For Dominicans, NBA champion Al Horford is a national treasure


Boston Celtics center Al Horford, center, and forward Jayson Tatum, center left, celebrates with teammates near the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy after the team won the NBA basketball championship with a Game 5 victory over the Dallas Mavericks, Monday, June 17, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Al Horford is being celebrated in the Dominican Republic after the Boston Celtics center became the first player from the country to win an NBA title on Monday.

Horford — whose full name is Alfred Joel Horford Reynoso — has been congratulated by the president of the Dominican Republic, international bachata stars and others after finally winning a championship in his 17th NBA season.

“Al Horford has made history as the first Dominican to win an NBA Finals series,” President Luis Abinader said on X. “What great pride for our country! Congratulations on your incredible achievement.” The tweet included an emoji of the Dominican flag and the hashtag #OrgulloDominicano, or #DominicanPride.

The Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks 106-88 to win the franchise’s 18th championship, breaking a tie with the Los Angeles Lakers for the most in league history.

“I feel proud to represent all the Dominicans, no just over there, but in the world because I know they’re in different places in Europe and here in the United States,” said Horford, who had a Dominican flag tucked in his waistband while posing for photos with the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

READ: Celtics look to become first NBA repeat champion since 2018

Rachel Quezada, a 38-year-old auditor in Santo Domingo Este, said she followed the entire series hoping for a Boston victory, which she never doubted given the team’s talent.

“I love that you can tell he is a person that doesn’t forget about his roots,” Quezada told The Associated Press. “The team had an A1 performance from the start.”

Horford, from Puerto Plata, joins a short list of Latino players to win an NBA title: Manu Ginóbili and Fabricio Oberto from Argentina, Butch Lee and J.J. Barea from Puerto Rico, Carl Herrera from Venezuela, Leandro Barbosa from Brazil, and Juan Toscano-Anderson from Mexico.

Dominican maestro Juan Luis Guerra also congratulated the 38-year-old Celtics star with an Instagram post of the basketball team and a caption that read “Glory to God!!.”

The Dominican Republic’s Ministry of Sports posted a picture on X with text reading “Dominican Pride.”

Horford earned his first ring in his 15th playoff appearance. The 38-year-old has played in the Finals twice. He is the son of Tito Horford, a retired Dominican basketball star who played in the NBA with the Milwaukee Bucks.



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Horford moved to Michigan from the Dominican Republic with his family before heading to Florida to play college basketball for the Gators.

Doncic, Irving can’t deliver for Mavericks in NBA Finals clincher


Dallas Mavericks’ Kyrie Irving (11), P.J. Washington (25), Maxi Kleber (42) and Luka Doncic (77) head to the bench during a timeout in the second half of Game 5 of the NBA basketball finals against the Boston Celtics, Monday, June 17, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

BOSTON — Short jumpers rolled off the rim and 3-pointers went in and out. Even free throws were a challenge for Luka Doncic in the clinching game of the NBA Finals.

Dallas needed Doncic and Kyrie Irving to be at their best in Game 5 against the Celtics on Monday night. Instead, the Mavericks’ best players got off to a terrible start, and by the time their shots started falling the Celtics were coasting to a 106-88 victory and an unprecedented 18th NBA title.

“It just wasn’t our night offensively,” Dallas coach Jason Kidd said after his fifth-seeded team fell short of its second NBA title. “We’re a young team. We have a young core, and so this is an exciting time to be a Mavs fan and to also be a coach for the Mavs.”

Doncic missed his first six 3-point attempts and finished 12 of 25 from the floor. He scored 28 points — 10 of them in the fourth quarter, when Dallas never got closer than 18 points. He had 12 rebounds but also turned the ball over seven times. He was 2 for 5 from the free throw line, a problem that has bothered him throughout the series.

“He’s one of the best players in the world,” Kidd said. “For him at the age of 25 to get to the finals, to be playing his basketball at the level that he’s playing — now it’s just being consistent.”

