The Boston Celtics are the 2024 NBA champions. The Celtics clinched a record-setting 18th title in franchise history and their first since 2008 on Monday night with a 106-88 Game 5 win over the Dallas Mavericks. Jayson Tatum starred in Game 5 for Boston, finishing with 31 points and 11 assists as he won his first ring. Jaylen Brown added 21 points in the closeout victory and was named Finals MVP. The 18 titles are the most in NBA history as Boston passed the Los Angeles Lakers, who won their 17th title in 2020.
Boston was the best team in the NBA all season long. The Celtics won 64 games in the regular season and then went 16-3 in the playoffs, capping that run by taking down the Mavericks, 4-1, in the 2024 NBA Finals.
The title comes exactly 16 years after the Celtics' last championship, which they won on June 17, 2008. Led by Tatum and Brown, the Celtics have been mainstays in the Eastern Conference finals in recent years (they've made six of the last eight ECFs), but this was just the second Finals appearance for the Celtics in the Tatum/Brown era. The fell short in the 2022 NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors, but would not be denied in 2024.
The championship is the first in the 17-season career of forward Al Horford. The longtime Celtic played in 186 playoff games before capturing his first title. Only Karl Malone had played in more postseason games without winning a championship.
The title is the second in four years for Jrue Holiday, who the Celtics acquired in a preseason trade after the Bucks dumped Holiday in a deal to land Damian Lillard. Holiday did a little bit of everything in the Finals, including 15 points, 11 rebounds and four assists in Game 5.
Holiday also played strong defense on Dallas stars Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, who were held to 14 first-half points on Monday night. Doncic finished with a team-high 28 points in the season-ending loss, and the Slovenian superstar will continue searching for his first NBA title after leading the fifth-seeded Mavs to their first Finals in 13 years.
Irving, meanwhile, struggled in Boston. The ex-Celtic scored 15 points in Game 5, but he averaged just 14.3 points in the three Finals games at TD Garden -- all Dallas losses.
Here are four key takeaways from the title-clinching Game 5:
Tatum and Brown finally climb the mountain
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have been together since 2017. In those seven seasons, they have never missed the playoffs, made five Eastern Conference finals and two Finals, and played 107 postseason games together, the most by any duo without a title.
At least until Monday night.
Finally, after so many years of playoff heartbreak, after countless calls to break them up, and after relentless debate about whether they were good enough to win it all, they lifted the Larry O'Brien Trophy. They are NBA champions and Celtics legends, and they did it together.
Watching a duo like Tatum and Brown complete their journey is what sports is all about.
Brown claims Finals MVP
When Jaylen Brown was drafted as the No. 3 overall pick in 2016, the Celtics fans inside TD Garden for a watch party booed the selection. Nearly eight years later, those same fans were losing their minds in the complete opposite manner as they watched him lift the Bill Russell Finals MVP trophy.
Brown has so often played second fiddle to Tatum over these years, but not anymore. He was the Eastern Conference finals MVP and now the Finals MVP, joining the likes of John Havlicek, Larry Bird and Paul Pierce as Celtics icons to earn that honor.
Tatum closed the gap with a brilliant Game 5 performance to close out the series, and the voting ended up being 7-4 in favor of Brown. In the end, his consistency and two-way effort were enough to sway the voters. He averaged 20.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, and five assists over the five games, while also taking on the primary responsibility for guarding Luka Doncic.
Horford gets his ring
Al Horford was the No. 3 overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft. Over those 17 seasons he's made five All-Star Games, one All-NBA team and one All-Defensive team, and played in 186 playoff games -- the second-most by any player without a ring.
Finally, he is an NBA champion. Horford first arrived in Boston in 2016 as a free agent and spent three seasons with the team before signing an ill-fated deal with the Philadelphia 76ers. After a two-year sojourn in Philly and Oklahoma City, the Celtics brought Horford back in 2021.
That was one of the first big moves by Brad Stevens after he became the team's president of basketball operations, and it proved to be one of his wisest. The ever-steady Horford has been a key presence on the Celtics' rise and ended up starting the majority of the games in this postseason due to Kristaps Porzingis' injury.
Late in Game 5, Joe Mazzulla subbed Horford out of the game to give him a well-deserved standing ovation.
Mazzulla makes history
Shortly before the 2022-23 season, the Celtics named Joe Mazzulla their interim head coach while they investigated Ime Udoka for multiple policy violations. By February of that season, he was officially named the head coach and led the team to the Eastern Conference finals.
Despite some calls for his job following the Celtics' surprise exit at the hands of the No. 8 seed Miami Heat, Brad Stevens was committed to Mazzulla. That proved to be the correct decision, as Mazzulla used his unique style to guide the team to their first 60-win season since 2009, and their first title since 2008.
With the Game 5 win, the 35-year-old Mazzulla became the youngest head coach to win a title since Bill Russell in 1969.
