Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and the Boston Celtics came up short in the 2022 NBA Finals, as they watched the Golden State Warriors celebrate winning a championship at the TD Garden.

In the Finals, a wrist injury limited Tatum to a 21.5 points per game on 31.5 percent shooting from inside the arc on his 2-pointers. The next year, a sprained ankle limited him in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Miami Heat, as Boston went on to lose that game.

While reflecting on the past, Tatum believes this is a “second chance” for himself, and the team, to get the job done and essentially right the wrong of losing in 2022 and unable to make it back in 2023.

“It’s a lot that myself, and we, can learn from that experience being in the Finals, and this time, this go-around is a lot different. Obviously, we’ve been there before, we came up short. And a great opportunity to make it to the Finals again. You don’t always get a second chance, so really just looking at it as a second chance and trying to simplify things as much as we can. It’s another series that we got to win.”

The Celtics have dominated in the playoffs, taking out whatever team stands in front of them, but they haven’t faced a team yet that’s as equipped as the Dallas Mavericks with two top-notch superstars in Kyrie Irving and Luca Dončić.

Boston is prepared to handle Dallas, however, they’ll need Porzingis to do so, something that the Mavericks weren’t able to unlock with him but is now a weapon for the Celtics.

“We switch things up a lot, and we have so many talented, gifted players on the offensive and defensive end. Everybody’s just got to be open to trying to different things. And I give KP a lot of credit, especially somebody as talented as he is and obviously as tall as he is. A lot of the big guys may be stuck in their ways doing what makes them comfortable. He got outside his comfort zone a little bit, and it made us a better team.”

The storylines for both organizations are wild in the sense of how it all worked out in the end for these teams and players. On one hand, Boston gets a reunion with Irving while Dallas will get one with Kristaps Porzingis.

The way the dominos had fallen for Irving to end up in Dallas and Porzingis to end up in Boston is fascinating.

Game 1 of the NBA Finals is on Thursday in Boston at 8:30 PM.

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Photo Credit: Brian Fluharty, Getty Images