READ: Celtics rout Mavericks to win record 18th NBA championship

The Slovenian star said injuries — a bruised chest, and problems in his right knee and left ankle — weren’t the problem.

“It doesn’t matter if I was hurt, how much was I hurt. I was out there,” he said. “I tried to play, but I didn’t do enough.”

Irving was 3 for 9 from 3-point range and 5 of 16 overall while fending off boos and crude chants from his former fans every time he touched the ball. He had nine assists but 15 points — six of them in the fourth quarter, when the game was already out of reach.

READ: Postseason like almost none other for Doncic, even without NBA title

“The crowds can chant whatever they want to chant. When we’re away, they’re obviously going to go against us,” Dallas guard Josh Green said. “He does a great job of not letting it affect him and I think that goes back to his leadership on and off the court.

“So we have nothing but respect for Kyrie. … We all got his back, for sure.”

Irving and Doncic shared a hug at the end of the game.



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“We said, ‘We’ll fight together next season,’ and we (are) just going to believe,” Doncic said. “I’m proud of every guy that stepped on the floor, all the coaches, all the people behind. Obviously, we didn’t win finals, but we did have a hell of a season and I’m proud of every one of them.”

Celtics’ Joe Mazzulla goes from Division 2 coach to NBA champion


Head coach Joe Mazzulla of the Boston Celtics yells while lifting the Larry O’ Brien Championship Trophy after Boston’s 106-88 win against the Dallas Mavericks in Game Five of the 2024 NBA Finals at TD Garden on June 17, 2024 in Boston, Massachusetts. Elsa/Getty Images/AFP

Joe Mazzulla has been called weird. He’s been called a sicko. He’s been called crazy.

Those comments weren’t coming from critics or haters directing anonymous insults toward the NBA coach of the Boston Celtics. They came publicly from his own players who, by all accounts, absolutely adore him. And they are meant with all possible respect, especially now that those players — and everyone else — must call Mazzulla something else.

A champion.

A 35-year-old whose only head coaching experience before taking over the Celtics in the fall of 2022 was at the NCAA Division II level is now the leader of the best team in the NBA world. Boston wrapped up the NBA title on Monday night, beating the Dallas Mavericks 106-88 to finish off a five-game roll through the finals and secure the team’s record 18th championship.

“There’s nothing better than representing the Celtics,” Mazzulla said, “and being part of history.”

READ: Celtics rout Mavericks to win record 18th NBA championship

Including playoffs, Mazzulla’s record is now 148-54 — a .729 winning percentage. Among all coaches with at least 200 games in the NBA, nobody has a better record than that.

And when it was over, yes, the famously stoic Mazzulla smiled.

“The thing you just can’t take for granted in the game today is a coach’s greatest gift is a group of guys that want to be coached, want to be led, that also empower themselves,” Mazzulla said earlier in the series. “So, I think at the end of the day, just appreciate the fact that we have an environment where learning and coaching is important, and getting better and developing is important. You can’t be a good coach if your players don’t let you.”

He’s the 37th coach in NBA history to win a title and the seventh to do so from the Celtics’ bench, joining Red Auerbach, Bill Russell, Tom Heinsohn, Bill Fitch, K.C. Jones and Doc Rivers.

And there are other names the Celtics call him, too. Like genius, for example. Mazzulla doesn’t hide his Christian faith, talks about three of his loves beyond family being Jesus, coffee and jiu-jitsu, is obsessed with things like international soccer, and in his spare time leads teams to NBA titles.

“He’s really himself. He’s like authentic to himself. We all appreciate that,” Celtics guard Payton Pritchard said. “He’s not trying to be somebody he’s not. So, I think that’s kind of like the sicko side of it. He’s different, but we respect that. Then the basketball genius, you can learn a lot from him as to how he sees the offensive side of things, the play calling, the game management, all that. He’s elite in that. I’ve personally learned a lot from him, and I think our whole group has.”

