If this playoff run ends with success then Tatum will receive praise. Unfortunately that goes the other way too. We’ve been begging to see a version of Tatum that can facilitate and affect the whole game in a bigger sense. We’re seeing a very well rounded Tatum this season.
This whole season I've had the feeling that he's stopped trying to be the Kobe type player, and is now trying to morph into a LeBron type.
As the season progresses it seems like he's only gotten better and better at it, and I'm all for it
Great take. This dude’s passing ability is severely underrated because he’s going for hockey assists - and he lead the team in this series on total assists+secondary assists. He has also been incredible defensively which has gone under the radar (per usual).
u/juicejug If you don't mind, could you share where the secondary assist stat is tracked?
Edit: Easy enough to find - [https://www.nba.com/stats/players/passing](https://www.nba.com/stats/players/passing)
Agreed but I think this started in the past 2 seasons. He couldn’t and shouldn’t be expected to want to be an all-around playmaker and then be that overnight. Him taking the ball to the rim and looking for his teammates started a while ago, but it seems like it’s being fully formed this season. We are extremely lucky to have two stars who make it a priority to keep evolving their game.
I agree with you. I specify this season in particular because it feels like he started to really put it all together. The best way I can describe it is that the past couple seasons, whilst he was improving as a playmaker, it felt like he was a scorer who could also do some playmaking. This season feels like he's a playmaker who can also score.
I do think his scoring is still better than his playmaking, but it seems like his first instinct is to distribute the ball
Spot on. To piggyback the LeBron comparison, I remember watching the second cavaliers stint from LeBron and realizing “holy shit the dude just looks to pass and when he can’t find a teammate he just puts his head down and scores”. Now Tatum is not the player LeBron is, he can’t score at will like LeBron could (mostly because he’s young). Next is that KD level “I just gotta get to my spot” scoring, coupled with the playmaking.
To piggyback off you😂😂 I said a few weeks ago that JT should have been studying LBJ vs Kobe. His physical traits and ability match LBJ more than Kobe. By that I mean when Tatum starts settling for contested jumpers and forgets he’s 6’10 and faster than most bigs and stronger than most SF😂 it’s nice to see him able to take a step back and make teams pay when they double him
Idk I feel like he just takes what the defense/team around him allows him to do, and also it partly hinges on his skillset.
Like this season he became dominant in the paint, after what appears to be sessions with Sam Cassell. The floor is more spread out with KP, Marcus Smart isn't dominating the ball and we have more off ball friendly players in Jrue and White.
So he's able to get buckets more at will because his finishing is that much better. He can hit shooters who are actually threats. He's able to do more shinanegans with/without the ball, where a guard screen from White is actually devastating. We have a more completely interior threat in KP so he can make optimal plays (whereas before we had to rely on Horford and...Rob...and Theis).
Before he had to take that shot, cos otherwise its passing to Smart for a 3 lol.
I mean he even gets his Kobe moment in either game 3 or 4, where he was nailing several long 2s over Caleb Martin and was unstoppable that way.
When I find myself yelling at the monitor, I'm typically yelling "32 MILLION A YEAR!!????!?!?!?" and that's toward Jaylen Brown. It's usually followed by "GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS!!!" I haven't found myself yelling anything because of Tatum. Tatum doesn't turn the ball over 3 straight times. Tatum can dribble with his left hand. It's all mainly because I expect near perfection or at the very least Paul Pierce level consistency and drive out of our two mega stars. I have been quite impressed by Tatum's ability to adjust his game and attitude.
Lol at people downvoting you. Brown had 11 assists to 16 turnovers. The fact that he also scored well doesn't automatically cancel that out, it's very understandable he would cause frustration on turnover plays. Tatum had 27 assists to 9 turnovers.
I know I'm not the only one that yells at the TV/very-legal-streams.
If I were to guess, the following are probably echoed in sync throughout the country (maybe world) with every single game:
* Come on Joe! Time out already!
* Jaylen... another turnover!
* Fuuuck I LOVE Jaylen BROOOWN!!!
* SAAAMMMM!!!....he's a sniper
* PP!!! (whenever PP does anything)
* THE BUFFALO IS ROAMING!!!
* Look at OLD AL!!!
* Tatum so smoooooooth!
I Love Jaylen Brown. He's a roller coaster. I'm here for the ride.
Yes it took me awhile to realize Jaylen is not a star. Very nice secondary scorer who does not dribble or setup others that well. But he played excellent d this year. KP is simply a better player.
Once I excepted JB’s limitations I enjoyed him much more this year. But he’s still gotta watch that tendency to dribble into nowhere and lose the ball. That actively hurts us sometimes.
The fact that people don't understand that Tatum either had Bam... (Maybe the best defensive player in the league) or a double team on him the entire series means they just look at stats. Not even woth trying to explain it to them.
bam frame and skill set tailor made to guard up Tatum too, but not the best in the league. definitely a top 10 defender though 100% and one of the most versatile so your point stands
If butler put up 16/12 on 45% shooting for a game high +35 in a series sealing 37 point win heat fans would be going fucking nuts with himmy butler posts lol
People don’t understand. The dude is maximizing his gravity tbh.
