Well, That Was Easy - Celtics Roll the Mavs in Game 5
The Celtics may have just pulled off one of the most anticlimactic yet monumental NBA Finals victories in basketball history—well, aside from the Laker’s 2020 championship.
The Celtics organization has a certain mystique to it. It’s a legacy franchise known for its historic dominance in the league. The Celtics have now won 18 NBA titles, surpassing the Lakers as the most.
The Legacy’s Lost Luster
The problem is, most of that success was a long, long time ago. The organization has been somewhat of an oxymoron for the last 15 years, having a strong history to lean on but nothing noteworthy as of late. The Celtics’ last chip came back in 2008, prior to the initialization of the LeBron era in the Eastern Conference, and prior to that…it was 1986.
They’ve been an irony, and suffice it to say, Celtics haters have had plenty to jaw about, and die-hards have as well.
The team has gone through consistent, cyclical bouts of relative success in recent years, managing to remain competent even during rebuilds thanks to wise management and ownership guidance, but…they never made it over the hump.
Now that LeBron is in the Western Conference (and also basically 40), the Celtic’s window has officially opened up, and they’ve jumped out.
Putting it All Together
The Celtics put together a star-studded roster through organic means—the draft. Although it took several years to pan out, it’s hard to complain about the outcome. It takes time for young stars to get to a championship level of play, and winning your first title at ages 26 (Tatum) and 27 (Brown) isn’t anything to scoff at.
When you combine that with the edition of invaluable veterans like Horford and White and the tertiary star power of someone like KP, it’s difficult not to see why this finals run was so easy for them, losing only three games across their four series.
What Happened to Dallas?
Dallas’s dynamic duo of Kyrie and Luka looked great throughout the entire playoffs, making it seem like this relatively short-staffed team could get it done regardless—these two are just that good.
They made light work of a budding, valiant, but ultimately premature Timberwolves team that ran out of steam, but ultimately, their lack of depth became a problem against a Celtics team with plenty of help.
The Celtics won each game in this series by an average of 12.5 points and only lost three games throughout the playoffs—we can’t blame the Mavs too much for running into a threshing machine.
Changing The Narrative
Going forward, fans will be focused on a few key things.
Tatum’s potential and how highly ranked a player he is. He defied the “Kyle Kuzma with aura” allegations, averaging basically 22, 8, and 7 throughout the series despite having a couple of “mid” performances.
What the Celtics will do about their likely salary cap problems, if they’ll manage to keep all of their role players, and…Al Horford is getting a bit old. So basically, the typical problems a Finals champion is faced with.
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