Luka Dončić is starting his NBA Finals journey under the spotlight with no place to hide

DALLAS — Jayson Tatum remembers how it felt: being just five minutes away from a 3-1 lead in his first NBA Finals … only to watch Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green lead a 17-3 closing kick to steal Game 4, home-court advantage and, eventually, the championship.

“We learned from our mistakes,” Tatum said Wednesday, two years removed from that lesson, after his Celtics took a 3-0 lead in the 2024 NBA Finals. “We learned from a team at the time that was better than us — that had been there and been over that hump, and mentally tougher at the time.

“We’ve grown from that. We really have.”

Jaylen Brown remembers how it felt: having crawled out of the insurmountable 0-3 hole to force a Game 7 in the 2023 Eastern Conference finals … only to see Tatum sprain his ankle on the opening possession, all but eliminating his ability to create off the dribble. With the offense suddenly resting on his shoulders and the spotlight trained squarely on him, Brown faltered, shooting 8-for-23 from the field with eight turnovers in a loss he says haunted him for months.

“Last year, just falling short on your home floor, it definitely hurt. It was embarrassing, in my opinion,” Brown said at Celtics practice on Thursday, ahead of Friday’s closeout opportunity in Game 4. “I felt like the team was relying on me. JT got hurt in Game 7 and I dropped the ball. To me, it was embarrassing. It drove me all summer. Drove me crazy.”

It drove him here — to playing like a two-way superstar in the biggest games of his career; to the precipice of hoisting the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy; to the verge of redemption, or something like it.

“My experiences, the heartbreaks, the losses, have all kind of cultivated into what you see now,” Brown said at Tuesday’s practice. “I don’t want to feel that again.”

Luka Dončić picked up his sixth foul trying to draw a charge on Jaylen Brown during the fourth quarter in Game 3 of the NBA Finals. (Photo by Danielle Parhizkaran/The Boston Globe via Getty)

Which brings us to Luka Dončić — both the unwitting foil in this chapter of Tatum and Brown’s entry…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-06-14 01:34:06

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