The Boston Celtics were the best team throughout the regular season and are now looking to make history in this year’s NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks.
Meanwhile, the Mavericks can create their own history by becoming the first No. 5 seed to win a championship and have one of the NBA’s most dynamic players, Luka Doncic.
“In the playoffs, it’s first to four,” Doncic said this postseason. “You have to win four before they do so you have to go game by game. We play as a team. We win as a team. We lose as a team.”
However, Boston carries all of the momentum into the Finals. The Celtics earned the top seed after going an NBA-best 64–18 in the regular season. The Celtics have now gone 12–2 in the postseason, winning their seven consecutive games.
The Celtics swept the season series against the Mavericks, winning 119–110 on Jan. 22 in Dallas, and 138–110 on March 1 in Boston.
One of the major storylines of the series is Mavericks star Kyrie Irving competing against his former team.
Irving appreciated his time in Boston despite the challenges and learned some valuable lessons about growing as a person.
“I think I’m better at consolidating my emotions now or being aware of what it’s going to be like. We call it animosity, we call it hate, we call it—it’s going to be hell in Boston. There are real-life circumstances going on in the world that are bigger than the basketball, the competitive side of things, and answering those questions.”
The Celtics have not backed down from the lofty expectations as the No. 1 seed in this year’s NBA playoffs. They are returning to the Finals for the second time in three years, but are looking for their first title since 2008.
The Celtics learned some valuable lessons after being bounced from the playoffs as the No. 2 seed last season when they were upset by the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Boston players have used that disappointing performance as motivation this year.
“We feel like we’re a different team than we were last year and the year before that,” said Boston guard Jaylen Brown, who won the Larry Bird Trophy as Eastern Conference finals MVP. “I know everybody wants to continue to kind of pigeonhole us to what was happening in the past but we’ve had a different team every single year, different coaches, we’ve had like three coaches in the last five years. And still people want to make it seem like it’s the same, it’s the same, it’s the same.”
The Celtics might be the NBA’s most complete team and they have been led by All-Star Jayson Tatum, who averaged 26.9 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 4.9 assists in the regular season.
Jrue Holiday, who signed a four-year, $135 million contract extension, leads Boston’s defense. In his first season in Boston, Holiday was the starting point guard, taking the place of Marcus Smart, and averaged 12.5 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 4.9 assists.
Holiday and Derrick White were All-Defensive selections this past season.
The Mavericks were coming off a mostly successful regular season where they were 50–32. However, Dallas got hot in the playoffs and is now looking for its second NBA championship in franchise history after capturing the title in 2011.
The Mavericks look to Doncic, a five-time NBA All-Star when they need a big play or pivotal run. This often frustrates their opponents, who sometimes become overly physical with Doncic and try to get him into foul trouble.
This past season, Doncic finished third to Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic and Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Doncic earned 566 total points and four first-place votes after averaging a league-high 33.9 points, 9.8 assists, and 9.2 rebounds in 70 games. He shot 48.7 percent from the floor, 38.2 percent from beyond the arc, and 78 percent from the free-throw line.
At age 24, Doncic still has plenty of time to add accolades to his trophy case. Doncic holds career averages of 28.7 points, 8.7 rebounds, 7.3 assists over 400 games.
A championship would add to his already growing legacy.
