Boston, the capital and most populous city in Massachusetts, is home to the one and only Boston Celtics. The Boston Celtics, a once storied franchise, with some of the most iconic players in NBA history, continue to break records and set standards, being the only franchise with 18 Championships. Let’s talk about this amazing season the Celtics had that led them to their championship victory.
Now when talking about the success amongst Boston, we must speak about the failure, starting back in 2022. In the 2022 NBA Finals, Boston faced off against the Golden State Warriors in a best of 7 playoff series. June 2nd, 2022, game 1, the Celtics came out on top, the final score being 120-108, with center Al Horford scoring 26 points and small forward Jayson Tatum dishing out 13 assists, the Celtics lead the series 1-0.
June 5th, 2022, Golden State would answer game 2, with point guard Stephen Curry having 29 points, shooting guard Jordan Poole (former Warrior) scoring 17 points, small forward Andrew Wiggins and shooting guard Klay Thomson (former Warrior) both with 11 points. Golden State simply out-scored Boston in the third quarter, 35–14, and at the beginning of the 4th quarter, Golden State would go on a 6 point run, causing Boston to throw in the towel and empty the bench, securing a win for Golden State, 107-88.
The next two games of the series would go back and forth with Boston winning game 3 and Golden State winning game 4. Eventually, Golden State would beat Boston back to back, game 6 being the game where Boston’s fate would be sealed. Star player and NBA Finals MVP Stephen Curry, scored 34 points and the final score was 103–90. Golden State walked away with the Title going 4-2, leading Golden State to their 4th title in 8 years.
In a post-game interview with (former Celtic) Marcus Smart and Jayson Tatum, the two were asked, “What did you kind of learn about what it takes to get to this point over the past like two months and just kind of how slim the margin for error can be along the way?”
Jason Tatum replied, “It’s hard. It’s hard getting to this point, and it’s even harder, you know, getting over the hump and winning. It’s been a long journey and a long process, you know. That’s what I took from it, that it’s tough, and you know we gotta take it up another level to do what we want to do.”
Following the offseason, Boston would undergo a series of trades. On June 22, 2023, point guard Marcus Smart would be traded to the Memphis Grizzlies and, in turn, on June 23rd 2023, center, Kristaps Porziņģis gets traded to Boston and in the following months, on October 1st 2023, Boston would trade Robert Williams III and 2022-23 6th-Man-Of-The-Year, Malcolm Brogdon to the Trailblazers and in return Boston would receive, guard Jrue Holiday, from Milwaukee. With these trades, Boston would unlock the door to success in the coming season as though these two trades were the missing pieces of the puzzle.
At the beginning of the 2023-24 NBA season, Boston started off strong, going 5-0, with the starting lineup being Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday, Jason Tatum, and Kristaps Porziņģis. On Monday November 6th, 2023, Boston would go to battle with the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Timberwolves, being led by shooting guard Anthony Edwards with a whopping 38 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists, would eventually win in overtime 114-109 . Boston would then lose again against the Philadelphia 76ers 2 days later, 106-103. The Celtics would then go and win game after game, occasionally falling short here and there, but ended their season 64-18. Boston would become the first seed in the eastern conference and will head to the 2023-2024 NBA Playoffs.
April 21, 2024, the first round of the playoffs Boston would go against the Miami Heat. Game 1, the Celtics overall out-scored Miami in the 3rd quarter, 31-14. Jayson Tatum would secure his first career playoff triple double with 23 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists. Derrick white would score 20 points and 4 assists and 6 additional players score double digits, with this amazing performance the Boston Celtics will win game 1, 114-94. Heading into game 2, the Miami Heat shot the lights out of TD Garden, hitting a franchise playoff record of 23 3-pointers. Shooting guard Tyler Herro scored 24 points with a double- double draining 6 of Miami’s 23 3-pointers along with 14 assists, the Miami Heat will take game 2, 111-101. Game 4, Derrick White scored a career high of 38 points, going 8 for 15 from the 3-point line, Celtics would take this win, 102-88 but not with all excitement, Kristaps Porziņģis having a right calf injury in the first half, not being able to finish out the rest of game 4 or play in game 5. Furthermore , going into game 5, Jayson Tatum would achieve another double- double with 16 points and 12 rebounds, Jaylen Brown and Derrick White with 25 points a piece, Jrue Holiday with 18 and Sam Hauser, coming off the bench with 17 points. Boston wins 118-84 and advances to the semifinals.
Celtics go on to meet with the Cleveland Cavaliers in the semi finals, who would suffer the same fate as Miami. Boston wins game 1, 120-95, Cleveland wins game 2, 118-94 and Boston defeats them within the next 3 games to advance further into the Conference Finals where they’d absolutely wipe the floor with the Indiana Pacers going 4-0. Just like that, the Celtics advanced to the NBA Finals with Jaylen Brown winning the Eastern Conference Finals MVP.
