BOSTON — The wait is finally over.
For the first time in 16 years, the Boston Celtics are champions of the NBA world.
The league’s best team all season long proved it once and for all, streaking to a wire-to-wire, 106-88 clincher over the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5 at TD Garden Monday night.
For head coach Joe Mazzulla, for the superstar duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, for Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, Kristaps Porzingis and certainly 38-year-old Al Horford, the exhausting and seemingly endless road it took to summit the proverbial mountain top was worth it.
All of the continuous criticism, the heartbreaking defeats and disappointing finishes — it was all part of the necessary journey.
The Celtics are the last team standing, and nobody can take that away from them.
“I think we learned. I think we learned from all of our mistakes,” said Jaylen Brown, who took home the Bill Russell Trophy (Finals MVP). “All of our adversity has made us stronger, made us tougher. All season you could see it.
“All of those experiences led to here,” he continued. “All of the moments where we cam up short, we felt like we let the city down, let ourselves down, all of that compiled is how we get to this moment.”
Boston’s performance in the title-clinching triumph was emblematic of their season as whole.
The Celtics played with pace and they played with poise. They defended at an extremely high level, holding a dangerous Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving-led Mavericks squad to under 100 points for the fourth time in five championship tilts.
The Celtics were aggressive, purposeful with their gameplan, unselfish and locked in from the jump. Behind a boisterous Garden crowd — one that never let up and stayed standing at their seats, cheering emphatically as confetti rained down and the Larry O’Brien Trophy was presented following the win — the Cs put the hammer down in the first quarter and never looked back.
And perhaps most importantly, everybody contributed.
This was a true team effort from top to bottom, something that defined their tight knit group throughout what is now arguably the greatest season in franchise history.
Tatum (31 points, 8 rebounds, 11 assists, 2 steals) — who probably deserved to win Finals MVP just as much as Brown — was relentless on the attack, keeping the Mavericks on their heels with his dribble penetration.
Brown wasn’t exactly efficient (7-for-23 from the floor for 21 points), but he hit key shots at key moments and was a complete dog on defense.
Holiday, a player who came to Boston last offseason and immediately served as a visible missing piece to the puzzle, was his usual versatile self: grind and compete on defense, pick his spots on offense and make the opponent pay with his sneaky strength and incredibly high IQ.
The majority of Holiday’s shots — he finished with 15 points and 11 boards — came in the painted area off dives to the hoop, both off ball and with the ball in his hands. The 6-foot-4 guard played like a burly wing, and that’s exactly what the Celtics needed.
White (14 points, 8 boards) knocked down four big triples and added one last highlight-reel block to a season full of swats, meeting 7-foot Mavs’ rookie Dereck Lively II at the rim. He had his faced smushed into the parquet by Lively at one point, too, chipping a tooth and swiftly bouncing to his feet, not missing a beat.
“Dove for the ball, Lively landed on me … I knew right away,” said White. “I’ve chipped it in the past, so it’s not new. They were trying stuff in the locker room (and) I was like, I don’t care. Just play.”
Even Porzingis gutted through a serious injury to contribute five points in 16 minutes. He probably shouldn’t have been out there, and may even need surgery when the dust settles. But he wasn’t missing this one.
“Tonight was the night. I was like, ‘Listen, I’m going to give it everything I have’,” said Porzingis. “I’m just super happy to be a part of this and give something to the team … I gave everything I could and man, it feels great to be a champion.”
Sam Hauser continued to light it up from distance, and even Payton Pritchard made an impact by drilling yet another half court heave to beat the second quarter buzzer and send both his teammates, and the Celtics’ crowd into a frenzy.
“Man that was beautiful,” said Horford, who broke a streak of 185 playoff games without a title. “He did that, and you take a glance at the other team, and it’s one of those that breaks your spirit. And then it just kind of fueled us.”
The Celtics got invaluable contributions up and down the roster all season long. Their depth shone through time and time again throughout a dominant 64-18 regular season, and it shone brightest throughout an equally imposing 16-3 postseason run.
The Celtics are NBA champions for a league-record 18th time, and realistically, they’re not going anywhere soon.
Nick Giannino covers the Boston Celtics for CNHI Sports Boston. Contact him at NGiannino@nobmg.com and follow along on Twitter/X @NickGiannino_GT.