Garden Party
Inside the Boston Celtics’ Run to the 2023–24 NBA Championship
Celtics win record 18th NBA championship to cap a dominant season
STEVE BUCKLEY
F or bookkeeping purposes, the Boston Celtics secured their 18th NBA championship on June 17, 2024, at TD Garden. Drama? Well, no, there wasn’t much in the way of heart-pounding stuff, the Celtics closing out a breezy 106-88 victory over the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, with Boston’s vaunted J’s — Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown — combining for 52 points.
How one-sided was the series? How one-sided was Boston’s entire postseason run? As one-sided as the regular season, during which the Celtics went a league-best 64-18. The Celtics then roared right through the playoffs, their dominance such that hoop historians will little note nor long remember there was a surprising and embarrassing and just a tad concerning 122-84 loss to the Mavericks in Game 4 of the NBA Finals — thereby denying Boston a fourgame sweep and, naturally, resurrecting an argument that gets dusted off whenever these things happen. Might this become the first team in NBA history to lose a playoff series after going up 3-0?
Nope. The Celtics made short work of every team they faced in the postseason. In fact, from Game 1 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals right through their championship-clinching victory over the Mavericks, the Celtics were a combined 16-3 against the Miami Heat, Cleveland Cavaliers, Indiana Pacers and Mavericks.
PUBLISHED JUNE 18, 2024
They took out the Miami Heat in the first round, Brown and Derrick White each scoring 25 points in a 118-84 Game 5 victory. Next up were the Cleveland Cavaliers, and, they too were dismissed in five games. The clincher: Celtics 113, Cavs 98, with a game-high 25 points from Tatum and, for those who love role players, a sneaky 11 points in 21 minutes from Payton Pritchard.
The Eastern Conference finals against Indiana turned out to be little more than a limbering-up exercise for the NBA Finals with series MVP Jaylen Brown leading the Celtics to a sweep.
On to the NBA Finals. Win. Win. Win. Eyebrowraising 112-84 loss in Game 4.
And then, on June 17, 2024, an all-the-live-longnight Garden party against the Mavericks secured the Celtics’ first championship since 2008. For added historical heft, the victory added another championship trophy to the Boston sports market’s overflowing 21st-century trophy case. Boston’s Big Four pro sports franchises have now won 13 championships this century — six by the New England Patriots, four by the Red Sox, two by the Celtics and one by the Bruins.
So, yes, June 17, 2024. That’s the date to jot down in your Celtic scrapbook. That’s when it became official. But let’s take a step back from the jet-propelled confetti that turned the Garden into
a white haze. Let’s take a whole lot of steps back, to about one year earlier — to June 29, 2023. It was just over a month after the Celtics had been blown out in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals by Miami, and two-and-a-half weeks after the Heat had been shown the door by the Denver Nuggets in Game 5 of the NBA Finals.
June 29, 2023. It was on that day, at the Auerbach Center, the practice facility where the Celtics do their real work, that a news conference was held to introduce the newest member of the team, 7-foot-2 center Kristaps Porziņģis. The deal had been consummated a week earlier with Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens engineering a three-team deal that notably landed popular longtime Celtics player Marcus Smart with the Memphis Grizzlies. But don’t for one second believe the June 29, 2023, news conference was just a photo opp, even if Porziņģis did stand there holding up his crisp, new No. 8 Celtics jersey for about as long as he averaged per game with the 2022-23 Washington Wizards: 32.6 minutes.
