16 years after their last triumph, on the night between Monday and Tuesday in Italy, the Boston Celtics became NBA champions again. Compared to the 2008 team, the current one has a decidedly greener imprinting – keeping faithful to the colors of the franchise – given that the two cornerstones of the team coached by the very young coach Mazzulla (so to speak, the centre Horford is older), Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatumare two talents chosen in the draft by the Celtics eight and seven years ago respectively.
The road that led Boston to the eighteenth title in its history, setting a new record that until this season saw it tied with eternal rivals Los Angeles (Lakers side, obviously), was rather linear to the extent that – with the arrival of the two J’s – we entered into a winning cycle in all respects in terms of seasonal balance sheets which were followed by several rather interesting races in the post season but which, for one reason or another, had always stopped at last mile.
Without going too far back in time, in 2022 the Celtics reached the Finals where Steph Curry’s Golden State Warriors were waiting for them destined to finally win his first Finals MVP title, surrounded by a new supporting cast in addition to the usual standard-bearer duo of Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.
Last year, however, the road to success was interrupted by the Miami Heat led by Jimmy Butler who in a memorable game 7 of the conference finals sanctioned yet another stop to the green and whites, however allowing the management to begin fixing the missing pieces for the season that would have started a few months later.
As often happens, even from defeats you have to know how to get the best and that’s what I do Celtics have been able to do it starting with Brad Stevenswith his recent role as absolute number 1 after his time on the team’s bench.
So we at Info Data have decided to give our usual numerical contribution by taking a look at the register of champions to see which are the most successful teams.
In the following graph, by interacting with the icons of the teams (traced back to the current franchises or indicated with a generic basketball for those that have effectively disappeared) it is possible to update the details of the reference season compared to those initially expected for 2024 .
Boston’s path during the recent playoffs was seen by many as a sort of health walk, especially on the Eastern conference front having – in fact – faced clashes largely within the reach of the green and whites, meeting in that order the Miami Heat, distant relatives of those last year (4-1), then the Cleveland Cavaliers (4-1) and finally the Indiana Pacers who were swept (4-0) as they say in jargon.
Filing the East practice in just fourteen races, the Celtics were able to rest a few days more than the other finalists who instead had a slightly more tortuous journey to make their way to the West.
In fact i Slovenian star Luka Doncic’s Dallas Mavericks found the Los Angeles Clippers (4-2), the Oklahoma City Thunder (4-2) and the surprising Minnesota Timberwolves (4-1) on their path who had just managed to unexpectedly eliminate the reigning champions Denver.
Having reached the last act of the season, the field factor was fully respected in the first two games of the Finals with Boston taking a 2-0 lead even if in fact there was never a total feeling of omnipotence as demonstrated by the discards finals always within eight points.
With the series moved to Dallas, in game 3 there was the real turning point given that despite the advantage accumulated in the first part of the game, the Celtics saw themselves comeback until they had only one full possession advantage at the end of the game a race which, however, saw the most awaited protagonist of all lose on the most beautiful stage.
With about four minutes to play, Luka Doncic commits his sixth foul which takes him out of the hottest phase of the match against the Mavericks in full run-up and clearly supported by the home crowd.
Getting with your back against the wall for game 4 ensured that the fourth act of the final series was an exclusive monologue signed by Dallas, closing the match with an overwhelming +38 (122-84) which will also end up marking the only occasion in which the future champions failed to score at least one hundred points and which instead turned out to be the only performance above the same mark for Doncic & co.
For the last chapter it was staged again at the TD Garden in Boston and, despite yet another triple double from Luka Magic (28+12+12), there was effectively no competition with the hosts already ahead by 21 points at half-time, also driven by a Jayson Tatum finally on his right level, author of 31 points accompanied by eleven assists and eight rebounds.
Curtain therefore on the season and white and green confetti on the parquet of what has once again become the most successful team in the history of the NBA, leaving only one last question as to who would then receive the nomination of MVP of the Finals.
Of the eleven who voted for the award, the jury was divided 7-4 in favor of Jaylen Brown against the other 50% of the J’s, namely the aforementioned Tatum.
At the beginning of the season this epilogue might have sounded a little strange given how last season ended in the unedifying Game 7 against the Miami Heat in which – to put it mildly – Brown hadn’t really shone, joining us only after the signing of the maxi-contract signed in the summer which made him the highest paid player in the league, the first suspicious glances had already started among the insiders.
And instead, despite not having managed to be included in one of the top three ideal quintets of the regular season (while Jayson Tatum was nominated in the first), Brown gained the double satisfaction of being awarded both the title of MVP of the conference Finals (award named, coincidentally, after Larry Bird) and the much more coveted title of MVP of the Finals, thanks above all to greater consistency during all five final matches.
And if individual awards are important, even if up to a certain point, what seems decidedly indisputable is the unity that has characterized the entire Celtics roster who – thanks to their decidedly close-knit pair of aces (they exchanged honeyed words during all the interviews) – they find in their hands a potential quintet that does not fear comparisons with anyone (especially with the additions of Holiday and Porzingis in the last off-season) already equipped with a culture that starts from the past and that with the victory of this year sees them as number one favorites for next year.
So for a few months, we’ll take a break from NBA basketball and we’ll see each other again at the end of October at the starting line for the 2024/25 season.
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