Worst NBA finals ever – Tim Legler on Boston Celtics win NBA Champs after beat Mavs 106-88 Game 5

Worst NBA finals ever – Tim Legler on Boston Celtics win NBA Champs after beat Mavs 106-88 Game 5

10688 Boston leading Dallas they’re all on their feet here at the Garden get ready to raise an 18th Banner Boston the Celtics are once again the winningest franchise in the history of the NBA it’s an 18th title for the Celtics the 2024 NBA champions here’s how that Banner was won after getting debacle on Friday night in Dallas Boston back home and the Celtics played with a passion and a purpose beautiful Sam Hower Drew holiday Jaylen Brown sees up three this a six-point game and this really in many ways was the story of this series the ends of quarters and halves off the steel alyo Brown Gathers puts it back in then an a rip Jason Tatum in traffic to layup good and the lead was one and now it’s 10 after a quarter C’s now up a dozen Tatum one two three the hard way Garden going nuts the lead is 15 back to nine Al Horford gathers strong old man strength gathers and puts it back the lead is thir 13 again defense that turns to offense poor Derek white gets his head conked on the ground lost part of his tooth I don’t even want to look at this Derek Lively lands on him he chipped his tooth but maybe worth the trade for white perhaps he’d say as they got the steel in the bucket under 20 seconds to go in the half all three of these white has the Celtics up 18 then it’s Tatum step back 16 and N in the first half and then the final seconds of the half off the Mist Payton priter half court specialist this was Bucket from the second that it left his fingertips got the steps right got it lined up Pritchard the garden Seas fans everywhere going crazy here’s how it’s sounded here’s Pritchard he loves these puts it up half court the buzzer bang Pritchard at the buzzer with a three-pointer he’s done it again but there is a God there is a God and his name is Richard Cedric Maxwell on the Seas radio network then it’s true holiday to Tatum down low to 21-point lead then it’s brown the Gib to Drew and the Celtics are in complete control late third Brown comes off the screen bottoms just a matter of by how many would the final margin be Tatum white again Boston hit 13 threes as white had 14 points Tatum again draws the foul under five to go Tatum 31 eight rebounds 11 assists Kyrie would check out with a couple minutes to go went over to the Seas bench dapped up players assistants and what have you and the emotion on both sides evid as the confetti Falls Tatum with sun Deuce Al Horford his first NBA championship Jaylen Brown the finals MVP and Joe missula a smile on his face it’s a serious cat but the race is finished the job is done and Celtics has advertised Tatum becomes the fifth player in NBA finals history with a 30o 10 assist game to clinch a title joins an exclusive list occupied by Walt Clyde Frasier James Worthy Michael Jordan Stephen Curry it was just the second time in his career he scored 30 with 10 assists and he’s played in over 600 games he visited with Leisa Salters after the title was secure oh my God it’s a surreal feeling we did it we did it oh my God we did it so much emotion we saw you feeling it all when you came out of the game just can you can you try to describe just what you were [Applause] feeling man first of all God is the greatest not cuz we won but to put me in positions to maximize my god-given ability to surround me with these guys my family this is an incredible feeling I’m lost to words I’m sorry how did what happened in game four just how did that impact the way you guys came out here tonight we responded all year and this was no different and we owed our crowd our fans it’s been a long it’s been a long journey it’s been a long journey Jason the expectations all season long have just been so so much it could have smothered you guys Why didn’t it we have a resilient group we’ve been through a lot as a team over this last couple years over my seven years what they going to say now what they going to say now how much how much did you guys want this for Al bad we know he he don’t have much time left out here as my favorite teammate of all time they got it he paved the way for a lot of us and it means the world to to share as well congratulations you’re a champion thank a lot baked into that understandably Tim legler is alongside in the fight game you throw a FL punches to end round maybe you can steal around I’m not saying that Tatum would have stolen the MVP but 31- 11 in a in a Finals game what is the fact that brown won the MVP tell you before I answer that I want to say first of all how happy I am for Jason Tatum and what he just said about Al Al Horford Al Horford has been one of my personal favorite players in the league in his generation both of those guys are Role Models they’re professionals they’re exemplary Pros in every way on and off the court they deserve this moment so I’m happy for both of those guys okay answer your question about what separated them I thought it was really tight neck and neck you know depending how on how tonight played out they both played pretty well I thought Tatum’s offensive burst may have may have been the Tipping Point here’s what that vote tells me there was a lot of stock put into Jaylen Brown’s defense in this series because he got Luka a lot more of this series than Jason Tatum did and I thought jayen Brown impacted him he also had one of the bigger moments in this series we didn’t get a lot of drama late two-point game and he hit the shot game three in Dallas Jaylen Brown after Dallas cut that lead and it was a two-point game Jaylen Brown’s the one to hit that mid-range jumper that got them that win that really prevented any real anxiety from setting into this series for the Boston Celtics so I think it was neck and neck could have gone either way I am not surprised it was Jaylen Brown because I think his defense was the Tipping Point for him largely Luca scored big Kyrie did not and we talked a little bit about it early I want to dive in a little deeper just I’m not asking you to to to play uh psychiatrist here for the man because that’s not it’s not our job but just in terms of what he was and was not able to provide on the floor it is it possible that perhaps Boston being there and that crowd in that building impacted him in ways he didn’t anticipate there is no question about it and he even admitted it which really surprised me going into this game he had some sound yesterday he kind of pulled the curtain back a little bit and he used the term self-doubt that he had to eliminate the self-doubt you rarely hear anything like that from a player of this caliber and a player that’s as confident that that’s been so good on big stages at other times