Jayson Tatum was having a terrific season right till the 2022 NBA Finals. He was hands down the best player for the Celtics during the regular season, helping them clinch the second seed in the loaded Eastern Conference.
Come playoff time, JT stepped up his game and played phenomenally against the Brooklyn Nets, Milwaukee Bucks, and Miami Heat. He also won the Larry Bird Eastern Conference Finals MVP.
It was obvious that Tatum was in amazing form, heading into the 2022 NBA Finals. But as the most important series of Tatum’s young career started, his form faded away. He had a forgettable series and failed to live up to the expectations of the Celtics fans.
In Game 6 of the series, when his team was facing elimination, Tatum had a chance to become a last-minute hero. Unfortunately, he couldn’t shake off his poor form and ended up with just 13 points to his name. As a result, the Warriors comfortably won the game and clinched the 2022 NBA Championship.
During the postgame conference, Tatum was aware of his poor performance. He talked about his feelings after coming so close to winning an NBA Championship but failed to capitalize on that opportunity.
"Just poise at times throughout this series and previous series"
Jayson Tatum on what he needs to improve for next year pic.twitter.com/2XsIXSxDx0
— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) June 17, 2022
“I just keep saying – it hurts. Being with this group, the things we’ve overcome throughout the season to get to this point. Just knowing how bad we wanted it and coming up short. It’s a terrible feeling. Just a level of poise at times throughout this series and the previous series, myself included. Taking care of the ball, things like that. But it’s easy to look back and say all the things we could’ve done better. We tried.”
It’s good to know that Tatum is aware of his shortcomings this season and the reason why they weren’t a match for the Dubs.
Heading into the 2022-2023 NBA season, Tatum has a chance at using this defeat to his benefit and trying to improve his game as much as possible.
