Celtics win record 18th championship after Game 5 win over Mavericks
Yahoo Sports' Jason Fitz reacts to the Boston Celtics winning an NBA record 18th championship by beating the Dallas Mavericks 106-88 in Game 5.
Video Transcript
We are, the champions, is playing nonstop in Boston as the Celtics absolutely dominate the Mavericks 106, 88.
And as a result, they will hoist the Larry o'brien trophy as your NBA champions.
They win this thing four games to one in the gentlemen sweep, but it's significant for the Celtics as a franchise, why it's their 18th title, which means they now pass the Lakers for the most titles of any franchise in NBA history.
But maybe this is even more significant because it's a narrative changing championship all year.
We've been hearing the Celtics will choke because that's what they always do throughout the course of the playoffs.
It's been, well, the strength of schedule hasn't really been that difficult.
They've managed to have easy opposition, they will eventually get tested and they'll fold.
None of that is what happened.
It changes some of that narrative.
It also changes the narrative around Jason tatum.
Tatum becomes the first Celtic to have at least 20 points, 10 boards and five assists in a finals game since Larry Bird did it in 1986.
My guy was absolutely dominant and remember it wasn't that long ago.
That shows everywhere were telling you that the Celtics should break up their tandem that after 100 and seven playoff games together without a championship, there was no way that Brown and Tatum could get it done.
What do we see in this game?
We saw the very benchmark has become Celtics basketball quality shooting, particularly from the outside and great defense.
We saw the superstar rise up to be exactly who he needed to be.
And we saw the Celtics a team with depth find a way to win a championship in dominating form and reminding us throughout the process that as much as we become obsessed with the right now, sometimes trusting the process can work.
And this time it brought the Celtics a championship.