READ: Celtics follow ‘craziness’ of Mazzulla’s coaching style to NBA Finals

Alex Cora, the manager of the Boston Red Sox, makes no secret that he believes the Celtics are going to be enjoying success for a while. He’s close with Brad Stevens, the front office mastermind of the team, and has gotten to know Mazzulla somewhat well since he took over as coach. The respect he has for Mazzulla is clear.

It’s not like Mazzulla struggled in Year 1 after being shoved into the job unexpectedly following the scandal that led to the Celtics parting ways with Ime Udoka; the Celtics did make Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals last season. Cora just thinks things were more suited to Mazzulla’s needs in Year 2, such as bringing in assistants like Charles Lee (the next coach of the Charlotte Hornets) and Sam Cassell.

“I do believe that with everything that they went through, with the head coaching part of it, and Joe last year being the head coach but not having his staff, I think it was kind of like an obstacle for him,” Cora told reporters before a Red Sox game last week. “But he got the right people, they got the right coach.”

Mazzulla’s path to the NBA mountaintop could easily be described as non-traditional, and not just for the circumstances under which he got the job as Udoka’s replacement.

Mazzulla’s only previous experience as a head coach before taking over the Celtics was a two-year stint at Fairmont State in West Virginia, where he went 43-17 and made the NCAA Tournament in his second season. A native New Englander from Rhode Island, Mazzulla played at West Virginia, was an assistant for the Celtics’ G League team before taking over at Fairmont State, and then got hired by the Celtics again in June 2019 to be part of Stevens’ coaching staff.

They’re a lot alike, Mazzulla and Stevens. They don’t waste words. They don’t seek the spotlight. Asking them a question about themselves is almost certainly not going to get any sort of peel-back-the-curtain answer. It’s not about them. It’s just about wins.

“When Joe won coach of the month, I was like, ‘Hey, congratulations,’” Celtics guard Derrick White said. “And he just looked at me and said, ‘Nobody cares.’”

The closest Mazzulla likely came to getting a head-coaching gig in the NBA before getting promoted by Boston was in 2022, when he interviewed with the Utah Jazz. The Jazz hired Will Hardy, and Mazzulla said they made the right decision. But when he looked back at that process, Mazzulla hated one part of his interview.

He wore a suit. “They’re useless,” he said.

To be clear, that wasn’t where Mazzulla thinks he blew that interview. The Jazz asked him a fairly standard question. Paraphrasing, they wanted to know how Mazzulla, as a young coach — actually younger than some NBA players — felt he was ready to lead a team.



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He didn’t have a great answer. But now, nobody will have to ask him that question again. Mazzulla answered it Monday night once and for all. He can lead a team to the top of the NBA world. The Celtics’ 18th banner will be raised this fall, and that’s more than enough for him.

“You get very few chances in life to be great and you get very few chances in life to carry on the ownership and the responsibility of what these banners are, and all the great people, all the great players that came here,” Mazzulla said. “When you have few chances in life, you just have to take the bull by the horns and you’ve got to just own it. And our guys owned it.”

Jaylen Brown is Finals MVP as Celtics clinch historic NBA title


Boston Celtics’ Jaylen Brown, center, raises the MVP trophy after defeating the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5 of the NBA basketball finals, Monday, June 17, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

Jaylen Brown was named NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Monday as his Boston Celtics polished off the Dallas Mavericks four games to one to earn a record 18th championship.

“It was a full team effort,” Brown said as he accepted the Finals MVP trophy named for Celtics legend Bill Russell.

The 27-year-old averaged 20.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5.0 assists in five Finals games and delivered a strong defensive effort against Dallas star Luka Doncic, the regular-season scoring leader.

READ: Celtics rout Mavericks to win record 18th NBA championship

“I share this with my brothers and my partner in crime Jayson Tatum — he was with me the whole way so we share this together,” Brown said.

The Celtics claimed their first title since 2008. They had reached the finals in 2022 only to come up short against the Golden State Warriors and last season they agonizingly failed to get back to the championship series, falling to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals.

On a mission this season, the Celtics won a league-leading 64 regular-season games.

They swept the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals — Brown earning MVP honors in that series, too.

