After good rise, Tatum, Celtics fall flat late in Finals

BOSTON — When Jayson Tatum made consecutive baskets to cap a game-opening Boston blitz, TD Garden was at its absolute loudest.

It sure got quiet in a hurry. So did Tatum.

After climbing back to the top of the Eastern Conference, the Celtics fell flat in the latter stages of the NBA Finals. The Golden State Warriors won the final three games, taking the title with a 103-90 victory in Game 6 on Thursday night.

“It’s just tough getting to this point and not accomplishing what we want to,” Tatum said. “It hurts.”

He wouldn’t say if his right shoulder did, after he occasionally grabbed at during the postseason. But he just wasn’t strong with the ball or accurate with his shot the way he was during some sensational performances earlier.

“It was just a tough night,” Tatum said.

It was the first three-game skid for the Celtics since December, back when they were a faltering, sub-.500 team that looked nothing like a contender.

Instead, they became one of the best teams in the league, in part because of the brilliance of Tatum, who was voted first-team All-NBA for the first time.

But he finished with just 13 points on 6-for-18 shooting in Game 6, with only one basket in the second half.

“One thing that he’s always done throughout the season was seeing multiple different coverages and figured it out. He did that throughout the first few series. This was a rough one,” Celtics coach Ime Udoka said. “Very consistent team that did some things to limit him and make others pay.”

Tatum was sharp at the start, with the final five points in the opening 14-2 run. He added a third basket in the first quarter to give the Celtics a 22-16 lead, but that was their last points before getting overrun by an avalanche of 21 straight Golden State points.

That made it 37-22 early in the second quarter, leaving Celtics fans in stunned silence — which was broken later in the quarter when they even booed the home team.