The mere presence of Porziņģis, wearing that jersey in front of those cameras, made it possible for Celtics fans to see, and to believe in a for-real Big Three (Porziņģis, Tatum, Brown), something that had not been in evidence since the days of Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett. But two
other important things happened that day:
• Stevens didn’t grab a bullhorn to make the point, but he told reporters that the roster is “a work in progress,” and that “there are more moves to make.” In other words, if Stevens was to be believed, there’d be more than standard offseason roster tweaking going on between the Porziņģis photo opp and the Celtics’ October 25 season opener against the New York Knicks. Sure enough, this happened on Oct. 1: In exchange for guard Malcolm Brogdon, center Robert Williams and a pair of first-round draft picks, Stevens acquired guard Jrue Holiday from the Portland Trail Blazers, which just days earlier had acquired him from the Milwaukee Bucks. It was a bold move at the time; with the benefit of history, though, we can now proclaim that Holiday and White formed a dynamic backcourt that “completed” the Celtics. Stevens, then, wasn’t kidding on that June day when he said there were “more moves to make.”
• Something else happened on June 29, 2023, that’s important, even if it happened off to the side while Porziņģis was trying on the new threads and smiling for the cameras. Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla held an informal breakaway session with a collection of the team’s writers, the idea being it would last for a few minutes and then everyone would go home. About five minutes into this little coffee klatch, a Celtics media relations operative informed the writers the next question would be the last. That’s when Mazzulla, who doesn’t have a shoe contract but was perfectly comfortable in whatever shoes he was wearing that day, said, “We’ve got time,” and kept answering questions until there were no more questions to be asked.
The “interim” tag had long since been removed from Mazzulla’s business card, but in the eyes of many concerned Celtics followers, the uncertainty seemed to be lingering. Now, as he showed a willingness to hang around, to gab, to chill, Mazzulla was signaling these were his Celtics.
And so it was for Mazzulla during the 202324 season. Unburdened by the past, he guided the Celtics as though there had not been a lot of close-but-no-victory-cigar finishes in recent years. Remember, the Celtics had been looked upon as championship contenders as far back as the 2017-18 season when the then-19-year-old Tatum arrived in the NBA. And with second-year man Brown, Boston had a tandem that was young, talented and going places.
There was plenty of success, but not the kind that inspires one of Boston’s familiar “rolling rallies” through the streets of the Back Bay. Before 2023-24, three of the Tatum-Brown seasons ended with losses in the Eastern Conference finals. The 2021-22 season ended with a Game 6 loss to the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals.
And as Celtics resident historian Tatum will tell you, “Everybody knows we only hang up championship banners.”
And so this season ended on June 17, 2024. It ended with confetti, hugs and a trophy presentation. And a call to Banners “R” Us to get going on No. 18.
But it began inside a practice gym in Brighton, the day Kristaps Porziņģis smiled for the cameras … the day Brad Stevens said “there are more moves to make” … the day Joe Mazzulla began to walk the walk and talk the talk of a veteran NBA coach.
978-1-63846-114-2 No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the copyright owner or the publisher.
by Pediment Publishing, a division of The Pediment Group, Inc. • pediment.com Printed in Canada
FRONT COVER: Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) lifts the Larry O’Brien Trophy after winning the 2024 NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks at TD Garden on June 17, 2024, in Boston. PETER CASEY / USA TODAY SPORTS
New-look Celtics enter season unburdened by history and what-might-have-beens
BY STEVE BUCKLEY
It’s possible, understandable even, you were one of those Celtics fans who didn’t see guaranteed magic in the Kristaps Porziņģis deal. Especially since it involved a pat on the back and a heartfelt it-was-nice-knowing-you for Marcus Smart.
It’s also possible you’re worried, just a little, that while the Jrue Holiday acquisition may look great on paper, it might not look good on parquet. You know, new team, chemistry, etc. True story: Going into the 2007–08 season, the biggest concern about the Celtics and their Big Three reboot of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen was “chemistry.”
And, you might ask, does a bigger role (and a nice new contract) for Payton Pritchard translate to a bigger share of W’s for the Celtics?
But I’ll leave the X’s and O’s to The Athletic ’s tag team duo of Jay King and Jared Weiss. With the Celtics opening the 2023–24 season against the New York Knicks Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden, there’s an exciting intangible that may well hurtle this team past
OPPOSITE: Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard (11) returns to the bench during the second half against the Philadelphia 76ers at TD Garden in Boston on Oct. 8, 2023.
ERIC CANHA / USA TODAY SPORTS
PUBLISHED OCT. 25, 2023
the Milwaukee Bucks and into the NBA Finals, and possibly to a championship.
Simply put, these Celtics of 2023–24 are not those Celtics of 2022–23. They are unburdened by any leftover memories and demoralizing what-might-have-been scenarios from last season’s loss to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals, and untethered to a discarded mantra that not winning a championship the season before is why they must win one this season. As Hall of Fame bullpen savior Dennis Eckersley once famously said, “That’s history, pal.”
Now if your counterpoint is that teams are supposed to leave the past in the past — heck, Bill Belichick has practically done PowerPoint presentations on that very topic for nearly a quarter of a century — the comeback to your counterpoint is that it’s something last year’s Celtics were unable to do.
Almost by design — actually, it was completely by design — last year’s Celtics went into the season stuck up to their waists in the mud of so many yesterdays via a well-intended but misguided marketing campaign: “Unfinished Business.” They even found a way to finesse an “18” into the “is” in “unfinished.” The idea — again, well-intended — was that last year’s
Celtics were coming off a season in which they lost to the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals, meaning that the 2022–23 season was going to be all about taking care of, ahem, unfinished business, as in procuring banner No. 18 for the TD Garden rafters.
But I’ve already harped on that, and, anyway, teams don’t win or lose championships because of T-shirts. A bigger problem last year was that with Ime Udoka being suspended from his coaching duties practically on the eve of training camp, the Celtics handed the clipboard to 34-year-old Joe Mazzulla, a former Udoka assistant who brought a great local angle to the proceedings (a product of Bishop Hendricken High in Rhode Island) but no head-coaching experience in the NBA.
The decision was questioned at the beginning and even more so at the end after the Celtics went down 0–3 against the Heat. But then they won three in a row to set up a possibly history-making Game 7 that had all of us making comparisons to what the 2004 Red Sox did to the Yankees in the ACLS. Alas, the Celtics were wiped off the parquet in Game 7.
Since then, Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens has ambitiously — one might even say heroically — overhauled the
roster. (Bonus: With so many new players, it’s hard to talk about last year.) Plus, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, the organizational 1–2 punch, are back, as is veteran Al Horford, as is the author of the buzzer-beating put-back in the Game 6 victory over Miami, Derrick White.
And then there’s Joe Mazzulla. With a full season of NBA head-coaching experience on his resume, he seems now to be speaking with a confidence and comfort level that wasn’t always in evidence last season. Watching him at the Porziņģis introductory news conference in July at The Auerbach Center, it was impossible (for me, anyway) not to notice that he has moved on from the good, the bad and (ultimately) the ugly of the 2022–23 season and is poised to take his team into a new season.
A casual reading of the training camp news coverage reveals not much in the way of harkening back to last season, and there are no ghosts of Marcus Smart glooming up the room. Not that Smart wasn’t a well-respected player who contributed nine productive seasons to the Celtic scrapbook. He was, and he did. It’s just that
he’s gone now, and, well, let’s say it all together: That’s history, pal.
OK, so this hasn’t stopped Smart from making his own contributions to the run-up to the 2023–24 Celtics season, as when the newly minted Memphis Grizzlies player told The Athletic ’s Weiss, “You always want to be where you’re wanted, and another team’s trash is another team’s gold.”
Smart also rolled it out there he was none too pleased to learn of the trade not through a phone call from Stevens but from a tweet delivered by The Athletic ’s Shams Charania.
It’s not that the Celtics didn’t “want” Smart. It’s just that they want more to win, and Stevens is of the belief that his team is better equipped to achieve this goal by having Porziņģis wearing its colors.
Marcus Smart, then, is all about the last nine seasons.
As for the Celtics, unburdened by history, untethered to the past, they are on to New York and to the 2023–24 season.
RIGHT: Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla talks with reporters during media day in Boston on Oct. 2, 2023.
DAVID BUTLER II / USA TODAY SPORTS
Kristaps Porziņģis delivers in crunchtime as Celtics get ugly season-opening win
BY JARED WEISS
NEW YORK — Even Wyc Grousbeck knew there needed to be a change.
The Boston Celtics governor said in an interview with WEEI this week that he started to think about making changes to the team during Game 7 of the conference finals and told Joe Mazzulla and Brad Stevens 48 hours later that they were not bringing back the same team. He knew the offense needed more answers during the toughest moments.
Mazzulla learned a lot in his first season, but one of the vital lessons was how to evolve the offense. He devised a system that was ideal in theory, trying to generate drive and kicks to create open 3s.
When it worked, the Celtics got better shot quality than anyone in the league. But even when they got the opportunities they wanted, they had some bitterly cold nights when they mattered most. Then in crunchtime, the defense would tighten up, those driving lanes would shrink, then Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown would try to create something out of nothing.
OPPOSITE: Boston Celtics center Kristaps Porziņģis (8) hangs on the rim after a dunk in the first quarter against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 25, 2023, in New York. WENDELL CRUZ / USA TODAY SPORTS
PUBLISHED OCT. 25, 2023
There needed to be some variety. It was something Ime Udoka talked about when the Celtics lost the NBA Finals in 2022 to a brilliant defense.
Once Mazzulla went through the ringer of a postseason run, he saw it, too.
So they blew things up, trading away some of the team’s most beloved players, the guys who epitomized the kind of toughness and hustle this team wanted to embrace. In came Kristaps Porziņģis, someone who has always excelled on paper but hasn’t led a winner. They followed it up with Jrue Holiday, who you simply need to watch to understand the breadth of his impact. It was all in an effort to not only build a more star-studded cast that can’t be denied in the biggest minutes of the game but to give the team more options. To let the players know that they can clean up after their mistakes and not have to swing for the fences to get back into games.
And things started out so easily, with Porziņģis scoring in just about every way possible in his 15-point first quarter Wednesday against the New York Knicks. But then he disappeared, not hitting another shot until the end of the third. Then in the final six minutes of the game, he subtly took over in the simple way the Celtics have been dreaming of.
It was as easy as putting him and one of the
Jays in the high pick-and-roll, then letting the defense decide what happens next. The Knicks decided to abandon him and blitz the ball, giving him wide-open 3s. The one he buried with 90 seconds left finally gave the Celtics back a lead they wouldn’t relinquish, starting off the season with a 108–104 win.
“It’s important to show what my mindset is in tight games like this and probably showing them that I’ll be there,” Porziņģis said. “I’ll be there and do what I can on both ends. I think today was a good step for us to build that trust.”
The Celtics needed something easy they could get to that would take the pressure off their best players, and it worked to bring home an ugly win.
“He just makes us that much more dynamic, obviously, with his size, ability to shoot, make plays off the dribble,” Tatum said. “When they double me late, make the right play, find an open man. Obviously, he can shoot from wherever. I mean, he’s really good. He’s really, really good. We’re lucky to have him.”
After a dominant preseason, things couldn’t have started out better. There was one moment in the first quarter when Porziņģis looked to be in trouble. It was just him and Mitchell Robinson all alone in the corner, battling it out in the post. Porziņģis didn’t want a bailout. He thought he
“For the first time in years, the Celtics had a third player who couldn’t be stopped. Someone who can get a bucket anywhere, anyhow. ”
JARED WEISS
had this.
But Robinson kept bodying him up, finally on the verge of getting a stop. Then Porziņģis kept going at him until Robinson lost control, fouling the Celtics center as he went up for a jumper.
A few moments later, Porziņģis was stuck on an island trying to cross up Isaiah Hartenstein. Just when it looked like he couldn’t get anywhere, he just launched a deep 3 that dropped right in. The next play, an easy pick-and-pop 3.
For the first time in years, the Celtics had a third player who couldn’t be stopped. Someone who can get a bucket anywhere, anyhow. It’s the thin but vital line between a good player and a great one. Everything the Knicks tried to take away from Porziņģis, he kept finding something in the end.
Porziņģis became the first Celtic to score 30 points in his franchise debut. Holiday hardly looked like himself. Brown had one of his worst scoring performances in the past year. But at the end of the game, it didn’t matter.
Porziņģis got hit with the first flopping technical in Celtics history and apparently realized that was his recipe for success. Over the final five minutes, he kept getting to the line off marginal contact with the team already in the bonus. Meanwhile, the Knicks blew crucial free throws at just about every opportunity, missing 12 shots
at the line on the night.
After his free throws chipped away at New York’s lead, Porziņģis and Tatum ran a flawless pick-and-pop for the big to bury a deep 3. It was the first glimpse at the kinds of two-man actions the Celtics can call up in crunchtime in lieu of the isos Tatum and Brown depended upon last year. Mazzulla loved running guards in for ghost screens last season, trying to get the defense to fumble a switch and give someone room to make a play.
But when the defense didn’t mess it up, it meant a ballhandler had to just try to beat someone off the dribble. That gets exhausting, predictable and leads to poor shot quality. Whether it’s the pickand-pop with Porziņģis or working into the post to at least collapse the defense a bit, the Celtics are showing the early signs of a crunchtime offense that can just do something different on a given night.
“We have so many weapons, so many guys that can make things happen at the end,” Porziņģis said. “It’s just about us creating that chemistry and trust in each other and making the right play at the end.”
They dialed up the Porziņģis pick-and-pops to counter the Knicks’ blitzing defense, but they can go to the post if there’s a switch or let Brown and Tatum waltz into pull-ups if the defense drops
on Porziņģis rolls. Just the simple dominance of these individual players can finally put defenses in positions where they have to give up a good option to take away a great one.
“(Porziņģis) has an innate ability to put two on the ball, whether they’re trying to pop and veer (a defensive switch), whether they’re trying to blitz him, and so when he gets the space, he’s a magnet,” Mazzulla said. “So we just have to continue to get better at our spacing, get better at our twoon-one reads and they’re going to look different than they did at times last year with him on the floor, but because of him we can get to some more post-ups like we did down the stretch and really change the spacing of the game throughout the game.”
The Celtics have so many issues to work through, from figuring out how to rebound and close out when Porziņģis is manning the paint as the lone big. Holiday needs to find his way in the offense. The bench needs to hit a shot.
But they have the answers in the end, something that has always been this team’s biggest challenge. For their new center to come into his former home, hear the crowd chant “F— Porziņģis” and bring home a win they could have easily given away, that’s the kind of messy reliability this team needs.
“That was awesome. That was awesome,” Porziņģis said. “I’m not going to lie.”
OPPOSITE: Boston Celtics center Kristaps Porziņģis (8) blocks a shot taken by New York Knicks guard RJ Barrett (9) in the first quarter at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 25, 2023, in New York. WENDELL CRUZ / USA TODAY SPORTS
Controversial Jayson Tatum foul overturned as Cavs snap Celtics’ 11-game winning streak
BY JARED WEISS PUBLISHED MARCH 5, 2024
CLEVELAND — It had to happen eventually.
The Boston Celtics might be the best team in the NBA, but they’re not perfect.
They’re imposing on paper and impressive on the floor. But their consistent, dynamic system is all about thinking fast and playing slow. They try to identify the opponent’s weakness quickly and then start digging at it.
But what happens when the opponent can’t stop missing? You get what happened Tuesday, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ biggest fourth-quarter comeback in franchise history.
