The best-of-seven finals of the 2023/24 National Basketball Association (NBA) season is slated to begin next Thursday, June 6, fittingly at TD Garden in Boston, where the Celtics lost only four games in the regular season and two games in the play-offs. The Celtics, the only team to win 60-plus games this regular season, continued their impressive run into the postseason, winning 12 of their 14 games, including six wins by more than 15 points.

Boston will feature in the NBA Finals for the 23rd time in franchise history after they raced through their postseason fixtures, beating the Miami Heat (4-1), the Cleveland Cavaliers (4-1), before sweeping the Indiana Pacers (4-0) with a dramatic 105-102, Game 4 win on Monday (May 27). Indiana, playing at home, led by nine with 8:57 remaining, but surrendered a late lead for the third time in four games as the Celtics booked their spot in the finals, after last getting there in 2022 (losing 4-2 to the Golden State Warriors).

Reminiscent of Game 3 in the series, where Boston overcame an eight-point deficit with 2:38 left and registered a 114-111 victory in Indianapolis, the Pacers faltered miserably down the homestretch. They were without two-time All-Star Tyrese Haliburton for the two home games at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, and they could have used his contribution — 18.7 points, 8.2 assists and 4.8 rebounds in 15 play-off games — especially in the closing moments of those games.

Boston got 29 points from Jaylen Brown, who was named Eastern Conference Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP) — copping the prestigious Larry Bird Trophy — ahead of teammate Jayson Tatum (26 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists) who won the inaugural prize two years ago.

The Game 4 win came just hours after the death of franchise great Bill Walton was announced. Walton spent just two seasons in Boston but was an integral part of the 1986 championship team. Walton finished his career with two championships (the first one with the Portland Trail Blazers), a league MVP award, a Finals MVP award, a Sixth Man of the Year award, two All-Star appearances, two All-NBA Team nods (one First, one Second) and two All-Defensive First Team honours.

Walton, who was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993, had a stellar college career and was drafted by Portland in 1974. In his third season, he led the league in rebounding (14.4 per game) and blocks (3.2 per game), and the Trail Blazers won 49 games to make the play-offs for the first time in franchise history. They swept Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals, then beat Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers to win the title — the only title in the history of the Portland franchise.

In the Western Conference Finals, the Dallas Mavericks enjoyed a 3-0 lead in the series heading into Game 4 on Wednesday (May 28) and, from all indicators, a sweep of the Minnesota Timberwolves was in the cards: Dallas was at home, the dynamic duo of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving was finally clicking, Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns had been non-existent for the series, and Irving had never lost a close-out play-off game in his 13-year career (14-0 in such contests).

To make the scenario even more ominous, the Mavericks had come back in the final minutes to win their previous four games, beginning with their close-out Game 6 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder, and continuing into this series. Dallas outscored Minnesota by a 24-11 margin in the final three minutes of the three games played and, after dropping 33 points apiece in Game 3, Doncic and Irving became the first starting back court to each score at least 30 points in three games during a play-off run over the past 50 seasons.

Minnesota had their back against the ropes and had the looks of a heavyweight fighter in the 10th round, trying desperately to avoid a knockout. It appeared that Dallas would sweep and advance to the finals for the first time since claiming the title in 2011, but in a gutsy performance at American Airlines Center, Anthony Edwards had a series-high point total (29), along with team highs in rebounds (10) — equalling Rudy Gobert — and assists (9). More importantly, Towns regained his shooting touch and contributed with not only his points total, but the timeliness of his makes deflated the enthusiasm of the Dallas faithful, particularly in the closing minutes.

Towns averaged 15 points in the first three games of the series (scoring at 28 per cent) but had 25 points in Game 4 (scoring at 69 per cent). From three-point range, he shot three of 22 (13.6 per cent) for Games 1, 2 and 3, but was four of five for Game 4 (80 per cent).

Despite Doncic’s 28 points, with 15 rebounds and 10 assists — his sixth triple-double this postseason — there was no sweep for the Mavericks, and Irving’s blemish-free record in close-out games was tarnished. The Timberwolves avoided laying an egg, but the worrying fact is that no team had ever come back from a 0-3 deficit to win a series in the NBA’s extensive history.

Their performance was probably fuelled by the reported utterance of Irving during warm-ups for Game 4, who contextualised the situation saying, “This is their Super Bowl. It’s just a normal game for us”.

While it would have been said as a jest, Minnesota won their Super Bowl and a shift in defensive assignments by the Timberwolves, putting Edwards on Doncic and Jaden McDaniels on Irving, seemed to have had a significant impact.

The extension of the Western Conference Finals means more rest for the Celtics than their opponents and, with centre Kristaps Porzingis expected to return for the finals, Boston will enter next Thursday as favourites in what is expected to be a phenomenal closer for the season.

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NBA 2023/24 Champion

Team Odds

Boston Celtics 1.43

Dallas Mavericks 3.25

Minnesota Timberwolves 15.00

Note: Odds are subject to change