2023-24 NBA Finals

Result

Games

Finals MVP

Jaylen Brown. Brown won Finals MVP, averaging 20.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 5.0 assists across the series, edging out co-star Jayson Tatum for the honor.

Series context

The 2023-24 NBA Finals matched the top-seeded Boston Celtics, who posted a league-best 64-18 regular season record, against the fifth-seeded Dallas Mavericks, led by Luka Doncic and a resurgent Kyrie Irving following a midseason trade to acquire him. Boston entered as heavy favorites and validated that status early: in Game 1 at TD Garden, Kristaps Porzingis returned from injury to score off the bench and Jaylen Brown added a big game as the Celtics won 107-89 despite 30 points from Doncic. Game 2 saw Jrue Holiday lead Boston in a 105-98 win; Doncic recorded a triple-double, but Irving struggled offensively and Dallas fell to a 2-0 series deficit. The series shifted to Dallas for Game 3, where Tatum and Brown combined for a huge scoring total and Brown's decisive mid-range jumper with just over a minute remaining sealed a 106-99 Celtics win, despite a big night from Irving. The Mavericks avoided a sweep in dramatic fashion in Game 4, blowing out Boston 122-84 in one of the largest margins of victory in Finals history, with Doncic scoring heavily by halftime and Tim Hardaway Jr. hitting several three-pointers in the fourth quarter alone. Boston closed out the championship back home in Game 5, with Tatum posting a strong all-around line as the Celtics led throughout, building a big advantage at one stage, in a 106-88 clinching win. The championship was Boston's 18th in franchise history, breaking a tie with the Los Angeles Lakers and giving the Celtics sole possession of the most titles in NBA history, as well as the franchise's first championship since 2008. The Tatum-Brown duo, together for eight seasons and long criticized for falling short in prior playoff runs, finally validated their partnership with a title, aided by a deep, retooled roster featuring Porzingis, Holiday, Derrick White, and Al Horford. For Dallas, the run confirmed Doncic's status as one of the league's most dominant offensive engines and demonstrated the impact of pairing him with a healthy, aggressive Irving after a rocky start to their partnership following Irving's controversial 2023 trade from Brooklyn. Porzingis's health defined much of the series' behind-the-scenes drama: he had suffered a soleus strain in the first round, missed the next two rounds entirely, and returned for Game 1 after 38 days out, contributing 20 points, six rebounds, and three blocks off the bench, before aggravating the injury in Game 2, sitting out Game 3, and returning to a standing ovation in the Game 5 clincher. The series also produced some of the most lopsided scoring stretches in Finals history: Boston's 37-20 first-quarter lead in Game 1 was the largest opening-quarter margin in any Finals Game 1, and Dallas's Game 4 rout carried the third-largest victory margin in Finals history, built on the fourth-largest halftime lead ever recorded in the round. National viewership was comparatively modest, with Game 1 drawing the smallest Finals-opener audience since 2007 outside the pandemic-affected years, even as Boston's championship parade drew a crowd estimated at more than one million people.

Sources

• Wikipedia - 2024 NBA Finals
• Basketball-Reference - 2024 NBA Finals
• NBA.com - Celtics' Kristaps Porzingis misses Game 3 with left leg injury
• NBA.com - Kristaps Porzingis available for Game 4, Celtics-Mavericks 2024 NBA Finals