“Any given night, you can lose,” Jaylen Brown said after the Cavs’ 105–104 win, snapping the Celtics’ 11-game winning streak. “Tonight, obviously in this fashion, (Dean) Wade scores 20 in the fourth, and da-da-da-la-la, everything goes their way. We haven’t really seen a team storm back like that. But, you know, it happens. It’s the league, the NBA, anything can happen.”
Anything, such as Dean Wade’s burying five
LEFT: Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) drives to the basket against Cleveland Cavaliers guard Sam Merrill (5) during the first half at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on March 5, 2024, in Cleveland. COURTESY USA
3s in the fourth quarter to erase Boston’s huge advantage. The Celtics’ execution and defensive rebounding abandoned them and so did their 22-point lead.
“Everybody’s gonna have their own perspective on it. Mine is is that that’s what happens when you don’t match the gas and take little things for granted throughout the game and let a team stick around,” Brown said. “They’re still NBA players, and tip your cap to D Wade. He got hot, we wasn’t expecting or accounting for that. But we still should’ve won this game.”
Boston had plenty of time to slow Cleveland’s progress, but it wasn’t playing in transition off of misses like it used to. Picking up cross matches was difficult, and Cleveland’s switching scheme kept Boston from getting clean driving lanes.
Because the Celtics’ spacing was a little cramped, they rarely found open kickout lanes when they did get anywhere with the ball. There were a few times Kristaps Porziņģis, Jrue Holiday and Jayson Tatum got clean spot-up 3s, but they bricked those, too.
“We kind of were on top of each other,” Brown said. “There was plenty of opportunities to get to some good matchups and things we feel
For Celtics, Joe Mazzulla winning remains the priority: ‘This is fun’
BY JAY KING
BOSTON — Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla couldn’t have known the chaos headed the Celtics’ way Friday night but inadvertently set the stage for the madness about an hour and a half before tipoff. No matter who the Celtics put on the court, Mazzulla said, winning would be their priority.
“We have an opportunity to win tonight,” Mazzulla said. “That’s the most important thing. We talked about that at shootaround today, so nothing else matters except taking advantage of every opportunity to win. You should always want to win in everything you do, any time going through the process of winning.”
Boston’s 101–100 win over the Sacramento Kings would end with a Xavier Tillman go-ahead basket and a desperate Boston stop, all while the team’s starters watched from the bench. With the top seed in the Eastern Conference, the best record in the NBA and home-court advantage throughout the playoffs already wrapped up, the Celtics rested some of their key players entirely and gave others limited minutes. Despite the
OPPOSITE: Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla works with the team during a timeout during the first half against the Sacramento Kings at TD Garden on April 5, 2024, in Boston. ERIC CANHA / USA TODAY SPORTS
PUBLISHED APRIL 6, 2024
strategy, intended to leave the team as fresh as possible for the playoffs, Mazzulla didn’t want Boston’s players on the court to take it easy. The remaining games will not matter in the standings, but they will matter to Mazzulla.
That the Celtics prevailed in such a dramatic fashion, with Tillman hitting his first game-winning bucket since his junior college season, only seemed to invigorate the coach further.
“This is fun,” Mazzulla said afterward. “This is awesome. Couldn’t simulate a better environment of stress, pressure, chaos. It’s a perfect environment to execute. That’s why when those guys are in, you hold them to the same standard you hold everybody else to. I thought they did a great job just making plays.”
After the Celtics’ bench gave up all of a 19-point fourth-quarter lead, Tillman capitalized on a hectic sequence to push his team back ahead on a floater with 8.4 seconds left. The jumbled mess started with Sam Hauser driving to the hoop on the right side of the floor. The Celtics wanted a foul on his shot attempt, which was blocked, but the referees held off on the whistle. That sent Hauser, near the end of a hideous 1-for-18 shooting performance, scrambling to save possession with his team trailing by a single point. Keegan Murray secured the ball first, but Hauser
poked it away.
