Jayson Tatum Says Celtics Learned From ‘Better Team’ in Finals Loss to Warriors

Highlights

The Celtics are one win away from championship, leading 3-0 over the Dallas Mavericks in the 2024 NBA Finals.
Jayson Tatum says the experience from the 2022 NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors has helped the Celtics stay composed to complete their journey.
Tatum has shown the ability to do it all for the Celtics, posting full stat lines when he’s not leading the way in scoring, but also pouring in 31 points in Game 3.

The Boston Celtics are one win away from a long-awaited championship.

The Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks in Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday to take a commanding 3-0 lead. No NBA team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit.

To win the game, the Celtics had to withstand several big punches from the Mavericks. The first came at the start of the game, when the Mavs, in front of a fired-up home crowd, raced out to a 25-12 lead, dicing the Celtics’ defense apart.

But the Celtics regrouped and ended the quarter trailing by just one.

The second punch came in the fourth quarter, as the Mavs rallied back from a 21-point fourth-quarter deficit to cut the Celtics lead to one. The game looked virtually finished, and just like that, the Mavs had life, threatening to make it a 2-1 series.

Over the final 3:08 of the game, however, the Celtics out-scored Dallas, 13-7, with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown combining for eight of those 13 points.

After the game, Tatum was asked about his and Brown’s mindset to close out the game, and how they’ve been impacted by their experience of losing in the 2022 Finals to the Golden State Warriors.

“You just kind of alluded to it,” Tatum said. “We’ve been in that situation. We’ve been in a close game where we were up and, you know, we almost went up 3-1, and then they tied it.

“Experience is the best teacher. We’ve learned from our mistakes. We’ve learned from a team at the time was better than us, that had been there, that had been over the hump, and mentally tougher at the time, and we’ve grown from that. We really have. It was on display tonight.”

Tatum was referring to Game 4 of the 2022 Finals, in what is now known as the Stephen Curry game, with the Warriors star scoring 43 points to carry his team to victory. However, the Celtics actually led that game, 94-90 with 5:18 left. Their offense got stuck in the mud, and they didn’t score again until there was just 1:32 left in the game.

Looking Back at Celtics-Warriors NBA Finals Matchup

Celtics now find themselves one win away from a title

It’s a sliding-doors moment for the Celtics. As Tatum mentioned, they would have taken a 3-1 series advantage if they had held onto that lead. Instead, the Warriors tied the series, then won the next two games to seal their fourth championship in eight years.

“We’ve learned from a team at the time was better than us, that had been there, that had been over the hump, and mentally tougher at the time, and we’ve grown from that.” – Jayson Tatum

If the Celtics had won that game, who knows where they’d be today? Would management have kept that core together, choosing not to add key pieces from this team, like Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis? Would Joe Mazzula be the head coach? (Other factors obviously play into that).

The Celtics are trying to form a dynasty to rival Golden State’s. So far, they’ve shown the necessary resolve. Recall that in Game 1, the Mavericks cut a 22-point third-quarter lead to eight in less than eight minutes. Once again, the Celtics regrouped and went on a 14-0 run that pushed the lead back to 22.

It’s not as if Dallas hasn’t been in this series; it’s just that the Celtics have been the more composed group. The lessons from 2022 have them one game away from completing the journey.