It’s already been sixteen years since the Boston Celtics last hung an NBA championship banner from their ceiling. An eternity for this historic franchise of the North American basketball league, accustomed to reaching the summits of the championship since its first title in 1957. Monday June 17, the team coached by Joe Mazzulla came to put an end to this period of scarcity. By winning in the fifth game of the final against the Dallas Mavericks (106-88), the C’s – nickname of the Boston team – won the eighteenth NBA title in their history.
Thanks to this victory at home, the Celtics once again become the most successful franchise in the NBA and take a small lead over the Los Angeles Lakers (17 titles), their historic rival, who returned to their height in 2020, during the atypical finals played in the Disneyworld “bubble” – Covid-19 pandemic obliges.
This title is all the more savored by the Celtics players since they, for the most part, failed in the final in 2022 against the Golden State Warriors. The team, which already had Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Al Horford and Derrick White in its ranks, was not yet mature against Stephen Curry’s teammates. “We were too fair at the time. It’s a great opportunity to play a final again. Not everyone has the right to a second chance, enjoyed, before the final, the star of the team, Jayson Tatum. Experience is the best form of learning, and we learn from our mistakes. »
Boston has mastered its subject all season
Although they dominated the regular season this year, losing only 18 games in 82 games, the Celtics have often been questioned by basketball experts. The main criticisms made against the Massachusetts team? She does not dominate her matches enough, her level of play is not as impressive as it should be, her stars are not consistent enough… However, the statistics prove the opposite: Boston has mastered its subject all year round , without always having to force your talent.
And Jayson Tatum’s teammates continued in the final stages, losing only three times, a record since 2017 and the ultradominant Golden State Warriors, who then only conceded one defeat. In history, few champion teams can boast such an impressive record, noted American journalist Bill Simmons before the fourth match.
Before the start of the final series against Dallas – out of the powerful Western Conference – Boston’s ability to win against a team in full possession of its means was still not unanimous. Several uncertainties surrounded a team which multiplied its disillusionments. Since 2017 and the arrival of Jayson Tatum, the Celtics had participated in five conference finals and one final, without ever going all the way. In 2023, when they were again the big favorites to return to the final, they had been led (3-0), had equalized (3-3) then had been eliminated (4-3) by a surprising Miami team .
A team performance
Strengthened in the offseason by the arrivals of leader Jrue Holiday, crowned champion in 2021 with the Milwaukee Bucks, and from within Kristaps Porzingis, the Celtics avoided the pitfalls and delivered a successful season. In the play-off, they encountered weakened opponents in each round – before the final. During the first, they quickly got rid of (4-1) a Miami team deprived of its best player, Jimmy Butler. In the next round (4-1), it was Donovan Mitchell, the star of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who missed the last two games. Finally, in the Eastern Conference final, Joe Mazzulla’s men swept the Indiana Pacers (4-0), who had to do without their star, Tyrese Haliburton, injured, during the last two meetings.
“Everyone says their journey wasn’t hard enough. Stop with that. You don’t get to the final without being tested.”, defended this week Draymond Green, Golden State Warriors player who became an analyst on American television for the final stages. Faced with Dallas, who had the difficult task of getting rid of the Los Angeles Clippers (4-2), the Oklahoma City Thunder (4-2) and the Minnesota Timberwolves of Frenchman Rudy Gobert (4-1), the extra freshness Boston side was able to play a role.
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But the “Greens” did not only rely on their physical capabilities. Like their coach, Joe Mazzulla, 35, who on Monday became the youngest successful coach in history, the Celtics have continued to reinvent themselves to offer themselves a new ring – the reward obtained after an NBA title . In the final, with the exception of the fourth game, won by Dallas, they perfectly managed the Slovenian superstar Luka Doncic, the Mavericks’ main asset, and kept the attack under the symbolic hundred-point mark during the first three games of the final, as well as the last.
A team performance therefore, even if several individuals shone, like Jaylen Brown and his counterpart Jayson Tatum. With his partner Jrue Holiday, Jayson Tatum will be there this summer at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games with the news dream team American, to try to win the second coronation of his season. In this quest, he should once again be well supported.