“You couldn’t tell by his effort defensively that he wasn’t shooting the ball well on offense,” Mazzulla said. “He probably got pissed at himself that he missed, but that’s a huge component, is to be able to not be affected by it to where you can’t execute other parts of your job. So, I think that was really fun to see that in him.”
The ball made its way to Tillman, one of the least likely Celtics players to hit a game-winning shot. He entered Friday with a 9.6 usage rate since joining Boston at the trade deadline, the lowest mark of anyone who has played for the team this season. Over limited playing time, he has scored just 8.8 points per 36 minutes with the Celtics; that paltry number highlights his minimal offensive role. But when good fortune set him up with an opportunity to rescue Boston on Friday, he picked up the loose ball, dribbled past Murray’s closeout and drained a floater over a Harrison Barnes shot contest.
“I knew it was good as soon as it left my hand,” Tillman said.
Mazzulla could be seen signaling for a timeout before Tillman’s shot, but the referees missed it. That was fortunate for the Celtics, as Tillman went on to drill a 13-footer.
“It was kind of chaotic at the end,” Kristaps
Celtics head back to NBA Finals in more mature form: ‘We’re
not satisfied’
JAY KING
INDIANAPOLIS — On a table in the center of the Boston Celtics locker room late Monday night sat a variety of beer choices for the Eastern Conference champions. Coronas. Kona Big Waves. Bud Lites. Miller Lites.
Not long after capping off a 105–102 Game 4 win with a go-ahead assist to Derrick White, which clinched a series sweep of the Indiana Pacers, Jaylen Brown walked past some celebrating teammates and put his hand on Jayson Tatum’s shoulder. Together, amid the party around them, they agreed they had not yet finished their job.
“Four more,” Tatum said to his teammate. Brown nodded back: Four more wins. Though the Celtics enjoyed themselves after clinching a spot in the NBA Finals for the second time in the past three seasons, their two All-Stars already had the next prize in mind — even if the next series will not start for more than a week. Tatum and Brown have experienced enough playoff heartache over the years to know how quickly a great season can disintegrate. In 2022, the only other year when they captured the Eastern Conference title, their season peaked with it. That playoff run burned down with three straight losses to the Golden State Warriors in the finals, including two fourth-quarter meltdowns. After
PUBLISHED MAY 28, 2024
falling to the Warriors in six games, Boston players and coaches left the series believing they did not have the collective IQ to overcome a proven champion. If the Celtics are more prepared for the finals now, as they believe they are, it will be because of how much they have developed since then.
“Time has gone by,” Brown said. “Experience has been gained. And I think we are ready to put our best foot forward.”
The Celtics closed out the Eastern Conference finals by holding the Pacers scoreless over the final 3:32 of Game 4. After falling behind by nine points earlier in the quarter, Boston limited Indiana to 4-for-13 shooting with three turnovers over the last 8:45. Brown capped the comeback by blocking an Andrew Nembhard layup attempt off the backboard with about a minute left before finding Derrick White all alone in the corner for a game-winning 3-pointer. The connection showed off years of hard work by each player. Brown, who used to drive with blinders on, stayed poised enough to see the entire court in the biggest moment of the game. White, whose confidence used to waver, drilled the shot after opening the game 1 for 8 on 3-point attempts.
Al Horford believed the Celtics’ growth was also evident after the shot. He remembered
how Boston dropped Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals last season after White’s unforgettable tip-in at the buzzer of Game 6.
“For us, obviously, we’re not satisfied,” Horford said. “We’re enjoying this one tonight. Different than last year, I feel like our mindset is pretty clear. We understand what we need to do. We need to finish this.”
That Game 7 against the Miami Heat is just one ugly mark on the Celtics’ recent playoff resume. They know their past is held against them. In the finals, they will have an opportunity to prove it no longer applies.
“We feel like we’re a different team than we were last year and the year before that,” Brown said. “I know everybody wants to continue to kind of pigeonhole us to what was happening in the past but we’ve had a different team every single year, different coaches, we’ve had like three
“We feel like we’re a different team than we were last year and the year before that.”
