Celtics Fairy Tale Season Has a Nightmarish Ending at the Hands of Steph Curry, Golden State

Turnovers (22), shoddy offense and no real contributions form the bench, contribute to Golden State securing its fourth NBA title in eight seasons.

This sucks.

Coming oh-so-close to winning an NBA championship with a relatively young team is the next best thing to winning it, right?

You can bet the Boston Celtics will spend the next few hours pulling out every positive nugget they can come up with following Golden State’s 103-90 Game 6 win which clinched Golden State’s fourth NBA title in the last eight years.

Golden State did what the great ones do and that's find a way to win regardless.

Game 6 wasn’t Golden State’s shining moment in the series, falling behind 14-2 to start the game in addition to seeing its 22-point lead in the third quarter down to just 10 points going into the fourth.

But a barrage of 3-pointers (19 to be exact) overcame those early doldrums for the Warriors and carried them offensively when very little else worked.

As much as the focus for many will be on Steph Curry finally winning an NBA Finals MVP award, it’s impossible to ignore the disappearing act in this series better known to most, as Jayson Tatum.

The 24-year-old was named to the All-NBA First Team this year, the kind of lofty accolades that brings about a certain level of expectations in the playoffs.

And as the Celtics advanced from one round to the next, the pressure to deliver only intensified for Tatum. For the most part, he was up to the challenge.

His numbers throughout the Finals were solid on paper. But the truth is, Tatum never took control in a must-win Game 6 let alone the series, the way a top-5 player typically does on a stage of this magnitude.

And while no one will question whether Tatum belongs among the game’s top-tier talent, it’s hard to look at the Finals and not come away feeling as though Tatum simply didn’t rise to the moment when his team desperately needed him to.

He showed flashes of being “Top-5 Tatum,” but that’s never going to be good enough to win a championship.

The Celtics needed him to dominate the game as a scorer, make an impact defensively and force the Warriors to dig a little deeper into their playbook to try and slow him down.

That never happened.

Instead, we saw the Warriors double-team Tatum from time to time, mixing in an occasional blitz when he stopped his dribble near a corner or the sideline while leaning heavily on their usual man-to-man and help coverage to keep him from going off.

It worked.

The Celtics will look back on their season fondly, a season that began with a slew of problems that ended with an unexpected surge that ended with a trip to the NBA Finals.

And while most of Boston’s core players are likely to be back next season, there’s no guarantee that a return trip next year is in the cards.

Milwaukee returned most of its core from last year’s NBA championship squad and they didn’t even get past the second round of the playoffs. Ditto for the Phoenix Suns out West after being eliminated by the Dallas Mavericks in the second round.

Whatever promise the Celtics see in themselves going forward, it all begins and ends with Jayson Tatum.

He has proven himself to be one of the NBA’s best players.

But as we saw in the Finals, being a good player isn’t good enough to win an NBA title. His usual smattering of great moments was more of a flicker that illuminated like a firefly; bright enough to know it’s there but not nearly enough to lead one out of darkness.

Here are the Stars, Studs and Duds from Boston’s season-ending Game 6 loss to Golden State in the NBA Finals.

STARS

Stephen Curry: A no-brainer for NBA Finals MVP, Stephen Curry was once again coming up with one big shot after another for the Golden State Warriors. He would finish the game with another strong performance, scoring 34 points to go with seven assists and seven rebounds.

Jaylen Brown: The debate should no longer be about whether the Jays can play together. You don’t get to the NBA Finals solely on luck or happenstance. But a legit discussion can be had as to who should be the team’s Alpha going forward, Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown. Because in the most important game of their still-young careers, Jaylen Brown was by far the more impactful player. He led the Celtics with 34 points to go with seven rebounds and three assists.

STUDS

Jordan Poole: One of the NBA’s top Sixth Men this past season, Jordan Poole was a major problem for the Boston Celtics’ defense. He came off the Warriors bench and scored 15 points which included a trio of made 3-pointers.

Al Horford: One of the few Celtics that played with the necessary sense of urgency, Al Horford tallied 19 points on 5-for-8 shooting from the field to go along with 14 rebounds.

Draymond Green: Golden State’s Mr. Do-It-All was delivering on all fronts in Game 6, finishing with a near triple-double of 12 points, eight assists and 12 rebounds. His impact in terms of communicating defensively, closing off driving lanes and basically out-muscling most of the Celtics all game, was a major factor in Golden State’s ability to take control late in the first quarter and never give it up afterward.

DUDS

Jayson Tatum: In what should have been Jayson Tatum’s breakout game, the 24-year-old never elevated his play to meet the moment or the magnitude of what was at stake in Game 6. Tatum would finish with a statistically solid game of 13 points on 6-for-18 shooting along with seven rebounds and three assists. But there were just too many empty possessions where the Celtics needed someone to emerge and Tatum, time and time again, wasn’t there to carry them.