The Boston Celtics are the new NBA champions.
The C's eliminated the Dallas Mavericks with a 106-88 win in Game 5 of the 2024 NBA Finals on Monday night at TD Garden. Boston has now won 18 championships, which moves it ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers for the most titles in league history.
The Celtics had been knocking on the door of a championship for quite a while, but until this year, they kept coming up a little bit short. Those previous failures resulted in a lot of hot takes being thrown around.
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The takes surrounding the 2023-24 Celtics were pretty hilarious in hindsight. This group's ability to perform in the clutch was questioned. People said Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum didn't play well together and wouldn't win a title in Boston. Head coach Joe Mazzulla received plenty of criticism, too. One prominent talking head even compared the C's to the Buffalo Bills.
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Here's a roundup of some notable predictions and hot takes about this year's Celtics team, with most of them coming right before the Finals matchup versus the Mavs.
We'll start with the Celtics' own video: