DALLAS – Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum embraced at half court.
The Boston Celtics were fresh off of a Dallas comeback, beating the Mavericks 106-99 on Wednesday to take a 3-0 lead in the NBA Finals.
The Celtics' two stars, Brown and Tatum, weren't celebrating.
But they understood the importance of this moment. Not only are the Celtics one win away from their first championship since 2008, but Brown and Tatum, key players drafted by the Celtics in 2016 and 2017, respectively, are on the brink of winning their first championships and silencing the doubters who never believed they could win a title together.
“It shows the emotion of the game,” Tatum explained. “Two guys after the game, excited and tired. We're not necessarily saying 'one more' or anything like that. We're just saying 'however long it takes.' Nobody's relaxed. Nobody's happy.”
“Just in that moment, I told him I was proud of him, and he said the same thing. We have to keep fighting. We can't let our guard down. That was basically what the conversation was about.”
“I'm just trying to focus on the moment,” Brown said. “It feels great to be up 3-0 in the series, but the job's not done yet.”
Brown and Tatum, in their seventh season playing together, were key factors in the Celtics' Game 3 win, and their maturity on the court was evident. Brown had 30 points, eight assists, eight rebounds and one block, while Tatum had 31 points, six rebounds, five assists and one steal. They are just the second pair of Boston teammates to score at least 30 points in an NBA Finals, joining John Havlicek (40 points) and Bailey Howell (30 points) in Game 6 of the 1968 Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Sure, the Celtics are a great offensive and defensive team with other valuable players outside of Brown and Tatum, but the team is built around these two.
“They know what shots to take and they have the ability to make the right shots over and over again,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said of his team's two stars.
In key moments, they made the plays that sealed the win. “Obviously, the strength of this team is the team,” Celtics guard Derrick White said. “But we know that JB and JT are our guys and they're going to make the big plays and make the right plays.”
“Most importantly, we trust them to make the right play every single time they're on the court. They've faced literally every cover known to man. … We have a lot of confidence in them.”
Brown and Tatum combined for 22 points, Brown with 15, as Boston outshot Dallas 35-19 in the third quarter and led 85-70 entering the fourth.
Then, after Dallas overturned a 21-point deficit to fall to 93-92 late in the fourth quarter, Brown and Tatum made shots to thwart a stunning comeback victory for Dallas.
“They're our leaders,” reserve forward Xavier Tillman said. “For them to step up and take over the game like they did in the third quarter is what we needed. They helped us out, especially in the last four or five minutes of the fourth quarter when we struggled to score. They stuck to the basket. Sometimes you need that and they delivered. We definitely needed that.”
Brown, 27, and Tatum, 26, have been together in multiple conference finals games and one NBA Finals, and while they've missed out on a title, Celtics management has never wavered in their faith in the duo.
Maybe last season or the season before, Game 3 was a game the Celtics lost, but they learned to win these games, and that comes from experience and becoming better players.
“We were able to make plays and find a way to win,” said Brown, the reigning Eastern Conference Finals MVP and Finals MVP candidate. “And we were in a similar situation and we lost. It was really good to be able to work through that with my brother Jason and the team. It was special.”
