Boston Celtics wing Jayson Tatum recently described his feelings after the Miami Heat beat the Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals in the 2019-20 season.
On J.J. Redick’s podcast, Tatum revealed that he thought Boston should have beat the Heat and advanced to the NBA Finals.
“I was 21 at the time,” Tatum said. “I remember when we lost, I was pissed because I felt like we could have and should have beat them. The Heat were a really good team, but there was a part of me that was like, ‘I got 15 more years.’”
Miami went on a crazy playoff run in the NBA’s Orlando, Fla. bubble that season, and it beat the Celtics in six games to advance to the NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Jimmy Butler and the Heat wound up short against the Lakers, but they showed immense potential that has carried on into the 2021-22 season. The additions of Kyle Lowry and P.J. Tucker have helped the Heat massively this season.
While Tatum may believe that Boston should have won the series, the Heat were able to get out to a commanding 3-1 series lead before eventually finishing things off in Game 6.
This season, Miami has been playing well, as it has the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference heading into the league’s All-Star break.
Tatum and the Celtics have been playing well this season too, as they won nine of their last 10 games before the All-Star break and climbed into the No. 6 seed in the East.
Miami may have gotten the best of Tatum in the 2019-20 season, but it will be interesting to see if the Heat can repeat that result if they get matched up with Boston in this year’s playoffs.
