Ramp to Camp: Finals predictions for how the Celtics’ season will end

Ramp to Camp: Finals predictions for how Celtics’ season will end originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

During his appearance on The Tonight Show Last week, Boston Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum, along with Jimmy Fallon, made a prediction for the 2025 NBA Finals, suggesting that Boston and Dallas would meet again in the championship.

So, for the 14th and final episode of our Slope to camp series, we asked our NBC Sports Boston panel to channel their inner Tatum and make a prediction for a potential 2025 Finals matchup. We also asked them to detail how the Celtics’ season will end and how we’ll look back on the 2024-25 campaign as a whole.

(Check out our complete Ramp to Camp series here.)

We may still be reeling from all the Green Kool-Aid from last season, but it’s tough to see these Celtics falling back into the fold. Yes, injuries are the ultimate wild card, and the health of Kristaps Porzingis will be a perpetual storyline. A midseason ownership change could also add a layer of complexity.

But it feels like it will take more bumps in the road than meets the eye to derail the Celtics Express. This team has become elite at blocking out the noise — or turning negative energy into something positive. We’re putting them right back in the Finals and predicting that a season that begins with a pair of preseason games against the Nuggets in Abu Dhabi will end with a much more important series between those same two teams in June.

The Nuggets were virtually the only team to have Boston’s numbers last season, even though both games were close. It seems only logical that the Celtics would resume their title defense via another proven champion.

What happens next is anyone’s guess, especially given the financial hurdles that will exist and a potential new owner at the helm. But the NBA’s first repeat champion in the past five years will generate some dynasty talk, especially now that Boston can keep its core intact for the 2025-26 season, as long as it’s willing to pay the ransom to do so.

We admit it feels a little strange to be so optimistic about Boston’s chances. Winning one title is hard, and sometimes it feels like winning two is impossible in the modern NBA.

But in a league where every team has at least a few question marks, the Celtics feel like the most known commodity. The rest of the East has to prove they’ve closed the gap. The Celtics were so dominant at the finish line of claiming Banner 18 that we’re hard-pressed to find reasons why they can’t stay on top of the mountain.

It won’t be easy, but the Celtics made it seem that way a lot last season. Winning one title would ensure that this team would be remembered fondly around these parts; winning another would put them in rare air among modern NBA teams.

History is there if they want it to be.

This is what our panel sees in their crystal ball:

The Mavs will never get close to the Finals again. Luka and Kyrie are too limited defensively and too unreliable emotionally. Let’s play the 2025 Thunder like the 2012 Thunder and ride a young cast to their first Finals.

The Durant-Westbrook-Harden Thunder fell to the reigning finalists in Miami, and today’s SGA-Jalen Williams-Holmgren edition will face a similar fate against the reigning champions, who play in Banner 19 back-to-back times.

Tom Giles, Multi-platform host

I have a hard time picking against Denver. I don’t know if OKC is ready and I can’t imagine the Mavs making another run. And Minnesota needs to get Rudy Gobert under control in the playoffs.

Let’s assume the Nuggets lose to the two straight champions in six games.

We haven’t seen an NBA champion since 2018, but we also 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’ll face Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves in a seven-game slugfest.

Jaylen Brown scores a game-winning goal against fellow Georgia native in Game 7 as Boston succeeds where the 2008 champions failed to do, winning another title with a star-studded core. Let the “dynasty” talk begin.

The Celtics regain their title, including a victory in the Eastern Conference Finals over the New York Knicks and a victory in the NBA Finals over the Denver Nuggets.

The matchup we thought we were seeing in the 2024 Finals will actually take place in 2025. And as a result of the replay, the Celtics’ core will join a historic group of title-winning Boston sports legends.

I’m taking Denver out west, this time with the Celtics proving they can handle Nikola Jokic and co. in a 7 game series. It will be a much more competitive Finals this time around and a game 7 will be needed, but Boston gets the job done again at TD Garden.

We look back on the season as a new, successful period and possibly the start of a dynasty, but we are quickly brought back down to earth as we wonder how Brad Stevens will handle his complicated financial situation. Unless someone like Jeff Bezos comes to the rescue, of course.

Kevin Miller, VP, Content

I don’t think the Mavs will make it to the finals in the West. I’m all in on the Thunder this season if they make it out of the West. The Celtics will make it to their third finals in four years and become back-to-back 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 70s is important. Mazzulla will keep them focused, and their depth and play will ultimately make the difference.