It's been a long time coming: the Boston Celtics are NBA Champions after 16 years!

For decades, the Boston Celtics were the NBA's most trophy-laden franchise, but the Los Angeles Lakers started to catch up with them at the beginning of this century and leveled with them four years ago. Since then, they have been tied for the number of titles (17), but this morning, things fell into place again.

Jayson Tatum produced a dazzling 31-point display as the Boston Celtics dominated the Dallas Mavericks 106-88 to clinch a record-breaking 18th NBA championship crown on Monday.

Humbled by Dallas in a 38-point game four drubbing on Friday, Boston slammed the door on any chance of a Mavericks fightback to seal a 4-1 series victory at an electric TD Garden.

Tatum spearheaded a superb performance at both ends of the floor as Boston pulled clear of their arch-rival Lakers to stand alone with 18 NBA titles.

The emphatic win came 16 years to the day after Boston's last NBA Finals win - over the Lakers - in 2008.

"Oh my God. It's a surreal feeling. We did it," a jubilant Tatum exclaimed after the triumph. "We did it - oh my God, we did it!"

"This is an incredible feeling. I'm lost for words. I'm sorry."

Jaylen Brown, who was named Finals Most Valuable Player, gave Tatum scoring support with 21 points, while Jrue Holiday added 15 and Derrick White 14.

"It was a full team effort," said Brown, who averaged 20.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5.0 assists in five Finals games, as he accepted the Finals MVP trophy named for Celtics legend Bill Russell.

The defeat marked a miserable end to the finals for Dallas duo Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, who had led the Western Conference fifth seeds on an improbable giant-killing journey to the NBA Finals.

Doncic, sensational during the Mavs' game four rout of the Celtics, finished with 28 points.

"I'm proud of every guy that stepped on the floor, all the coaches, all the people behind," defeated Doncic said afterwards.

"Obviously, we didn't win the Finals, but we did have a hell of a season and I'm proud of every one of them."

Asked what was going through his mind, Doncic replied: "Nothing. Sad we lost."

Irving scored a meagre 15 points while being taunted with chants of "Kyrie sucks!" by Celtics fans still rankled by his departure from the team in 2019.

Irving however was able take positives from the defeat, noting that Dallas boast a young core with plenty of room for improvement.

"We got to the top of the mountain and we failed, so now we have to start at the bottom, and that should be inspiring," Irving said.

"I see an opportunity for us to really build our future in a positive manner where this is almost like a regular thing for us, and we're competing for championships."

Top-seeded Boston meanwhile reasserted their superiority in convincing fashion after their game four blowout, leading by double digits from late in the second quarter until the final buzzer.

The Celtics laid the foundations for victory with a controlled first-half performance that saw them open up a 67-46 lead at the break.

Payton Pritchard put the seal on a superb first two quarters for Boston, launching a mammoth buzzer-beating three-pointer from near half-court that gave the Celtics a 21-point advantage.

Boston had been swiftly into their groove early on, building a 9-2 advantage in the first quarter with their swarming defense never allowing Dallas to build any kind of rhythm.

After Boston took a 13-5 advantage the Mavs rallied to narrow the gap to two points at 17-15, but Boston's defense reclaimed the initiative soon afterwards.

Two quick steals from Tatum and Sam Hauser allowed the Celtics to pull away to 28-18 at the end of the first quarter.

Boston's defense gave no respite to Irving and Doncic, restricting Dallas's stars to just 14 points between them in the first quarter.

By contrast, Tatum and Brown threatened to over-run the Mavs defense.

There was no let-up from Boston after the restart, with Holiday's cutting layup putting Boston 26-points clear at 78-52 early in the third quarter.

There were flickers of a Dallas recovery in the latter stages of the third quarter, but Boston remained in control to lead by 19 heading into the final period.

With the TD Garden roaring them on, there was never any chance the Celtics would be denied and Boston continued to find mismatches to score freely and retain a comfortable double-digit advantage to close out the win.

Brown also delivered a strong defensive effort against Doncic, the regular-season scoring leader.

"I share this with my brothers and my partner in crime Jayson Tatum - he was with me the whole way so we share this together," Brown said.

The Celtics claimed their first title since 2008. They had reached the finals in 2022 only to come up short against the Golden State Warriors and last season they agonizingly failed to get back to the championship series, falling to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals.

On a mission this season, the Celtics won a league-leading 64 regular-season games.

They swept the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals - Brown earning MVP honors in that series, too.

Brown, in the first year of a mammoth five-year, $286 million contract extension with the Celtics, earned his third All-Star nod, but it was Tatum, not Brown, most often pointed to as the team's top star.

Snubbed for All-NBA honors and by selectors for the US Olympic basketball team for Paris, Brown now has the honor he really craved - an NBA title - and the Finals MVP to go with it.

Brown, who was taken third overall in the 2016 draft, shared a long, heartfelt embrace with Tatum as the final moments of the 106-88 clinching victory ticked off.

Brown said he'd left doubts from previous playoff misses go this season.

"I never hung my head," he said.

NBA FINALS

Tuesday

Boston Celtics 106 - Dallas Mavericks 88

Celtics win series 4-1

© Agence France-Presse