The Celtics Need Tatum To Improve If They Want To Beat The Bucks
Hunter Felt Contributor
Boston Celtics' Jayson Tatum and Milwaukee Bucks' Brook Lopez go after a loose ball during the second half of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals on Sunday. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Just when it looks like the Boston Celtics had put things together, they followed up one of their best all-around performances of the season with maybe their worst. The Milwaukee Bucks blew the Celtics out of the water in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, beating them by the final score of 123-102. On the face of things, it wasn't a huge disaster—a split series on the road against a dangerous team was probably Boston's best case scenario—but the team's lapses on offense and defense were quite similar to the ones they showed during the bleakest stretches of the regular season. Nobody had a more embarrassing game than Jayson Tatum and the team simply can't afford him to keep playing the way he has so far in the series.
Tatum, who earned the praise of none other than LeBron James in last year's Eastern Conference Finals, is going to have to be a major contributor if the Celtics want to advance. So far, he hasn't been. In Game 2 against Milwaukee, he went 2-for-10 and managed to score just five points while having exactly zero offensive rebounds and a solitary assist in 25 minutes of action. This was after scoring just four points on 2-for-7 shooting during the Celtics' blowout win on Sunday, a dreary performance overshadowed by the ridiculous production of his teammates.
Tatum's struggles weren't the main reason that the Celtics were completely overwhelmed in Game 2, Kyrie Irving having one of his worst games in a Boston uniform, going 4-for-18 without a single free throw attempt hurt them far worse, but we can expect Irving to bounce back. The worry is that the 21-year-old Tatum doesn't yet have a form he can return to yet.
While Tatum struggled in the second half of the regular season, he's already had his moments to shine in the playoffs. Think back to Game 2 of the Celtics' first-round series against the Indiana Pacers where he scored 26 points, including the three-pointer that gave the team the lead and a dunk that iced the game. They won't necessarily need that version of Tatum to make a reappearance, but they something far closer to that than what he's given them the last two games.
A major problem is just how Tatum has been approaching the game all season long. As David Locke said in a tweet that made the rounds after his disappointing performance on Tuesday: "Of the players in the NBA that ran at least 100 isolation plays Jayson Tatum ranks 95th." It's a habit that the team apparently noticed right from the start of the season, according to ESPN's Jackie MacMullan who noted that the Celtics thought that, "maybe he came in with a different mindset that the team didn't love, quite frankly." Maybe those offseason jokes about Kobe Bryant attempting to train Tatum wrong on purpose to sabotage Boston ended up having a ring of truth to them.
Listen, he's not the only second-year player to suffer a sophomore slump, one was probably inevitable given just how impressive he looked for much of his first year. Now, theoretically, the possibility of being included as the centerpiece to a deal to swing for the New Orleans Pelicans' Anthony Davis could have also affected his performance, particularly when rumors to that effect began spreading around the trade deadline. Honestly, his "I'd trade me, too, for Anthony Davis" line earlier in the season suggests that he has a level of maturity around the realities of the business of the NBA.
Maybe the team playing its first home game of the series tonight will make all the difference for Tatum. Certainly, he couldn't play much worse at this point. Whatever is affecting his performance, the now 1-1 Celtics may not have a lot of time for him to Tatum to adjust. The playoffs are merciless that way.
Hunter Felt
I am a regular contributor to the Guardian US and have been their primary NBA writer since 2012. My writing has also appeared in PopMatters, Baseball Prospectus and ...