The Boston Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks 106-88 on Monday to clinch their record 18th NBA championship.
After suffering humiliation from Dallas in a 38-point blowout in Game 4 on Friday, Boston ended any hope of a Mavericks comeback to seal a 4-1 series victory.
The Boston Celtics pulled away from their archrival Los Angeles Lakers and were left alone with 18 NBA titles.
The victory came 16 years after Boston’s last NBA Finals victory, over the Lakers, in 2008.
Jaylen Brown, who was named Finals MVP, contributed 21 points, while Jrue Holiday added 15 and Derrick White 14.
“It was a whole team effort,” said Brown, who averaged 20.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5.0 assists in five Finals games.
The loss marked a miserable end to the Finals for the Dallas duo of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, who had led the Western Conference’s fifth seeds on an improbable giant-killing trip to the NBA Finals.
Doncic, sensational during the Mavs’ Game 4 rout of the Celtics, finished with 28 points.
“I’m proud of every single player who stepped on the court, of all the coaches, of all the people behind it,” the defeated Doncic said afterward.
