
Celtics win record 18th NBA championship with Game 5 rout of Mavericks
NY Post
BOSTON — The Boston Celtics again stand alone among NBA champions.
Jayson Tatum had 31 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds as the Celtics topped the Dallas Mavericks 106-88 on Monday night to win the franchise’s 18th championship, breaking a tie with the Los Angeles Lakers for the most in league history.
Boston earned its latest title on the 16th anniversary of hoisting its last Larry O’Brien Trophy in 2008. It marks the 13th championship won this century by one of the city’s Big 4 professional sports franchises.
Jaylen Brown added 21 points and was voted the NBA Finals MVP. Jrue Holiday finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Center Kristaps Porzingis also provided an emotional lift, returning from a two-game absence because of a dislocated tendon in his left ankle to chip in five points in 17 minutes.
It helped the Celtics cap a postseason that saw them go 16-3 and finish with an 80-21 overall record. That .792 winning percentage ranks second in team history behind only the Celtics’ 1985-86 championship team that finished 82-18 (.820).
Second-year coach Joe Mazzulla, at age 35, also became the youngest coach since Bill Russell in 1969 to lead a team to a championship.

Cade Cunningham, almost inarguably the best player in the East this season, is likely out for the remainder of the regular season. That’s the word out of Detroit following the depressing news that Cunningham punctured a lung when he took a knee to his side Tuesday from Washington’s Tre Johnson while chasing a loose ball.

Wednesday was another positive day at Yankees camp. For the first time since March 6, 2025 — an outing in which he knew “something wasn’t right,” which began a weeks-long saga that ended on the operating table for Tommy John surgery — Gerrit Cole was back on a mound and facing hitters in game action.











