It’s not hard to see why the Boston Celtics are the heavy favorites to win the NBA Finals. Not only did they have the best regular-season record out of all the 30 teams in the league, but their postseason performance has been phenomenal.
It also helps that their core of players have already experienced the sights and sounds of the Finals. While it’s regrettable that they fell to the Golden State Warriors in 2022, it proved a useful experience that will become instrumental to the team’s second run at the championship against the Dallas Mavericks.
Jayson Tatum is especially focused on finally finishing the job this time round. The 26-year-old forward still remembers the sting of losing the Finals and reminded his team that securing the Larry O’Brien trophy is in their best interests.
Jayson Tatum claims the Boston Celtics are focused on winning the Finals
Fans will remember that Tatum put a lot of expectation on himself in his first Finals appearance. While it remains to be seen if the pressure he placed on his shoulders doomed their first attempt, he claims that the team is simply focused on doing their best on the floor.
Per Associated Press’ Kyle Hightower:
“You think that you’re young, if you’ve been once, you’ll continue to keep going,” Tatum said. “We realized that last year. We kind of took it for granted at certain moments.”
And now?
“I’m not thinking about what it would mean for my legacy or anything like that,” he said. “Just excited to play some basketball … and go out there and try to get the job done.”
Fans can see in the way Tatum has been playing this postseason that he’s zeroed in on winning it all. He’s averaging 26.0 points, 10.4 rebounds, 5.9 assists, and 1.1 steals through 14 playoff starts this season. While his shooting from deep is at a shoddy 29.0%, his 44.2% FG rating more than makes up for his long-range duds.
He understands that the Mavericks are no easy opponents. However, Boston’s fiercely loyal fanbase can count on their star man to step up every game of this serven-part series.
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