Celtics beat Mavs, surpass Lakers with record 18th NBA championship

Celtics beat Mavs, surpass Lakers with record 18th NBA championship originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The Boston Celtics are back on top of the NBA hierarchy, and in more ways than one.

The Celtics eliminated the Dallas Mavericks with a 106-88 win in Game 5 of the 2024 NBA Finals on Monday. It’s the Celtics’ first championship since 2008 and just their second since 1986. The Celtics finished the playoffs with a 16-3 record and one of the five best net ratings in league history.

Boston now has won 18 titles, which moves the legendary franchise past its archrival, the Los Angeles Lakers, for the most in league history. The Lakers tied the Celtics with 17 championships when they won the 2020 NBA Finals in the Orlando bubble during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Celtics have won at least one title in six different decades: the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 2000s and 2020s.

Here’s a look at which teams have won the most titles in NBA history. The Lakers have 12 if you just include the championships they’ve won in Los Angeles, and not the five they won in Minneapolis all before 1955.

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The Celtics’ 18 championships are the third-most of any team in the four major North American pro sports leagues. Only the MLB’s New York Yankees and the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens have more.

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