This marked the first and only Finals called by the team of play-by-play announcer Mike Breen, analysts Doris Burke and JJ Redick, and sideline reporter Lisa Salters.[42] This made Burke the first woman to serve as a television analyst for a major men's professional championship event.[43] Furthermore, this was the first Finals since 2006 without Jeff Van Gundy or Mark Jackson as commentators, as they were laid off after the previous year's finals.[44][45] Following the conclusion of the Finals, however, Redick was hired as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.[46]
The Finals was broadcast on ESPN Radio with Marc Kestecher and P. J. Carlesimo as commentators, as well as Jorge Sedano as the reporter. This was the first Finals since 2019 without Doris Burke as a radio commentator for the Finals.[47]
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