BOSTON (AP) — Jayson Tatum put his hands behind his head, with fans at TD Garden standing cheering around him, and took it all in.
As he walked towards the bench, he wrapped both arms around Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla.
The journey was over.
The Boston Celtics are once again alone among the NBA champions.
Tatum had 31 points, 11 assists and eight reboundsand the Celtics dominated the Dallas Mavericks 106-88 on Monday night to win the franchise’s 18th championship, breaking a tie with the Los Angeles Lakers for the most wins in league history.
Boston won its last title on the 16th anniversary of lifting its last Larry O’Brien Trophy in 2008. It is the 13th championship won this century by one of the city’s four major professional sports franchises .
“It means the world,” Tatum said on stage after the team received the trophy from NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. “It’s been a long time. And damn, I’m grateful.
Jaylen Brown added 21 points, eight rebounds and six assists, and was voted MVP of the NBA Finals.
“I share this with my brothers and my partner in crime Jayson Tatum,” Brown said after the 107th career playoff game he and Tatum played together – the most for a duo before winning a title.
Jrue Holiday finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Center Kristaps Porzingis also provided an emotional boost, returning from a two-game absence due to a dislocated tendon in his left ankle to score five points in 17 minutes.
They helped the Celtics finish a playoff run that saw them go 16-3 and finish with an 80-21 overall record. That .792 winning percentage ranks second in team history behind the Celtics’ 1985-86 championship team that finished 82-18 (.820).
Mazzulla, in his second season, also became at age 35 the youngest coach since Bill Russell in 1969 to lead a team to a championship.
“You have very few chances in life to be great,” Mazzulla said.
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 victory in Game 4. The Mavericks were 3-0 in the Game 5 this playoffs, with Doncic scoring at least 31 points in each of them. He said the chest, right knee and left ankle injuries he suffered in the finale were no excuse for Dallas struggling throughout the series.
“It doesn’t matter if I was hurt, how hurt I was. I was out there,” he said. “I tried to play, but I didn’t do enough.”
Kyrie Irving finished with just 15 points on 5-of-16 shooting and lost 13 of the last 14 games against the Celtics team he left in the summer of 2019 to join the Brooklyn Nets.
Irving thinks better things await the Mavs.
Boston Celtics head coach JJoe Mazzulla, center right, raises the trophy alongside owner Stephen Pagliuca, center left, after defeating the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5 of the NBA Basketball Finals , Monday, June 17, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
“I see an opportunity for us to really build our future in a positive way, where it’s almost like a regular thing for us and we’re competing for championships,” he said.
NBA teams are now 0-157 in the playoffs after falling to a 3-0 deficit.
Mavs coach Jason Kidd believes Doncic and his team will grow from this NBA Finals experience.
“I think the first step is just getting involved. I think it’s a great thing,” he said. “Yes, we lost 4-1, but I thought the group fought against the Celtics and unfortunately we just couldn’t get a shot when we needed to, or we turned the ball over and they took full advantage.”
Boston never trailed and led by as many as 26, feeding off the energy of the Garden crowd.
Dallas was trailing 16-15 early before the Celtics closed the first quarter on a 12-3 run that included a combined eight points from Tatum and Brown.
The Celtics did it again in the second quarter when the Mavericks cut what was a 15-point deficit to nine. Boston finished the period with a 19-7 run that was capped by a half-court run. ring beater by Payton Pritchard – his second such shot of the series – to give Boston a 67-46 halftime lead.
Over the final two minutes of the first and second quarters, the Celtics outscored the Mavericks 22-4.
The Celtics never looked back.
Russell’s widow, Jeannine Russell, and daughter Karen Russell were at TD Garden to salute the Celtics’ new generation of champions.
They watched current Celtics stars Tatum and Brown win their first rings. It was the trade that sent 2008 champions Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to Brooklyn in 2013 that earned Boston the draft picks it ultimately used to select Brown and Tatum third overall in back-to-back drafts in 2016 and 2017.
The All-Stars have come into their own this season, leading a Celtics team built around taking and making a high number of 3-pointers and a defense considered the best in the league. league during the regular season.
The duo reached at least the Eastern Conference Finals as teammates four times.
They finally reached the finish line in their fifth deep playoff series together.
After both struggling at times offensively in the series, Tatum and Brown found their rhythm in Game 5, combining for 31 points and 11 assists in the first half.
Confetti falls after the Boston Celtics defeated the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5 of the NBA Basketball Finals, Monday, June 17, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
It brought out all the attributes that made Boston the NBA’s most formidable playoff team: spreading out teams, sharing the ball, and wreaking havoc on defense. And even break a toothlike Derrick White did after being landed by Derek Lively II.
“I’m going to lose all my teeth for a championship,” White said.
And it put a championship arc on a dizzying streak for the Celtics, which saw them lose in the Finals to the Golden State Warriors in 2022, then fail to return last season after a Game 7 home loss to the Miami Heat in the conference finals.
Tatum vowed that night to erase the pain of those disappointments.
Standing in a sea of confetti Monday night, his 6-year-old son Deuce reminded him of what he had accomplished.
“He told me I was the best in the world,” Tatum said. “I said, ‘You’re absolutely right.'”
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