Jayson Tatum #0 of the Boston Celtics celebrates his 3-pointer during the second half of Game 1 of the NBA Finals at the TD Garden. (Photo By Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
It had been two long years of sitting with championship defeat for Jayson Tatum.
The six-game NBA Finals series the Celtics famously dropped to Golden State on their home floor in 2022. A stage that brought him career heartbreak, yet a place he ached to return to.
That stage finally returned Thursday night, back at TD Garden against Luka Doncic and the Mavericks with the start of this year’s Finals. So how did Tatum feel?
In his words, “like a little kid.”
“It felt great. To be honest, I was nervous. I ain’t going to lie. I was nervous in like an anxious way, like a little kid,” Tatum said after Boston’s 107-89 win in Game 1. “It’s surreal being in The Finals. When you’re young, I guess, in your career, you think you’re always going to go back. Last year was kind of like a wake-up call when we didn’t make it.
“So getting back to this point and being here is really a big deal. We played well tonight.”
Offensively, Tatum played a subpar game, finishing with 16 points on 6-of-16 shooting with six turnovers. He also added 11 rebounds and five assists, and dug in defensively versus Dallas’ centers. The Celtics tasked Tatum with defending the springy Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II, so they could switch and short-circuit the Mavericks’ preferred pick-and-roll combinations with Doncic.
They did. The Celtics limited Dallas to 24 or fewer points in every quarter and held a 29-point lead in the first half, thanks to Tatum’s dirty work and his teammates picking up the scoring slack.
“Something that we have harped on all season, what makes our team really special is, we don’t have guys that we hide on defense,” Tatum said. “Bigs and guards, we switch, we take on the challenge of individual defense. Understanding that we have help, it’s a team sport, we all got to be on the same page, but we’re not showing or anything like that, because that could kind of compromise your defense.
“And, essentially, if you want to play on our team you have to be able to guard. And everybody knows that.”
Tatum and the Celtics know it will take a lot more dirty work and hard-earned winning to put Dallas away. Boston beat Golden State in Game 1 of the 2022 Finals — on the road no less — but lost four of the next five games to let the series slip.
Game 2 against Dallas is set for Sunday at the Garden at 8 p.m.
Yet if Game 1 is any indication, Tatum might find himself at pregame shoot-around feeling like he’s gone back in time once again.
“Like I said, I was, in a positive way — I was nervous before the game. I was like a kid (on the) first day of school,” he said. “I know how exciting and big of a deal all of this is, so just finding a space to enjoy the moment and have fun playing basketball.”