2024 NBA Finals - Big questions ahead of Mavericks-Celtics - ESPN

Welcome to the 2024 NBA Finals, featuring the season's most dominant team against a title contender that remade itself at midseason.

The 64-win Boston Celtics, behind the most efficient offense in NBA history, have lost only twice during the playoffs and are led by the play of Jayson Tatum and Eastern Conference finals MVP Jaylen Brown.

The fifth-seeded Dallas Mavericks, meanwhile, solidified their claim as the biggest winner of the trade deadline. In February, the franchise added center Daniel Gafford and forward P.J. Washington, who have meshed perfectly with Dallas' star duo of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving to create a giant killer in the Western Conference.

Will Boston capture its 18th championship and set an NBA record, or will Dallas lift the Larry O'Brien Trophy for the first time since 2011, when coach Jason Kidd, as a player, helped the Mavericks to their only title?

Our NBA insiders are setting the stage for the Finals — Game 1 tips off Thursday, June 6 at 8:30 p.m. ET (ABC) — including breakdowns of the biggest stars, most important matchups and each team's keys to the series.

Jump to:
Road to the Finals | Star watch | Big questions
Keys to a Celtics win | Keys to a Mavs win

Boston Celtics

The Celtics won 64 games during the regular season, the most in the conference since the LeBron James-led Miami Heat in 2012-13, and that domination has carried over into the playoffs. Boston led the league in net rating by 4.4 points per 100 possessions in the regular season and through the first three rounds of the playoffs.

After battling through longer series in previous playoff runs, Boston went 12-2 through the East bracket this postseason, with just four of those games featuring clutch minutes (defined as the score