Jayson Tatum, six months after NBA Finals loss - 'I know what it takes now' - ESPN

Editor's note: This story was originally published on Dec. 23, 2022. On Sunday, Jayson Tatum scored 51 points in Boston's Game 7 win against Philadelphia.

JAYSON TATUM HAS replayed the two air balls he shot in the fourth quarter of the Boston Celtics' loss to the Golden State Warriors in Game 5 of the NBA Finals so many times he can tell you every last detail of the plays. From the way Andrew Wiggins and Kevon Looney were defending him to the footwork he used to set up his fadeaway from the elbow and the 3-pointer he'd confidently taken and made just a minute earlier.

The ball had come out of his hands just as he wanted it to. This was what he lived for.

«I thought [they were] going in,» he says.

Then both shots fell a foot short.

The first air ball he shook off quickly. But the second one in the span of a few minutes was hard to reconcile. Tatum rarely shows what he's feeling on the court. He's stoic. But his disbelief at how his body had failed him was obvious as he ran back on defense.

He wasn't afraid of the moment.

«I was just exhausted,» he says. «Mentally, physically. All the stress and pressure that I was putting on myself.

»I remember those plays vividly."

He's spent virtually every moment since thinking about them and why he and the Celtics came up short last June — working to ensure it never happens again.

«Talent-wise, we were right there with them,» Tatum says of the Warriors. «But you could tell that they had been there before. You could tell they didn't panic. They were just mentally tougher than we were and that's a hard pill to swallow.»

The first few days after Golden State finished off the Celtics in Game 6, Tatum barely left his house. He left his phone on the counter, wandered around and moped. His