Boston Celtics Will Raise 18th Championship Banner

BOSTON -- Behind 31 points, 8 rebounds and 11 assists from Jayson Tatum and 21 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists from Finals MVP Jaylen Brown, the Boston Celtics blew out the Dallas Mavericks 106-88 to win the 2024 NBA Finals, winning a record-setting 18th NBA title on the 16th anniversary of the day they won their 17th championship in this same building.

In doing so, the Celtics passed their forever rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers, for the most titles in NBA history.

Boston, after playing its worst game of the season Friday night in its first chance to close this series out, responded with a wire-to-wire victory Monday.

The Celtics built a 21-point lead at halftime, with a second Payton Pritchard half-court heave of the series emphatically sending them into the break with a comfortable cushion -- and sending the sellout crowd at TD Garden into a frenzy.

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The crowd had been in a fervent state since before the game even began, but particularly when Kristaps Porzingis -- who had missed Games 3 and 4 because of the left leg injury he suffered in Game 2 -- checked into the game midway through the first quarter. Porzingis finished with just five points in 16 minutes but gave Boston some valuable minutes spelling Al Horford off the bench.

Brown earned his MVP award behind series averages of 20.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5 assists, while also consistently guarding Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic.

With the win, the Celtics finished the playoffs 16-3, second only to the 2016-17 Golden State Warriors (16-1) since the NBA went to four best-of-seven rounds of the playoffs in 2003 in an emphatic reversal of Boston's recent playoff disappointments.

The Celtics had largely controlled the first three games of this series before the Mavericks responded with a demolition of Boston in Dallas on Friday, winning by 38 points in the third-biggest blowout in NBA Finals history and the largest loss for the Celtics in any game since the 2017 conference finals.

But Boston responded with one of its most complete ones of the season in Game 5 -- and, as a result, set a new standard for winning in NBA history.