READ: Celtics will win NBA title if Tatum, Brown focus on details, not emotions

Brown, in the first year of a mammoth five-year, $286 million contract extension with the Celtics, earned his third All-Star nod, but it was Tatum, not Brown, most often pointed to as the team’s top star.

Snubbed for All-NBA honors and by selectors for the US Olympic basketball team for Paris, Brown now has the honor he really craved — an NBA title — and the Finals MVP to go with it.

Brown, who was taken third overall in the 2016 draft, shared a long, heartfelt embrace with Tatum as the final moments of the 106-88 clinching victory ticked off.



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Brown said he’d left doubts from previous playoff misses go this season.

“I never hung my head,” he said.

NBA Finals loss can be springboard for Mavericks


Luka Doncic #77 of the Dallas Mavericks reacts during the fourth quarter of Game Five of the 2024 NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden on June 17, 2024 in Boston, Massachusetts. Elsa/Getty Images/AFP

Dallas star Luka Doncic was still absorbing the bitter blow of NBA Finals defeat, but one big lesson from the Mavericks 4-1 loss to the Boston Celtics was already clear.

“We’ve got to fight next season,” the 25-year-old Slovenian said, adding that the example of the Celtics themselves — back in the winner’s circle after falling in the finals in 2022 then missing out on the title series last year — was one to note.

“They’re a great team,” Doncic said. “They have been together for a long time, and they had to go through everything, so we’ve just got to look at them, see how they play, (they have) maturity, and they have some great players.

“We can learn from that,” Doncic said.

Doncic spearheaded an often sluggish Mavs offense throughout the series, despite playing with nagging knee and ankle injuries and a painful chest contusion.

READ: A postseason like almost none other for Doncic, even without NBA title

“It doesn’t matter if I was hurt, how much was I hurt,” said Doncic, who scored 28 points in Monday’s Game 5 defeat that saw Boston clinch a record 18th NBA title.

“I was out there. I tried to play, but I didn’t do enough.”

Having extended the series with a game-four blowout, Dallas never led on Monday, trailing by double digits throughout the second half.

But Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said just booking the title showdown with the 64-win Celtics — a year after Dallas failed to make the playoffs — was a harbinger of what this Mavs team can accomplish.

“This is just the beginning,” Kidd said. “A lot of people — excluding the people in the locker room — didn’t have us here.

READ: Doncic, Irving can’t deliver for Mavericks in NBA Finals clincher

“Yes, we lost 4-1, but I thought the group fought against the Celtics and just unfortunately just couldn’t make shots.”

As the game ended, Doncic exchanged an embrace with teammate Kyrie Irving, an NBA champion alongside LeBron James with Cleveland in 2016 who was brought in to bolster the Mavs in February of 2023.

“We said we’ll fight together next season, and we’re just going to believe,” Doncic said.

The Mavs’ post-season push was buoyed at the trade deadline by the acquisitions of P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford, and guard Josh Green said Dallas has the raw materials to challenge again.

“I think we got here and everyone is hungry now and obviously we didn’t get what we wanted. We need to regroup and be back here again next year,” Green said.

Added Irving: “Failure at this stage definitely sucks. It’s a bitter feeling because you want to keep playing and you feel like your best game is coming up next.



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“But I’m grateful for the opportunity to grow with these guys in this locker room, and everybody across the organization.”

Postseason like almost none other for Doncic, even sans NBA title


Luka Doncic #77 of the Dallas Mavericks high fives a staff member against the Boston Celtics during the third quarter of Game Five of the 2024 NBA Finals at TD Garden on June 17, 2024 in Boston, Massachusetts. Elsa/Getty Images/AFP

Luka Doncic’s first trip to the NBA Finals didn’t result in his first championship. That said, the Dallas star most definitely left his mark on these playoffs.

Doncic finished the postseason as the NBA’s leader in points (635), rebounds (208) and assists (178).

He’s only the second player in NBA history to finish the postseason as the leader in all three of those categories. It also happened last year — when Denver’s Nikola Jokic pulled off the feat.

