MIAMI — Boston’s Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum had been in these moments before – playing in the Eastern Conference finals with a trip to the NBA Finals so close. But they came up short.
There was even talk that maybe the Celtics should break up the Brown-Tatum tandem, and the rumblings about whether the Celtics could win a title – heck, even make the playoffs – grew louder when they were 18-21 and in 11th place in the Eastern Conference on Jan. 6.
“It was tough, like truly,” Tatum said. “There were definitely some tough moments throughout the season where – no doubt yourself but maybe question, can we do it? You start to realize how hard it is to win. You start to question yourself. Are you good enough to be that guy?”
Tatum and the Celtics answered those questions with a 100-96 victory against the Miami Heat in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Sunday.
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Boston will play the Golden State Warriors for the championship, starting with Game 1 Thursday in San Francisco (9 p.m. ET, ABC).
Tatum was named the winner of the first Larry Bird Trophy given to the MVP of the East finals. He averaged 25 points, 8.3 rebounds, 5.6 assists and shot 46.2% from the field.
“It’s an honor,” the 24-year-old Tatum said. “It still doesn’t even seem real right now. I’m just extremely happy and grateful for all of this. Regardless of how long I’ve been in the league, I’m not too far removed from when I was in high school and when I was dreaming about moments like this.”
First-time head coach Ime Udoka and Boston players will say not much came easy this season, and there’s truth to that.
“To get to this point…