2024 NBA Finals: who won the regular season games between Mavericks and Celtics?

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.

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.

Jason Kidd’s men were totally brushed aside in the final quarter in particular, surrendering 16 points (20-36) on the way to a crushing 110-138 loss. And that came despite a superb individual display from Doncic, who bagged 37 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists.

Can the Mavs somehow find a way to turn the tide when the 2024 NBA Finals get underway later this week? The most recent meetings between the teams don’t offer them much hope.