Updated on: June 17, 2024 / 11:30 PM EDT
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The Boston Celtics easily took care of the Dallas Mavericks 106-88 in Game Five of the 2024 NBA Finals on Monday night, securing the storied franchise’s 18th championship and first since 2008.
The Mavericks had been keeping pace at the start of the game, but Boston went on a 9-0 run to close out the first quarter, giving them a 10-point lead that then grew to 21 by halftime. Dallas never came within single digits for the entire second half.
The Celtics cruised through the regular season with the best record in the NBA and then did even better in the playoffs, never trailing in a series while winning 15 of their first 17 games. They opened a 3-0 lead on Dallas, but the Mavericks avoided elimination with a 122-84 victory on Friday night — the third-biggest blowout in Finals history.
That sent the series back to Boston, where the Celtics closed it out. Boston’s 18 NBA titles are the most all-time, with Monday night’s win moving them one ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers, now in second place with 17 championships.
Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics reacts after a dunk during the third quarter of Game Five of the 2024 NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks at TD Garden on June 17, 2024 in Boston, Massachusetts.
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Jayson Tatum had 31 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds and Jaylen Brown, who was named Finals MVP, added 21 points. Jrue Holiday finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Center Kristaps Porzingis also provided an emotional lift, returning from a two-game absence because of a dislocated tendon in his left ankle to chip in five points in 17 minutes.
It helped the Celtics cap a postseason that saw them go 16-3 and finish with an 80-21 overall record. That .792 winning percentage ranks second in team history behind only the Celtics’ 1985-86 championship team that finished 82-18.
Second-year coach Joe Mazzulla, at age 35, also became the youngest coach since Bill Russell in 1969 to lead a team to a championship.
Luka Doncic finished with 28 points and 12 rebounds for Dallas, which failed to extend the series after avoiding a sweep with a 38-point win in Game 4. The Mavericks had been 3-0 in Game 5s this postseason, with Doncic scoring at least 31 points in each of them.
Kyrie Irving finished with just 15 points on 5-of-16 shooting and has now lost 13 of the last 14 meetings against the Celtics team he left in the summer of 2019 to join the Brooklyn Nets.
NBA teams are now 0-157 in postseason series after falling into a 3-0 deficit.
Boston never trailed and led by as many as 26 feeding off the energy of the Garden crowd.