The 2024 NBA Finals series between the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks was one of the more one-sided championship series in recent memory.
The Celtics won the series in a gentleman’s sweep, and the Mavericks’ only win came when they were already in an insurmountable 3-0 series hole (no team has come back from such a deficit in NBA playoff history).
However, despite the fact that the Celtics dominated much of the best-of-seven series, star Jaylen Brown — who took home Finals MVP honors — said that the Celtics were underdogs in that matchup.
“It was a good series,” Brown said. “We were the underdogs in that series. Every media outlet picked Dallas to win.”
While Brown might be being hyperbolic in claiming that every media outlet picked the Mavericks to beat the Celtics, there is truth to the notion that some people doubted the Celtics.
For example, 17 experts from ESPN gave their predictions on who would be crowned the 2024 NBA champions ahead of the start of the series, and nine of those folks chose the Mavericks to come out on top compared to eight picking the Celtics.
The ESPN expert picks are in, and for the first time this playoffs, the Celtics aren’t favored in a series.
9 votes for the Mavs, 8 votes for the Celtics
Finals MVP predictions: Jayson Tatum 8, Luke Doncic 7, Kyrie Irving 2
0 votes for Jaylen Brown pic.twitter.com/KS7s1y2ntn
— Noa Dalzell 🏀 (@NoaDalzell) June 6, 2024
At the same time, though, several writers over at Bleacher Report gave their series predictions leading up to the showdown as well, and every one of them picked Boston to win.
Perhaps Boston wouldn’t have won the best-of-seven series to capture its 18th title in franchise history so handily if not for the play of Brown on the NBA’s brightest stage.
With basketball immortality at stake, he averaged 20.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.6 steals per game, and he did an admirable job of guarding Luka Doncic as well.
While Brown was highly effective on both ends of the floor in the championship series, Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving didn’t play at the top of his game at all. He averaged 19.8 points per game on just 41.4 percent shooting from the field and 27.6 percent from 3-point range.
All in all, Brown cemented his place in Celtics history with his highly impactful play on both ends of the floor in the 2024 NBA Finals, and he could be in store for a career year in the coming 2025-26 season with forward Jayson Tatum down for the count with an Achilles injury.