JAYLEN BROWN
“I feel like we’re more mature. And we’re in a better place.”
AL HORFORD
took them to the limit. And then right away seven-game series against Miami, literally two, three days off, having to play Golden State in the finals. It was a lot for our group. It was very overwhelming, and I feel like we were trying to catch on the whole time there.”
This time, the Celtics have given themselves a less stressful journey both physically and mentally. Horford said they have taken advantage of their opportunities.
“I feel like we’re more mature,” Horford said. “And we’re in a better place.”
The Celtics will need to show their maturity again in the finals. Their likely opponent, the Dallas Mavericks, has one of the league’s best duos in Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving. Of course, Tatum and Brown know Irving well as their former teammate. During his second season in Boston, which was marked by nonstop turmoil, Irving called out the young players on the team for not being ready to play championship basketball. Those young guys included Tatum and Brown. Five years later, they have grown up. And they think they have the Celtics ready.
OPPOSITE: The Boston Celtics celebrate their win against the Indiana Pacers following Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on May 27, 2024, in Indianapolis. TREVOR RUSZKOWSKI / USA TODAY SPORTS
“Knowing that, I have to be the best version of myself. I have to make the right decisions because he’s always watching.”
JAYSON TATUM
Even if he wasn’t ready for it, just like with his son, he had to quickly learn how to handle responsibility. That came with appreciating he was becoming a leader
“When you come into the NBA, you just think every organization, every franchise is the same. That couldn’t be any further from the truth,” Tatum said. “I’ve been fortunate to be a part of something that is special, that has had some of the greatest players to ever play wear this uniform.”
After an embarrassing Game 4 loss to the Mavericks, Game 5 on Monday presents another opportunity for Tatum with the Celtics up 3–1 in the series. While the Celtics don’t want to be compared to teams of the past, Game 4 felt like the kind of letdown that has held prior versions of the Tatum and Jaylen Brown-led Celtics back.
Tatum is a different player now, even compared to last season. He built his stardom with a lethal stepback 3, but he’s shooting 29 percent from deep this postseason.
This is his first playoff without a 40-point game since 2020, when he first became the team’s primary scorer after Irving’s departure. There hasn’t been the signature performance from Tatum that has defined each of his deep yet unsuccessful playoff runs up to now.
Part of the reason Tatum hasn’t had one of
those 40-point games is that it’s not quite his role anymore. He takes on more responsibility to make the team run smoothly, playing as a pass-first player most of the night for the first time in his career.
Even though his game has changed much over the years, he’ll undoubtedly go to his signature shot in an important moment. Tatum’s favorite spot for his stepback 3 is the left elbow. It’s right next to Deuce’s usual seat at TD Garden.
Tatum and the Celtics are in a position to earn a title. He’s hoping to show his son the culmination of everything he’s learned over the past seven years.
“Knowing that, I have to be the best version of myself,” Tatum said. “I have to make the right decisions because he’s always watching.”
RIGHT: Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) dribbles the ball against Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Dončić (77) during the first quarter of Game 4 on June 14, 2024, in Dallas. PETER CASEY / USA TODAY SPORTS
LEFT: Boston Celtics forward Sam Hauser (30) battles for the ball against Dallas Mavericks center Daniel Gafford (21) during the first quarter of Game 4 on June 14, 2024, in Dallas.
PETER CASEY / USA TODAY SPORTS
OPPOSITE: Boston Celtics forward Xavier Tillman (26) drives to the basket against Dallas Mavericks forward P.J. Washington (25) during the first quarter of Game 4 on June 14, 2024, in Dallas.
PETER CASEY / USA TODAY SPORTS
BELOW LEFT: Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving (11) tries to steal the ball from Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) during the first half of Game 4 on June 14, 2024, in Dallas.
JEROME MIRON / USA TODAY SPORTS