Basketball On The Internet.

AS anticipated, the Boston Celtics once again are the champions of the NBA, their 106-88 win on Monday night over the Dallas Mavericks the 18th championship for the Celtics, the most for any NBA franchise, reports BOB CRAVEN from  the US.

It also broke a tie on 17 championships with the Celtics' arch rivals the Los Angeles Lakers. 

The win also marked the 16th anniversary of the last Boston title and seemed to prove that the Celtics were just sandbagging in Game Four of the series when they were blown out in Dallas.

The implication was they were content to go back to Boston for Game 5 and win it in front of the home fans.

The Celtics blew out to a 21-point lead by halftime and just coasted in from there. 

Jayson Tatum led Boston with a line of 31-11-8, and Jalen Brown added 21 points, eight rebounds and six assists and also was voted the NBA Finals MVP, his defensive work on Mavs superstar Luka Doncic likely the deciding factor.

Jrue Holiday finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds, and for the second time in the series, backup guard Payton Pritchard threw in a buzzer beater, this one from beyond the half court line, giving the Celtics that 21-point lead at halftime.

And again, it was his only basket of the game!

Dallas was led by Doncic with 28 points and 12 rebounds. NBA teams are now 0-157 in best-of-seven postseason series after falling into a 0-3 deficit.

Celtics' coach Joe Mazzulla, in his second season at the helm, at age 35 also became the youngest coach since Bill Russell in 1969 to lead a team to the championship.

This Celtics team was built around taking and making a high number of three-pointers and boasting the league's best defence during the regular season. 

This strategy spread out opposing teams, shared the ball, and caused havoc on defence.  These Celtics seem poised to win a lot of games in the next few years.