Boston Celtics players Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown proved everybody wrong by winning the record 18th NBA title with a 106-88 win against the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5, taking the series 4-1. It’s a surreal feeling. It still has not really kicked in yet. Just trying, I guess, to enjoy the moment. I kept saying, wow, Tatum said. These last seven years have been a roller coaster, up and down. I had to listen to all the negative and bad remarks people said about me, and tonight, it was worth it. Oh, my God, the American power forward added.
Tatum’s partner in winning the NBA title Brown was equally ecstatic and said, we’ve been through a lot, the losses, and the expectations. The media have said all different types of things: We can’t play together; we are never going to win. We heard it all. But we just blocked it out, and we just kept going. I trusted him. He trusted me. And we did it together, Celtics’ shooting guard added.
The Celtics’ head coach Joe Mazzulla also credited his players for the dominating title win which saw them go past the LA Lakers for most NBA titles in history. It really starts with them, Mazzulla said. You can’t have a philosophy or a way of playing if you don’t have a group of guys that are willing to buy into it and be disciplined. Quite honestly, this group of guys has been through so much in the league, they know what it takes, he added.
The game began with Boston scoring 28 points against the Dallas Mavericks’ 18. The Celtics upped the pace in the second quarter, scoring 39 points to the Mavericks’ 28. Leading by 21 points at halftime, Dallas attempted to equal Boston and cut their deficit to two points in the third quarter. In the final 12 minutes, the score was 20-21 in Dallas’ favor, and Boston won the game and the title by an 18-point margin.
Meanwhile, Jrue Holiday became the only player to win two NBA championship titles in his debut season with two different teams, following his victory with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021. Furthermore, the defensive stalwart received a well-deserved $1.26 million contract bonus for winning the NBA championship, in addition to five other incentives earned during the 2023-24 season. The American point guard also became the first player in NBS Finals history to maintain shooting splits of 50/40/90, averaging over 10 points.
