Celtics star Jayson Tatum knows a second chance at the NBA Finals isn’t a given in today’s NBA.
Making the NBA Finals is a great accomplishment for any team, yet Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics aren’t content with just viewing it as an achievement. Rather, they’re looking at it as another opportunity
In 2022, the Celtics battled their way to the Finals for the first time in over a decade. However, they fell to the Golden State Warriors in six games and had to witness their dynastic opponent celebrate a championship on the TD Garden parquet.
Tatum remembers the sting of that defeat, and he’s aiming to learn from it ahead of his squad’s 2024 Finals matchup against the Dallas Mavericks, per Bobby Krivitsky of SI.com.
“There’s a lot that myself and we can learn from that experience, being in the Finals,” he told the media on Saturday afternoon. “This time is a lot different. Obviously, we’ve been there before, we came up short … You don’t always get a second chance, so really just looking at it as a second chance. Trying to simplify things as much as we can. It’s just another series that we’ve gotta win.”
With the parity of today’s NBA, Tatum’s point about the rarity of second chances rings true. In 2021, the Phoenix Suns made the Finals in the hope of winning their first championship ever. They lost in six games to the Milwaukee Bucks and haven’t made it past the second round since.
Last year, the eighth-seeded Miami Heat shocked the world and beat the Celtics to advance to the 2023 NBA Finals. They were then defeated in five games by the Denver Nuggets and promptly swept in the first round this postseason by the C’s, leaving plenty of questions about the Heat’s future this offseason.
Essentially, there was no guarantee that Tatum and company would return to the championship round after a disappointing finish two seasons ago. But, the Celtics are back with a chance to win their first ring in over 15 years.
Jayson Tatum was HYPED as the Celtics advance to the NBA Finals 😤
(via @espn)pic.twitter.com/9n9wXvoNGc
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) May 28, 2024
The Celtics are not the same team from 2022
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