Who is singing the national anthem in the Mavericks - Celtics NBA Finals Game 5?

Mavericks - Celtics live online: stats, scores and highlights | NBA Finals Game 5

The Boston Celtics stand on the edge of making History at the TD Garden tonight with the team just a solitary win away from claiming the 2023-24 Championship and in doing so, moving ahead of arch-rivals LA Lakers to be the most successful team ever in NBA History with, what would be an 18th title.

Dallas deprived the Celtics from bagging the title over the weekend with a shock Game 4 win which forces matters back to Boston with Joe Mazzulla’s men heavily fancied to end matters at a packed TD Garden and in doing so, bring the curtain down on the 23-24 season.

In the pre-game press conference, Mazzulla was asked how special it would be to join coaches such as Red Auerbach, Bill Russell and K.C. Jones as those to lead a Celtics team to a championship. Without hesitation, he immediately shifted the focus to Game 5.

“That will never happen if you don’t run back on defense, rebound, execute and get to your spacing,” Mazzulla said. “That’s the most important thing.”

Boston lacked those fundamentals on Friday in Texas, failing to put the Mavericks away while ending up on the wrong end of a 122-84 defeat in Game 4.

Full screen

Game 5 National Anthem singer

The singer or band who will perform the national anthem tonight at TD Garden is urban artist Joelle James.

The California born is best known for writing the lyric melody of Ella Mai’s 2018 single “Boo’d Up”, which was nominated for Song of the Year, won Best R&B Song at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, and is the longest charting number one R&B/Hip-Hop record for a female artist on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay charts since its inception in 1992.