Celtics
“I thought that we were going to play Denver in the Finals and it was going to be a good one.”
When the 2024 NBA playoffs began, many predicted that the Celtics would take on the Nuggets in the NBA Finals.
Jayson Tatum was among that group. The Celtics star thought Boston would have to beat Denver to win the NBA title, admitting that the defending champion might have been its toughest test in the postseason.
“People always ask me, when did you guys know you were going to win a championship?” Tatum recently told an audience of parents and kids at the Maynard Fine Arts Theatre, via The Boston Globe‘s Gary Washburn. “When Minnesota beat Denver, I felt like Denver was the only team that they matched up best with us. I thought that we were going to play Denver in the Finals and it was going to be a good one.”
Tatum had good reason to believe that the Nuggets were going to make it to the Finals. Denver had a strong regular season, going 57-25 to hold the second-best record in the Western Conference. Nikola Jokic also won his third MVP in four seasons, averaging 26.4 points, 12.4 rebounds, and nine assists per game, adding to his claim as the best player in the league.
There was also good reason for Tatum to think that the Nuggets were the biggest threat to the Celtics winning it all. Denver was the only team Boston didn’t beat in its 64-win regular season. The Nuggets won the Jan. 19 matchup in Boston, 102-100. Seven weeks later, the Nuggets defeated the Celtics, 115-109, in Denver.
Tatum had shooting struggles in both games as well. He scored 22 points on 9-of-24 shooting in the Jan. 19 loss, missing a tying shot at the buzzer. He scored just 15 points on 5-of-13 shooting when they lost to the Nuggets in Denver, missing a shot that would have given the Celtics the lead with less than a minute left. The Celtics also trailed by 11 points with less than five minutes in that game.
So, when the Timberwolves defeated the Nuggets in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals, there were some who thought that the Celtics were on their way to a title. Even though Tatum hinted that he had a similar thought, he became certain that the Celtics would win it all ahead of their Game 5 in the NBA Finals.
“When we were in Dallas and we went up, 3-0, oh my God. Nobody has ever come back from 0-3, so I remember getting back to the locker room and I remember saying, I don’t know what game it’s going to be, but we’re going to win the championship,” Tatum said. “That was a weird feeling. I wasn’t able to sleep that night and I remember the morning of Game 4 we had shootaround, and I had never been in the position that if we win tonight, we’re champions.
“We were at shootaround and everybody was trying to act normal. I couldn’t take a nap. We lost by like 30. We wanted to win so bad. We were so anxious and so tight. But I knew when we were coming back home for Game 5, we were going to win.”
The Game 4 loss to the Mavericks was worse than Tatum put it. The Celtics lost by 38 for the third-largest defeat in a game in NBA Finals history. They also trailed by as many as 48 points, causing some concern for the Celtics.
However, Tatum and the Celtics were able to handle business in Game 5. He scored a game-high 31 points with 11 rebounds and eight assists, leading the charge for Boston in a 106-88 title-clinching win.
As the Celtics prepare for the upcoming season, Tatum doesn’t think they’ll face the Nuggets in the Finals in 2025. In a recent appearance on “The Tonight Show,” Tatum predicted that there will be a Finals rematch this season.
The Mavericks reloaded to their Finals squad, adding Klay Thompson in free agency. Meanwhile, the Nuggets lost starting shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in free agency, causing some to question whether Denver will make a deep run in 2024-25.
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