The Boston Celtics have raised Banner 18 to the rafters.

The Boston Celtics begin this season as the NBA champions.

Kyrie Irving has a broken left hand that required surgery after getting injured in an offseason workout.

Kyrie Irving sounds as if he wants to stay in Dallas in the long term after the Mavericks lost to the Boston Celtics in five games in the NBA Finals.

Kristaps Porzingis returned to play for the Celtics as they attempted to close out the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5 of the NBA Finals.

The Boston Celtics’ catastrophic performance in Game 4 of the NBA Finals gave them a chance to clinch their unprecedented 18th championship under the banners already hanging in the TD Garden rafters.

The Celtics picked the most inopportune time to play their worst game of the season.

Luka Doncic scored 25 of his 29 points in the first half, Kyrie Irving added 21 points and the Dallas Mavericks emphatically extended their season on Friday night, fending off elimination by beating the Boston Celtics 122-84 in Game 4 of the NBA Finals.

Kristaps Porzingis will be in uniform and available to play in a limited role when the Boston Celtics try to wrap up a sweep of the NBA Finals in Game 4 against the Dallas Mavericks.

Joe Mazzulla is a big fan of UFC matches and splices highlights of fights into some of the basketball video he shows the Boston Celtics for their video sessions.

Kristaps Porzingis did not play for the Boston Celtics in Game 3 of the NBA Finals because of a rare tendon injury in his lower left leg suffered in the previous game.

Jerry West left West Virginia decades ago.

The Boston Celtics had the NBA Finals in mind when they went out and acquired Jrue Holiday.

Jason Kidd couldn’t figure out how to stop the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

Joe Mazzulla watches as many Manchester City matches as he can, and there’s a clear symmetry there between that English soccer powerhouse and his Boston Celtics.

The Dallas Mavericks and Boston Celtics prepare to tip off the NBA Finals and the four biggest names in the series are looking at this moment through different lenses.

Joe Mazzulla was thrust into a job he didn’t expect to have following former Celtics coach Ime Udoka’s suspension just days before the start of training camp last season.

The Celtics traded for 7-footer Kristaps Porzingis this past offseason hoping he might be the missing piece to help them hoist their 18th title.

Derrick White’s tiebreaking 3-pointer with 43 seconds left gave Boston the lead and the Celtics closed out a four-game sweep of the Indiana Pacers 105-102 to reach the NBA Finals for the second time in three years.

The Indiana Pacers are a perfect 6-0 at home in this season's playoffs.

Jaylen Brown matched his career playoff high with 40 points and the Celtics beat the Indiana Pacers 126-110 to open a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals.

There’s been a notion in the NBA for years, one that says the game changes when the postseason rolls around.

The Celtics spent the regular season racking up superlatives and pulverizing opponents with one of the league’s most versatile rosters.

Jaylen Brown scored 29 points, Jayson Tatum had 27 on his 26th birthday, and the NBA-best Boston Celtics posted their third-largest winning margin in franchise history, drubbing the weary Golden State Warriors 140-88.

Jayson Tatum had 26 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists and the Boston Celtics withstood a late rally to beat the Miami Heat 110-106.

Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 48 points and the Milwaukee Bucks overcame a 25-point deficit for their first victory under coach Doc Rivers, beating the Dallas Mavericks 129-117 on Saturday night.

Boston coach Joe Mazzulla is a movie buff who made big news last season when revealing that he watches “The Town” several times a week. And he recently watched the 1993 crime drama “A Bronx Tale,” another movie that earned his two-thumbs-up rating.

The offseason moves by the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks got the attention of the NBA world and those who bet on the sport.

Jaylen Brown wasn't considered to be a surefire NBA superstar when the was drafted in 2016.

Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens sees a team in need of small tweaks, not massive disruption to leadership or its core.

The Celtics' rollercoaster season ended a round short of a return to the NBA Finals.

Jimmy Butler scored 28 points and Caleb Martin gave Miami 26 points and 10 rebounds in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals to help the Heat beat the Celtics 103-84 and turn back Boston’s attempt at an unprecedented comeback.

Blown out in Game 3, facing elimination in Game 4, tasked with engineering the sort of comeback that no team in their league has ever pulled off before.

Joe Mazzulla’s roller-coaster season is at its lowest.

Gabe Vincent scored a career-high 29 points, Duncan Robinson added 22 and the eighth-seeded Miami Heat are now just one win from the NBA Finals after rolling past the Boston Celtics 128-102 on Sunday night in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference title series.

As much as this latest Eastern Conference finals pairing between the Heat and Celtics is a matchup that will lean heavily on stars like Jimmy Butler and Jayson Tatum, Game 1 proved it also will be a clash of Boston's rookie coach Joe Mazzulla and Miami's Erik Spoelstra.

Jayson Tatum missed his first six 3-pointers before he drilled two straight clutch ones late in the game that pushed the Celtics past the Philadelphia 76ers 95-86 to send the Eastern Conference semifinals back to Boston for Game 7.

Bring on Philly.

Sacramento's Mike Brown is the unanimous winner of the NBA’s Coach of the Year award.

Best record in the NBA.

The 72nd NBA All-Star Game takes place Sunday night in Salt Lake City.

The Boston Celtics have named Joe Mazzulla their full-time head coach, removing the interim tag he has held throughout the season after stepping in for Ime Udoka.

Michael Malone might coach Nikola Jokic in the All-Star Game.

Joe Mazzulla started the season as an assistant coach.

Jaylen Brown scored a season-high 41 points and had 12 rebounds and the Boston Celtics won their fourth straight game, holding off the New Orleans Pelicans 125-114 on Wednesday night.

Jayson Tatum scored 29 points, Jaylen Brown added 28 and the Boston Celtics topped the Miami Heat 111-104 on Friday night in a rematch of last season’s Eastern Conference finals.

Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown each scored 35 points and the Boston Celtics beat the Philadelphia 76ers 126-117 in the opening game of the NBA regular season.

The Celtics were supposed to enter the preseason as one of the favorites to emerge from the Eastern Conference on the heels of their surprise run to the NBA Finals last season under rookie head coach Ime Udoka.

The Boston Celtics suspended coach Ime Udoka for the upcoming season after a months-long investigation by an external law firm that found multiple violations of team policies.

The Boston Celtics have suspended coach Ime Udoka for the 2022-23 season.