Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart finally in the NBA Finals!

Many times they failed. Many times the step of the NBA Finals has been too high. But that’s it, they finally managed to validate their ticket to play the biggest series of the season. Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart are now Eastern champions after winning Game 7 in Miami tonight, a victory that demonstrates the maturing process of the Boston trio.

There was a time when many hexagon pundits wondered if Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown were meant to be together. There was a time when Marcus Smart was in the transfer rumours. There was a time when the latter publicly criticized the two strikers for their tendency not to pass the ball. It feels like a long time ago today, but that was just a few months ago, when the Celtics were light years away from looking like the current team that just secured their spot to compete in the NBA Finals. And as a symbol, it was this trio that led Boston to victory last night on the Heat court: 26 points – 10 rebounds – 6 assists for series MVP Jayson Tatum, 24 points – 6 rebounds – 6 assists for Mister Brown, 24 points – 9 rebounds – 5 assists for Marcus Smart. According to the Twitter account NBA history, only the second line in major league history to complete Game 7 with a 20-5-5 stat apiece. JT showed once again last night that he is now much more than an isolated scorer and that he has become a hyper-complete player and a real threat in the creation of the game. Next to him, in a number 2 role, Brown came to contribute his goalscoring qualities trying to limit errors as much as possible, and he did not forget to contribute in the rest of the aspects of the game. once again he is much more than the Defender of the Year for his team, matching his scoring record in these 2022 Playoffs and finishing as both the third leading scorer and the best passer for Boston in this series. In short, a great way to crown their greatest success together, they who have shared many ups and downs in recent years.

Jayson Tatum, Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown become the second trio to have at least 20 PTS, 5 REB and 5 AST in a Game 7! #NBA75 pic.twitter.com/3pmQ34gxrp

— NBA History (@NBAHistory) May 30, 2022

Brown and Smart were in their fourth conference finals this year against Miami. Jayson Tatum, who came to the NBA in 2017, played his third. Each time so far, he had finished in elimination at the gates of the NBA Finals. 2017 first, when LeBron James and Kyrie Irving’s Cavaliers simply crushed Boston 4-1. L’année suivante ensuite, when Boston – I wore notamment par a Brown en pleine progression et un Tatum pas loin d’être exceptionnel dans son costume de rookie – s’était leant de justesse contre le King de Cleveland lors d’un Game 7 à home. A great story given the absences of debutants Kyrie and Gordon Hayward, but the Game 7 loss had inevitably left a bad taste in the mouth, particularly for Jaylen and Marcus who had missed the event (5/18 on the shot to JB , 1/10 for Marcus). And then obviously, we haven’t forgotten about this series between Boston and Miami (already) in the Orlando bubble, won 4-2 by an opportunistic Heat against the errors of the Celtics. It’s notably in this bubble that chairs had been blown up in the locker room after the Game 2 loss, Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown even having to be separated by their teammates to prevent it from degenerating further.

You noticed for yourself, there is experience with these Celtics and this trio in particular. And yet, we could quote other episodes but it is not the subject at the moment of these lines. The thing is, the Tatum-Brown-Smart Greens just took a big step toward giving themselves the right to finally savor the NBA Finals., all this after a season with only a 50% win rate last year and a lackluster first half of the 2021-22 campaign. By winning the Eastern Conference this year, the trio showed they could work together to take the Celtics to a place they hadn’t been since 2010. As well as the very positive evolution of the Celtics across the field, all three can now savor your accomplishment, even if there are obviously still four successes left to go full circle.

“We went through a lot. Blood, sweat and tears. Every year when we were in this situation, we had to look in the mirror and it hurt. We didn’t want that to happen again. What we’ve had to go through the last couple of years, the adversity we encountered early in the season, allowed us to do what we needed to do in this Game 7. […] The franchise trusted us and allowed us to correct our mistakes. We grew and it was beneficial for us in the long run. »

– Marcus Smart, at a post-match press conference

Last December, hardly anyone believed in Boston’s ability to win the Eastern Conference. We wondered if the Tatum-Brown-Smart trio was about to explode. But here they are today, with the ‘NBA Finals 2022’ cap placed proudly on their heads and with dreams of title more intense than ever.

They finally made it.

FINALLY !

Tatum, Brown, Smart spent years cowering in the NBA Finals, wondering if this group has what it takes to make it.

Boston is back in the Finals, congratulations to Udoka and Brad Stevens, it’s huge for them.

— TrashTalk (@TrashTalk_fr) May 30, 2022