When things got tight, the Celtics embraced the greatness of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum - The Boston Globe (2024)

Boston was held to 2 points in nearly eight minutes, watching a 91-70 lead whittle down to 93-92 after a Kyrie Irving jumper. Two years ago, with a chance to take a 3-1 lead against the Warriors, the Celtics wasted a 4-point lead in the final five minutes and never won another game.

They were worn down by a more experienced team, a team that knew how to flourish in those clutch moments. It’s taken several more experiences since that series for Boston to master late-game execution and honestly, it still hasn’t completely.

“You just alluded to it; that we’ve been in that situation,” Tatum said. “We’ve been in a close game where we were up, and we almost went up 3-1, and then they tied it. And experience is the best teacher. We learned from our mistakes. 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. It was on display tonight.”

But the Celtics have proven with close playoff wins against the Cavaliers, Pacers, and now the Mavericks, they are resilient when times are difficult. Brown began the game-sealing surge with a putback of a Tatum miss for a 3-point lead with 3:08 left.

Derrick White, the always reliable one, offered more cushion with a critical 3-pointer. Tatum and Brown then sensed vulnerability. Luka Doncic had fouled out. The Mavericks were clinging to Kyrie Irving and his disappointing complements to make plays. Tatum padded the lead with a spinning move off Josh Green for a two-handed dunk.

And finally, with the Celtics hanging on to a 2-point lead, Brown drove left handed, stopped and then popped a midrange jumper in the face of Tim Hardaway Jr.

With Kristaps Porzingis out and the Celtics needing dominant offensive games from their cornerstones, they combined for 61 points on 23-for-49 shooting.

Brown scored 24 of the Celtics’ 56 second-half points. He was magnificent in stretches, even completed a late-third quarter run with a hammer dunk and then a growl near the Mavericks bench. The Celtics have been the better team throughout this series and Brown’s second half punctuated their prowess with his best game of the series.

“I mean, how can I explain Jaylen?” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “The guy just has a growth mindset. He just wants to get better. He yearns to get better. He’s not afraid to face his weaknesses on the court. So when you have that type of mindset, you’re just going to be able to take on every situation that the game brings you. He puts himself in every single situation that he sees in a game. He uses six, seven, eight coaches a day, and every situation on both ends of the floor, he puts himself in that.

“And that’s how you have to grow, is to become vulnerable and on the things that make you uncomfortable, and he does that.”

There has been doubt about the Celtics’ road to these NBA Finals because they played shorthanded opponents in a conference that was weakened overall by injuries. This series was supposed to be the ultimate challenge, facing a MVP candidate in Doncic and the dazzling Irving.

They were expected to wilt when the Mavericks punched first, taking an early 13-point lead. But because of experience, because of their learned ability to never panic and never crack – even though the fourth quarter was hairy — the Celtics prevailed because they are the best collective team in the NBA.

“Experience is the best teacher,” Brown said. “All year long, we’ve been hearing about the Celtics are the past, for the last six to eight months, that’s all we’ve been hearing is all the different shortcomings we’ve had in the past. This is a new team, you know what I mean? We’ve learned from those experiences. And in these moments, you can see that we learned from it. We stepped up to the plate, and we found a way to win.”

Doncic and Irving had little help, and that boost that was supposed to come from the Dallas supporting cast because they were at home only came in spurts. The Celtics got buckets from White, a rare 3-pointer from little-used Xavier Tillman, and a couple of key defensive plays from Sam Hauser.

They are battering the Mavericks with their depth, and when it counts their maligned but indispensable pair delivered when it mattered most. They have grown up in front of our eyes, and after the victory they embraced at center court, shared words and some smiles. The journey is nearly over, and they have proven ready for the moment.

“Just you know showing the emotions of the game,” Tatum said. “Two guys that was excited, tired, that you know, after the game, we just -- we’re not necessarily saying like one more or anything like that. We are just saying, however long it takes. Nobody is relaxed. Nobody is satisfied. Just at that moment, you know, just told him I was proud of him and he said the same thing; that we’ve got to keep fighting. We can’t relax.”

Gary Washburn is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at gary.washburn@globe.com. Follow him @GwashburnGlobe.