“I’m proud of every guy that stepped on the floor, all the coaches, all the people behind (the scenes),” Doncic said. “Obviously, we didn’t win the finals, but we did have a hell of a season and I’m proud of every one of them.”

Doncic also joined another very small club, that being players to score 3,000 points in a single season. His 28 points on Monday in the season’s finale, Game 5 against the Boston Celtics, gave him 3,005 this season, including the playoffs.

READ: Doncic, Irving can’t deliver for Mavericks in NBA Finals clincher

He became the 11th player to do that. Michael Jordan had 10 such seasons, Wilt Chamberlain had five and nine other players — Bob McAdoo, Elgin Baylor, James Harden, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, Rick Barry, Shaquille O’Neal and now Doncic — have each done it once.

Holiday History

Boston’s Jrue Holiday won an NBA title in 2021, then won an Olympic gold medal later that summer. He’s got a chance to do it again.

Holiday and Boston teammate Jayson Tatum will be part of USA Basketball’s squad at the Paris Games, with camp starting early next month in Las Vegas.

Holiday could be the third player to win an NBA or WNBA title, and then an Olympic or FIBA World Cup gold medal, in the same calendar year on more than one occasion. Sue Bird did it three times and Scottie Pippen did it twice.

Celtics Record

Boston’s 16-3 record in these playoffs represents the 10th-best postseason mark by a team in NBA history.

The top of that list: Golden State was 16-1 in 2017, the Los Angeles Lakers were 15-1 in 2001 and Philadelphia was 12-1 in 1983.

Also ahead of Boston’s run this season: the 1999 San Antonio Spurs, 1991 Chicago Bulls and 1989 Detroit Pistons (all 15-2), the 1971 Milwaukee Bucks and 1982 Lakers (both 12-2) and the 1950 Lakers, then in Minneapolis (11-2).

The previous best playoff record in Celtics history was 15-3, done in the 1986 postseason.

Back On Top

Move over, Lakers. Boston is back atop the NBA’s all-time list for most titles won.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ latest championship — in the bubble in 2020 — pulled the franchise into a tie with the Celtics for the most in NBA history, 17 apiece.

READ: Celtics rout Mavericks to win record 18th NBA championship

The Celtics beat the Lakers in the 1963 NBA Finals, giving Boston its sixth title to the Lakers’ five. And for the next 57 years, the Celtics remained alone atop the list of most championships.

When the 1986 season ended, Boston had 16 titles to L.A.’s nine. The championship count since is Lakers 8, Celtics 2 — good enough to give the Celtics sole possession of the No. 1 spot again.

Still Waiting

After 186 playoff games in his career, Al Horford is finally a champion — and finally off a list that he probably didn’t aspire to be part of.

No active player had appeared in more playoff games without a championship than Horford, the Celtics’ center.

Now that he’s off the list, the new leaders in playoff games played without winning their first title yet are James Harden (166), Chris Paul (149) and Russell Westbrook (122).

Nice Check

The Celtics’ players (and probably some staff) are going to get a nice check for winning the title.

Boston’s share of the NBA’s playoff pool is $12,059,435. That’s the most a team has ever won from the postseason pile of bonus money, which was a record $33,657,947 this season.

Some of that gets distributed to each of the 16 playoff teams. Dallas’ share was $5,899,422.



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The bonus pool is typically split in some way among players and staff from the playoff teams.

Celtics rout Mavericks to win record 18th NBA championship


Jayson Tatum #0 of the Boston Celtics hugs head coach Joe Mazzulla of the Boston Celtics during the fourth quarter of Game Five of the 2024 NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks at TD Garden on June 17, 2024 in Boston, Massachusetts. Adam Glanzman/Getty Images/AFP

BOSTON — The Boston Celtics again stand alone among NBA champions.

Jayson Tatum had 31 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds as the Celtics topped 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 in league history.

Boston earned its latest title on the 16th anniversary of hoisting its last Larry O’Brien Trophy in 2008. It marks the 13th championship won this century by one of the city’s Big 4 professional sports franchises.