With Boston simply dominating these teams and securing a ticket to the NBA Finals, certain headlines would start to appear, all with a repetitive term.
“Yes, the Celtics had the easiest path to the NBA Finals, but how much does it matter?” –
Headline of NYTimes, The Athletic.
“Are the Celtics enjoying the easiest path ever to an NBA Finals?” -Headline of sports outlet, Yahoo Sports.
“Do the Boston Celtics Have the Easiest Finals Path in NBA History?” – Headline of sports and pop culture outlet The Ringer.
The “easiest path” is what the Celtics’ success would be dumbed down to. Why? Because Boston missed most of the eastern conferences’ best players mostly due to injury, including Giannis Aantetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks, Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers, Donovan Mitchell and Jarrett Allen of the Cleveland Cavaliers, ect. In addition to that, these articles would also mention how the Dallas Mavericks would be the only fully healthy team that Boston would be facing when they face off in the Finals, and sports outlets made this fact known.
The Boston Celtics vs the Dallas Mavericks. Dallas’ starting lineup: Guards, Luka Dončić, Kyrie Irving, forwards, P.J. Washington, Derrick Jones Jr(now former Maverick) and center, Daniel Gafford. Starting for Boston: Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday, Jason Tatum, and Al Horford.
The NBA Finals. June 6, 2024. TD Garden, Boston Massachusetts. Game 1. Al Horford vs Daniel Gafford for the tip off and Boston gains first possession. Kristaps Porzingis, who had missed 10 games prior due to injury, came off the bench and into the game for Horford with a little over seven minutes left in the first quarter. The 7-footer made an immediate impact on both sides of the floor with 11 points, 2 blocks and 3 defensive rebounds to end the quarter, Boston leads, 37-20. Early in the second quarter Jaylen Brown would get all of TD Garden on their feet by absolutely posterizing Dallas Mavericks center, Daniel Gafford. The Celtics with good ball movement hit Brown in the corner for an open 3-pointer that he knocked down, the Mavericks then inbound the ball to Luka Doncic, who makes a move to get past Jaylen Brown but fails resulting in a steal for JB and another slam. Going into halftime, Boston keeps the lead, 63-42. Overall the Mavericks just couldn’t catch up and with a little over 3 minutes left, Celtics up 101-80, Boston empties out the bench. Successfully clutching their first victory. Luka Doncic’s 30 points and P.J Washington’s 14 was simply not enough for all 5 Celtics starters in the double digits with points and Kristaps Porzingis off the bench with 20 points. Final score 107-89. Boston leads the series 1-0.
Game 2 in TD Garden. The end of the third quarter, score is 80- 74 and Peyton Prichard subs himself into the game with 3.1 seconds left on the clock. Tatum inbounds the ball to Prichard and in a rush to get a shot off before the end of the quarter he pulls up from the logo and banks it in to put Boston into a new gear to finish out the game. Jrue Holiday finished with 28 points and 11 rebounds combined with Derrick White and his 18 points, Jason Tatum also with 18 points and 12 assists, and Jaylen Brown with 21. Securing his 10th career playoff double-double Luka Doncic finished with an impressive 32 points and 11 rebounds, despite his performance Boston will take game 2. Going into game 3 Boston would be a man down yet again with Kristaps Porzingis out with an injury sustained in game 2. The Cetics would push through and win, leading the series 3-0. Game 4 at home in Dallas, the Mavericks avoided a sweep with outstanding performances from Luka Doncic with 29 points and Kyrie Irving with 21. Dereck Lively II also supported with 11 points and 12 rebounds along with Tim Hardaway Jr. with 15 points going 5-7 from outside the arc Dallas takes game 4, 122-84.
TD Garden, game 5, June 17th, 2024. Emotions run high as Boston looks to close out the series and claim their spot in history as the franchise had not won a championship since 2008. As the game began the energy in TD Garden was at an all time high. From the tipoff to half time the Celtics never let their foot off the gas. With 4 seconds left in the second quarter, the Celtics lead 64-46 and Peyton Pritchard checks into the game. With a defensive rebound by Al Horford, he quickly gets the ball to Pritchard who takes a dribble and pulls up from behind the half court line and swishes it at the buzzer to end the half. At this point there is no stop to the Celtics momentum and in the last two quarters Boston and Dallas go head to head. However, the Mavericks couldn’t make up for the first half deficit. There were multiple contributing factors to the success of game 5 including Boston’s back court defensive players, Derrick White and Jrue Holiday, who combined for 29 points and 19 rebounds. Also, leading in points and assists for both teams, Jason Tatum scored an amazing 31 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and dished out 8 assists. Jaylen Brown scores 21 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals. Boston reaches the end of the road this time in a victory, beating the Dallas Mavericks, 106-88 to secure their 18th championship, the most in NBA history.
617, a number that is coincidentally the area code of Boston Massachusetts is also the date that the Boston Celtics have won 2 NBA championships. Would you call that lucky (Hint…Hint)?