Ramp to Camp: Final prediction(s) on how the Celtics season will end originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
During his appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon last week, Boston Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum offered a prediction for the 2025 NBA Finalssuggesting that Boston and Dallas will meet again on the championship stage.
So, for the 14th and final part of ours Ramp to Camp series, we asked our NBC Sports Boston panel to channel their inner Tatum and offer a prediction for a potential 2025 playoff matchup. We also asked them to detail how the Celtics season ends and how we will reflect on the 2024-25 campaign as a whole.
(Look at ours full Ramp to Camp series here.)
We may still be giddy from all the Green Kool-Aid from last season, but it’s really hard to see these Celtics fading to the pack. Yes, injuries are the ultimate wild card and the health of Kristaps Porzingis will remain an eternal story. A mid-season ownership change could add a layer of complexity, too.
But it looks like it will take several bumps in the road to derail the Celtics Express. This team has become elite at blocking out the noise — or turning negative energy into positive. We put them right back in the Finals and predict a season that starts with two preseason games against the Nuggets in Abu Dhabi will end with a much higher-profile series between those same two teams in June.
The Nuggets were pretty much the only team that had Boston’s number last season — even if both games were competitive — and it seems only fitting that the Celtics’ title repeat goes through another proven champion.
What happens after that is anyone’s guess, especially given the financial hurdles that will exist and a possible new owner at the helm. But the NBA’s first repeat champion of the past half-decade will generate some dynasty talk, especially with Boston able to keep its core intact for the 2025-26 season, as long as it’s willing to pay the ransom to do so.
We’ll admit it feels a little weird to be so optimistic about Boston’s chances. Winning one title is hard, and sometimes it feels like winning two in the modern NBA is impossible.
But in a league where every team has at least a few question marks, the Celtics feel like the most familiar commodity. The rest of the East must prove that it has closed the gap. The Celtics have been so dominant at the finish line of Banner 18 promotion that we struggle to find reasons they can’t stay on top of the mountain.
It won’t be easy, but the Celtics often looked that way last season. Winning one title ensured this team would be remembered fondly in these parts; winning another could put them in rarefied air among modern NBA teams.
History is there if they want it.
Here’s what our panel sees in their crystal balls:
There is no way the Mavs are getting close to the Finals again. Luka and Kyrie are too limited defensively, and too unreliable emotionally. Let’s go with the 2025 Thunder playing like the 2012 Thunder and riding a young cast to their first Finals.
The Durant-Westbrook-Harden Thunder fell to the defending finalists in Miami, and today’s edition of SGA-Jalen Williams-Holmgren will meet a similar fate against the reigning champions, who are going back-to-back for Banner 19.
Tom GilesMulti-platform host
I’m having a hard time picking against Denver. I don’t know if OKC is ready and I can’t see the Mavs putting together another run. And Minnesota needs to figure out Rudy Gobert in the playoffs.
So let’s go with the Nuggets losing in six to the back-to-back champions.
We haven’t seen a repeat NBA champion since 2018 — but we haven’t seen many coaches like Joe Mazzulla. Mazzulla is helping a determined Celtics team stay on track to return to the NBA Finals, where they face Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves in a seven-game slugfest.
Jaylen Brown hits a game-winner over his fellow Georgia native in Game 7 as Boston picks up where the 2008 champions fell short by winning another title with a star-studded core. Start the “dynasty” talk.
The Celtics repeat as champions, including an Eastern Conference Finals victory over the New York Knicks and an NBA Finals triumph over the Denver Nuggets.
The matchup we thought we’d see in the Finals in 2024 is actually happening in 2025. And as a result of a repeat, the core of the Celtics joins a historic group of Boston sports legends who have won multiple titles.
I’m taking Denver to come out West, this time with the Celtics proving they can handle Nikola Jokic and Co. in a seven-game series. It will be a much more competitive Finals this time around and it will require a Game 7, but Boston gets the job done again at TD Garden.
We’ll reflect on the season as another dominant run and perhaps the start of a dynasty, but we’ll quickly come back down to earth with questions about how Brad Stevens will manage their complicated financial situation — unless someone like Jeff Bezos arrives to save the dayof course
Kevin Miller, VP, Content
I don’t think the Mavs make the west finals. I’m all in on the Thunder for this season coming from the West. The Celtics will be making their third Finals in four years and will be going back-to-back as champions.
They may not have a three-peat in them, but the desire to be the first Celtics team to go back-to-back since the 1970s is important. Mazzulla will have them focused and their depth and playmaking will ultimately be the difference.
