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News, Blog and GuidesDallas and Luka Doncic could be forgiven for not looking forward to facing Boston after the two meetings between the teams in 2023/24.
Roddy ConsRoddyConsUpdate: Jun 1st, 2024 11:59 EDT0
David Butler IIUSA TODAY Sports via Reuters Con
The Dallas Mavericks will take on the Boston Celtics in the 2024 NBA Finals, with the series to get underway at TD Garden in Boston on Thursday 6 June. The Mavs are looking to win only their second even NBA Championship, although the Celtics are strongly fancied by most to win their 18th title, which would be a new record. A look at the two teams’ regular season record tells us why.
What were the Celtics’ and the Mavs’ overall regular-season records?
The Celtics boasted the best regular-season record in 2023/24 by some distance, winning 64 and losing only 18 of their 82 games. They posted a whopping 14 victories more than the New York Knicks, second best in the Eastern Conference, and won seven more than the Western Conference top seeds, the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Two of their 64 triumphs came against their upcoming opponents. With the Celtics and the Mavericks (50-32 in the regular season) in opposing conferences, they met only twice during the regular season, which is probably just as well for the Texans.
MAVERICKS. CELTICS. 🍿The #NBAFinals presented by @YouTubeTV are officially set!Game 1: Thursday, June 6th at 8:30pm/et on ABC pic.twitter.com/9U9ng7hAjr
— NBA (@NBA) May 31, 2024
Boston get the better of Dallas despite Doncic brilliance
Their first encounter came in Dallas on 23 January, with Boston prevailing 119-110 after strong second and third quarters, in which they outscored their opponents by 13 points. Jayson Tatum (39 points) and Jaylen Brown (34) both outscored Luka Doncic (33), who has the best points per game average in the league.
And the Mavericks will likely still be having nightmares about their most recent match-up against the Celtics, which took place in Boston on 2 March.