READ: NBA Finals: Celtics back home with chance to clinch record 18th title

Jaylen Brown added 21 points and was voted the NBA Finals MVP. 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 (.820).

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.

READ: NBA Finals: Celtics take season’s worth of lessons into Game 5

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.

Dallas was within 16-15 early before the Celtics closed the first quarter on a 12-3 run that included eight combined points by Tatum and Brown.

The Celtics did it again in the second quarter when the Mavericks trimmed what had been a 15-point deficit to nine. Boston ended the period with a 19-7 spurt that was capped by a a half-court buzzer beater by Payton Pritchard – his second such shot of the series – to give Boston a 67-46 halftime lead.

Over the last 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 his daughter Karen Russell were in TD Garden to salute the newest generation of Celtics champions.

They watched current Celtics stars Tatum and Brown earn their first rings. It was the trade that sent 2008 champions Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to Brooklyn in 2013 that netted Boston the draft picks it eventually used to select Brown and Tatum third overall in back-to-back drafts in 2016 and 2017.

The All-Stars came into their own this season, leading a Celtics team that built around taking and making a high number of 3-pointers, and a defense that rated as the league’s best during the regular season.

The duo made it to at least the Eastern Conference finals as teammates four previous times.

Their fifth deep playoff run together proved to be the charm.



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After both struggling at times offensively in the series, Tatum and Brown hit a groove in Game 5, combining for 31 points and 11 assists in the first half.

It helped bring out all the attributes that made Boston the NBA’s most formidable team this postseason – spreading teams out, sharing the ball, and causing havoc on defense.

And it put a championship bow on dizzying two-year stretch for the Celtics, that saw them lose in the finals to the Golden State Warriors in 2022 and then fail to return last season after a Game 7 home loss to the Miami Heat in the conference finals.

NBA Finals Game 5 Boston Celtics-Dallas Mavericks


2024 NBA Finals schedule (June 18, Game 5)

8:30am – Boston Celtics at Dallas Mavericks

FULL NBA FINALS SCHEDULE HERE.

NBA Finals: Rookie leaving an impression as Mavs try to stay alive

Boston Celtics players sit on the bench during the final moments of their loss to the Dallas Mavericks in Game 4 of the NBA finals, Friday, June 14, 2024, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Poised for an NBA coronation in Dallas, the Boston Celtics instead suffered the most lopsided Finals loss in franchise history, but with a 3-1 series lead Jaylen Brown says there’s no need to panic.

“These are the moments that can make you or break you,” Brown said after the Mavericks demolished the Celtics 122-84 in game four of the best-of-seven championship series. FULL STORY

NBA Finals: Rookie leaving an impression as Mavs try to stay alive

Dereck Lively NBA Finals Dallas Mavericks

Dallas Mavericks center Dereck Lively II (2) scores against the Boston Celtics during Game 4 of the NBA basketball finals, Friday, June 14, 2024, in Dallas. (Stacy Revere/Pool Photo via AP)

Dereck Lively II drained the first 3-pointer of his career, forced a missed layup at the other end and ping-ponged back down the court to slam home an alley-oop pass.

The Dallas Mavericks didn’t trail again in Game 4 of the NBA Finals against Boston following that first-quarter sequence from their 7-foot-1 rookie center.

And while a series loss to the Celtics with the title on the line still seems inevitable, the 20-year-old from Duke has left an impression on the global basketball stage. FULL STORY

NBA Finals: Celtics back home with chance to clinch record 18th title

Boston Celtics vs Dallas Mavericks Game 4 NBA Finals

Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) and guard Jrue Holiday react as Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving (11) and forward P.J. Washington walk off away after the Celtics won 109-66 in Game 3 of the NBA basketball finals, Wednesday, June 12, 2024, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Sam Hodde)

BOSTON — The Boston Celtics’ catastrophic performance in Game 4 of the NBA Finals gave them a chance to clinch another championship on Monday night under the 17 banners already hanging in the TD Garden rafters.

