The Boston Celtics finished the regular season with a league-best 64 wins. That dominance has carried over to the postseason, with the Celtics beating Miami and Cleveland in five games each before sweeping Indiana in the Eastern Conference Finals. So, let’s take a look at the Boston Celtics and give you three reasons why they will win the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

Analytics

Analytics nerds love the Boston Celtics this year. Besides winning 64 games in the regular season and cruising through the first three rounds of the playoffs, they’ve only lost twice in the postseason and they’re a perfect 6-0 on the road. All the underlying numbers point to the Celtics being a much better team than Dallas.

Boston is outscoring opponents from everywhere on the floor in the playoffs. They’ve outscored teams by 9.9 points per game from three-point range, 6.1 points on free throws and 4.1 points from the rim. The Celtics rank second in points per game (111.4), third in field goal percentage (48.0 per cent), and first in point differential (+10.0).

Defensively, Boston is holding opponents to just 14.5 free throws per 100 shots. For context, that is the lowest opponent free-throw rate in NBA postseason history. The Celtics also rank third in points allowed per game (101.3), third in rebounds (43.7) and fourth in blocks (5.4).

Jayson Tatum

Every NBA championship team has a superstar to lead the way and that player for Boston is Jayson Tatum. Through 14 playoff games, Tatum leads the Celtics in points per game (26), rebounds (10.4) and assists (5.9). As Tatum navigates double teams and the toughest matchups every game, he’s averaging almost a full assist more in the playoffs than he did in the regular season.

Tatum is averaging just 2.4 turnovers per game in the postseason and his 2.44 assist-to-turnover ratio in the best of his playoff career. The 26-year-old’s impact is evident when you consider Boston has outscored opponents by a whopping 141 points with Tatum on the floor this postseason. After losing in the Eastern Conference Finals last year and the NBA Finals two years ago, Tatum looks like he will drag the Celtics to a championship in 2024.

Betting trends

There’s one historical betting trend that greatly favours Boston to win the 2024 NBA championship. The Celtics are entering the NBA Finals as -225 series favourites and since 1990, teams that are listed at -200 or higher are 21-3 in NBA Finals series’. The only three losing teams are the 2004 L.A. Lakers and the 2016 and 2019 Golden State Warriors.

The 04′ Lakers probably shouldn’t have been as heavily favoured as they were. The team had multiple future Hall of Famers, but age and health took a toll. Karl Malone missed large portions of time in the Finals, Gary Payton never really fit the offensive attack and Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal were going through a very public fued.

The 2016 Warriors actually held a 3-1 series lead over Cleveland before the dominance of LeBron James and Kyrie Irving forced a Game 7 and an eventual Cavaliers series win.

And every Toronto Raptors fan remembers 2019. Kawhi Leonard was on an absolute tear in the playoffs and Golden State suffered devastating injuries to superstars Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson.

All this points to one thing: the Boston Celtics should win the 2024 NBA championship. Dallas’ Irving isn’t the same player he was in 2016 and as good as Luka Doncic is, he isn’t LeBron in his prime. This Boston Celtics team has a chance to crush the Mavericks.