in his career but Scott the bottom line is in games one and two I thought he was very indecisive it clearly was affecting him um he never got into Rhythm recovered played well in Dallas got back to this moment you’re wondering okay well now you’ve got some Rhythm can you can that travel with you back to Boston very quiet again did not score in the first quarter of this game and that game I thought really got away from Dallas uh at the end of that first quarter when when Boston went on a little bit of a run and here you go end of the first quarter you’re down 10 Kyrie has not injected himself into this game at all so three of the five games played in Boston Kyrie Irving far below his best in all three of those games you like Dallas in this series and it wasn’t particularly close in the end I I don’t want to frame it like what’ you miss but what were you anticipating that didn’t materialize for the Mavericks in the finals going into this and I said that that for me the determining factor in the series well of course obviously you’re expecting the Stars to play great so that has to be they had all all playoffs to be a given Kyrie and luk were both going to play great offensively but for me it was Dallas’s defense against Boston Dallas’s defense was so good for the last three months of the season so good when they needed to be throughout most of the postseason they just did not have an answer to slow this team down they could not defend them in isolation or ball screen or switches too much penetration which caused a lot of miscommunications on their rotations trying to protect guys and cover for guys Scott when you go over defensively where you you want to send the ball it then you can map out where your help’s going to come from and where the slides come from and everything’s kind of a plan when you’re constantly getting beat to either side all night long and all series long that means now you’re really counting on two players being able to communicate in the moment because this is not the way we practice our defense and it just became a fire drill for Dallas too often too many possessions and they made too many mistakes Boston’s got too much talent when you do that so ultimately if we walk ourselves backwards from the final where Dallas loses to Boston they were able to beat Minnesota because that that was a favorable match up for them Minnesota was able to beat Denver because it was a favorable match up for them and it’s just I mean whether it’s the NCAA tournament or the NBA Finals ultimately this sport comes down to matchups and Boston’s a hell of a difficult matchup I think right now for anybody aren’t they no no question and and one thing that really came to the four in this in this series was the way that they can make you play when they move the ball beyond the first pass out of any action and Joe moula has alluded to this throughout the series you saw again tonight particularly in that first half the way that Jason Tatum played and they’d run an action it’d come out and then it would be a secondary action where they’re going to force you now to play multiple effort defense on the same possession and Dallas’s was not up to the task for the most part in this series they could not figure out how to guard them it’s going to be a great learning experience for them reflective experience for them and we’re going to see how much and how willing Luca donic Kyrie Irving and this group are to lay it on the line over the summer to come back better clearly they’re going to add try to add pieces but this is a learning experience for them they went up against a team that just was better really in every way in this series yeah there’s such a tendency for the team that loses in the finals to have it turn into somehow they somehow they were lousy I mean there was just so much to love about what Dallas did and what they accomplished to get to this point and as you say they’re led by a 25y old guy there’s plenty to learn from and and we’ll see what uh what comes next for them what comes L and the Mavs this year to the finals but they come up short Luca asked after this loss what was going through his head said we lost no specific Luka you know now that the series is over uh how how how much were you hurting it doesn’t matter if I was hurt uh how much was I hurt uh I was out there uh try to play uh but I didn’t do enough let’s go Tim in the front Luke obviously it’s fresh right now but so much has changed with this organization since the end of last season um you know your first Finals appearance how do you feel about kind of the the state of the franchise now and and the opportunities going into the future for this uh this group I feel great uh we did some great moves uh um I would say you know we’ve been together for 5 months uh I’m I’m proud of any of every every guy that St on the floor all the coaches all the people behind uh obviously we didn’t win finals but uh we did have a hell of a season and I’m proud of every one of them third r on the right Eddie look uh what did uh the uh Celtics defense do that made things so difficult for you guys to score uh they were physical a lot they have great Defenders but they just it was not more one-on-one or help or closing out what just everything they’re a great team that’s what they do uh there’s a quick turnaround time before the Olympic qualifying tournament uh what do you uh I want to talk about what’s next man I have some decisions some decisions to make uh just trying to get a little bit he healthier uh we’ll talk we have interviews in two days right uh so I’ll give you an answer that any other questions Steve right behind you Steve asmer nba.com Luca what do you take away from this that will help your team get back here next year ideally and and win it next time is there any particular takeaways from being in the finals uh right now I don’t I don’t really know that’s not what I’m thinking but you know uh they’re a great team they’ve been together for a long time uh and they had to go through everything uh so we just got to look at them uh see how they play uh maturity and they have some great players you know we can all learn from that and you know we got to fight next season Mike in the front Mike Curtis Dallas Morning News Luke I saw you and Kyrie had a moment of embrace there at the end of the game just interested what can you share about the conversations you guys had just uh stay together man uh I think uh just having Kai on on my team I mean on our team is unbelievable I know uh just helping you know we said we’ll fight together next season uh and we’re just going to believe any other questions excellent that’s a wrap on it was an excellent season 12

Worst NBA finals ever – Tim Legler on Boston Celtics win NBA Championship after beat Mavs 106-88 Game 5