And, coach Joe Mazzulla reminded them, that they would still have two more chances after that.

“We don’t like to lose,” Celtics guard Jaylen Brown said before practice on Sunday. “I think we are ready for Game 5. I think that’s the best answer that I’ve got. I think that we’re ready. We’re at home. And we’re looking forward to it.” FULL STORY

In hostile Boston, Mavs’ Irving aims to keep focus on NBA Finals

Kyrie Irving Dallas Mavericks vs Boston Celtics NBA Finals

Kyrie Irving of the Dallas Mavericks looks to pass the ball during the third quarter against the Boston Celtics in Game Two of the 2024 NBA Finals at TD Garden on June 09, 2024 in Boston, Massachusetts.  (Getty Images via AFP)

NEW YORK – Resigned to the villain’s role in Boston, Dallas star Kyrie Irving is less concerned with silencing hostile Celtics fans than with quieting self doubt and leading the Mavs in a must-win NBA Finals game five.

“Let’s just call it what it is,” Irving said Sunday as the Mavs prepared to try once again to fend off elimination in the championship series, in which they trail the Celtics 3-1.

“When the fans are cheering ‘Kyrie sucks’ they feel like they have a psychological edge, and that’s fair,’” said Irving, who was hounded by Celtics fans still rankled by his departure in 2019 after two seasons with the team. FULL STORY



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NBA Finals: Celtics back home with chance to clinch record 18th title


Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) and guard Jrue Holiday react as Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving (11) and forward P.J. Washington walk off away after the Celtics won 109-66 in Game 3 of the NBA basketball finals, Wednesday, June 12, 2024, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Sam Hodde)

BOSTON — The Boston Celtics’ catastrophic performance in Game 4 of the NBA Finals gave them a chance to clinch another championship on Monday night under the 17 banners already hanging in the TD Garden rafters.

And, coach Joe Mazzulla reminded them, that they would still have two more chances after that.

“We don’t like to lose,” Celtics guard Jaylen Brown said before practice on Sunday. “I think we are ready for Game 5. I think that’s the best answer that I’ve got. I think that we’re ready. We’re at home. And we’re looking forward to it.”

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 will again try to win their unprecedented 18th NBA title — and their first since 2008. In a city that’s collected 12 championships already this century, that’s what passes for a drought.

READ: NBA Finals: Celtics take season’s worth of lessons into Game 5

“This is what we all work for,” Brown said. “We are at the precipice of completing what we set out to do at the beginning of the season. So I think it’s not difficult to get everybody in that locker room on the same page right now.”

The Game 4 loss snapped Boston’s franchise-record 10-game postseason winning streak (and also ended Kyrie Irving’s personal 13-game losing streak against his former team). Boston had been 3-0 in potential elimination games so far during these playoffs.

But the Celtics know — and Dallas surely does as well — that they still have three more chances to close out the series. All-Star Jayson Tatum said Mazzulla told his team on Sunday not to “surrender to that idea that we have to win tomorrow.”

While it’s unusual for a coach to diverge from the “one game at a time” mentality, the Celtics said the acknowledgement that they have three tries to win one game takes some of the pressure off them — pressure that may have gotten to them in their total dud of a Game 4.

“We would love to win tomorrow — more than anything,” Tatum said. “But if it doesn’t happen, it’s not the end of the world. We have more opportunities.”

READ: Jayson Tatum reflects on how being a dad changed his life and career

Irving said that the Mavericks are also trying to “enjoy the moment” and not focus on the fact that no NBA team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in a playoff series. Game 6 would be back in Dallas on Thursday, with the potential deciding Game 7 in Boston on Sunday.

″(We are) just thinking about the goal that we have in front of us as best we can, and try not to get tired of everyone talking about the history that has not been made,” Irving said. “We got a chance to accomplish one of our goals, which is to make it back to Boston. We have another goal in front of us, and that’s to make it back to Dallas.”

That will be a lot harder if Boston center Kristaps Porzingis is available. The 7-foot-2 Latvian was listed on Sunday as questionable with a dislocated tendon in his left ankle.

Porzingis did not speak to reporters on Sunday. He practiced with the team wearing a white sleeve on his right leg, and during the 30 minutes that reporters were able to observe him on the court he was gingerly putting up shots from inside the lane, apparently taking care not to jump.

“I’m not sure where he’s at,” Mazzulla said. “But he’s trying and doing everything he can to try to put himself in position to be out there. I know that for sure.”

Porzingis missed 10 straight playoff games after straining his right calf in the first-round series against Miami. He returned for Game 1 of the finals and was a big reason for Boston’s victory, scoring 20 points with six rebounds and three blocked shots in 21 minutes.

But Porzingis dislocated a tendon in his left leg in Game 2, did not play in Game 3 and was said to be available for Game 4 “on a specific basis, if needed.” (With the Celtics quickly falling behind in a 38-point loss, he never checked into the game.)

Less of a concern is the status of Mavericks star Luka Doncic, who has been on the injury report with injuries to his right knee and left ankle along with a bruised chest. He went through the warmups for Game 2 with his torso and knee wrapped, but delivered a triple double in the loss.



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“At this point in the season, a lot of things going on,” he said on Sunday. “If I’m playing, I’m fine. No worries.”

In hostile Boston, Mavs’ Irving aims to keep focus on NBA Finals


Kyrie Irving of the Dallas Mavericks looks to pass the ball during the third quarter against the Boston Celtics in Game Two of the 2024 NBA Finals at TD Garden on June 09, 2024 in Boston, Massachusetts.  (Getty Images via AFP)

NEW YORK – Resigned to the villain’s role in Boston, Dallas star Kyrie Irving is less concerned with silencing hostile Celtics fans than with quieting self doubt and leading the Mavs in a must-win NBA Finals game five.
“Let’s just call it what it is,” Irving said Sunday as the Mavs prepared to try once again to fend off elimination in the championship series, in which they trail the Celtics 3-1.
“When the fans are cheering ‘Kyrie sucks’ they feel like they have a psychological edge, and that’s fair,’” said Irving, who was hounded by Celtics fans still rankled by his departure in 2019 after two seasons with the team.
Amid the jeers he delivered two sub-par performances in games one and two, the Mavs eventually falling 0-3 down before a blowout victory in game four to extend the series.
“Of course, if I’m not making shots or turning the ball over, that makes it even more of a pressing issue that they can stay on me for,” Irving said.
“I think in order to silence even the self-doubt, let alone the crowd doubt, but the self-doubt when you make or miss shots, that’s just as important as making sure I’m leading the team the right way and being human through this experience, too, and telling them how I feel.”
Sunday’s victory ended Irving’s own 13-game losing streak against the Celtics.
He’s cognizant of his complicated personal history with the team, which he said stretches back further than his petulant demonstrations when his Brooklyn Nets were swept by the  Celtics in the first round in 2022.
He said Sunday it started when he arrived in Boston in 2017, when he failed to engage with the history of the storied franchise or, as he put it “the cult that they have here.
“That’s what they expect you to do as a player,” Irving said. “They expect you to seamlessly buy into the Celtics’ pride, buy into everything Celtics. And if you don’t, then you’ll be outed.
“I’m one of the people that’s on the outs,” he added with a laugh. “I did it to myself.”
Now Irving is more concerned with the task facing the Mavericks as they try to become the first NBA team to erase an 0-3 deficit to win a playoff series.
“Most importantly, (it’s) not making this about me or getting into the energy with anyone else other than my teammates,” Irving said, adding that the Mavs must think “about the goal that we have in front of us as best we can, and try not to get tired of everyone talking about the history that has not been made.”
Irving, who won a title alongside LeBron James in Cleveland in 2016, said he had encouraged his teammates — many in the Finals for the first time — to embrace and enjoy the moment.
“We got a chance to accomplish one of our goals, which is to make it back to Boston,” Irving said. “We have another goal in front of us, and that’s to make it back to Dallas.”



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