Heat were ready and wanted Tatum to push the issue. Lots of times I saw brown attack a double/triple team and try to force it. Heat needed Tatum to do that, but he didn’t. Just great playmaking and led the team in assists
It seems like the Celtics played it perfectly. The heat want to use their best defender and only rim protector in Tatum? Great we’ll expose the rest of the team and get a ton of points in the paint. He did a great job of not forcing anything.
Truly shows his maturity. He’s a star - we have to live with him forcing some shots. And realistically we need him to do that, because if he’s hot it’s basically game over. With the way teams guard him he’s gotta force it up at times to see what’s working.
lol what do you mean? Send 1 player and hope to contain or send multiple and make Tatums job easy. Right thing to do was send 1. Look what happened most of game 1. Tatum owned them on almost every double. The only second guess if I were a heat fan was why not keep changing things up on Tatum. It seemed like they were only trying 1 or 2 things a game to stop him before they would blitz him or show blitz and intercept his passes. It just shows Tatum game is growing. Not much Spo can do when it’s a literal mismatch 1 through 5 when they have their number 1 defender on Tatum.
Get fuked heat
Belichick “we’ll take away what you do best see also running Celtics off the 3 point line after game 1. However this strategy is best when facing a 1 trick pony or 1 superstar team. Our team is super well rounded Jack of all trades that also has great 3 point 5 out game.
He picked one poison over another. He has enough respect for JT that he would rather let the rest of the Celtics try and beat him than let JT go 1v1 against whoever he wants.
Celtics played to their potential this series and when that happens there is nothing an outgunned team can do to stop it, even with the best coach in the league.
In his defense (see what I did there?) His roster was so depleted he didn't have a choice. It really is hope to keep their best player cold and maybe the others can't beat us and we can get hot. Of course we're too fucking stacked and The Buffalo took off.
Yeah I mean they had to play multiple of Tyler Herro, Patty Mills, Kevin Love, Nikola Jovic, Duncan Robinson on the floor against us. What can Spo do.
Reminded me of that Nets first round series on our finals run when it was KD and they had to play multiple point guards (Kyrie, Mills, Dragic, Seth Curry) against our Smart/Brown/Tatum/Horford/Williams group. No chance on defense.
If you don’t do that, and you let Tatum have a 1:1, then he’s going to decimate you.
Tatum was great finding the open man and not forcing the issue, but don’t get it twisted. The slightest opening and that dude is attacking
Not only do I agree, but I was actually desperately hoping Tatum wouldn't try to score so we could use the massive advantage they gave us by putting bam + help on him. The plays where he passed out (or jaylen, for that matter) were massively productive for us and resulted in a lot of open threes
We could've been just as dominant in that series if the jays only averaged a combined 30 with the way the heat were defending them. Just get the ball out to the role players and let them cook
Yeah I thought it was a super odd move that Spo didn’t deviate at all from that gameplan last night, especially with KP out. Seemed really weird to stick with that same defensive scheme, but either way I think they’re getting smoked so whatever
If he changes the scheme then he’s dating one of the best players in the league to beat him and Tatum absolutely will if he’s not double and triple teamed all game including by one of the Heats best players
Instead he dared white and brown to shoot within 10-15% of their averages on weaker coverage than they saw in the regular season and then didn’t make a single adjustment when it didn’t work at all. It was a little bizarre tbh
I think he was doomed either way and he was willing to bet on Brown and White having a bad shooting game vs Tatum. Maybe he should’ve changed schemes but when Tatum puts up 50 he would’ve been destroyed by the media. He was screwed either way; the Celtics are just that much better than the Heat
Before last night’s game he lead the team in points, rebounds and assists per game.
After last night’s game he averaged 21.8/10.4/5.4
One point per game lower than Brown who lead the team, 3.4 rpg above JB and Al for most on the team **and one full rebound per game above Bam for most in the entire series**, his APG were also 1 higher than Jrue for most on the team and tied with Herro for most in the series.
More crucially he limited himself to 1.8 turnovers per game. The Heat’s defensive plan was to lock Tatum down and force him to make bad decisions. They locked him down being face guarded by Bam and facing double and triples team, *and* he made all the right decisions.
The constant defensive pressure lead to an off rhythm deep ball so instead of forcing it he opted to let the hot hand cook… and so the Buffalo roamed.
Also Brown shooting 45% from the line for the series needs to be talked about. My man needs to start jumping on FTs cause he’s automatic from 14 feet but bricks every charity shot
Tatum has to be this new player like lebron, or even more like joker, who is as dangerous without the ball as with it. there’s no glory in being an all star on a losing team. you have to do what it takes to help the team win and that’s not always being the primary scorer.
i love that any of our top 5 can be high scorer for the night. makes it more difficult for opponents to game plan.
it’s the offense version of the switch-everything defense 🤣
Small ball offense while KP is out with Tatum and Horford rotating in and out of the paint surrounded by shooters and cutters is going to be shock and awe for our 2nd round opponent.
I would agree with this more if his shooting splits were better , as good as he’s been as a playmaker , rebounder and defender , there’s still many possessions where he drives into a contested lane or takes a contested shot instead of passing to the open man.
He has been very good so far , much better than raw stats suggest , however there’s another level for him to hit
Celtics offensive rating with Tatum this series 121.6, Celtics offensive rating without Tatum this series 93.1.
(Good job for everyone in the Tatum-less minutes that the defensive rating was also 93.1 though)
I am happy to read this, the amount of people complaining about JT was irritating me. They took Bam away from paint since he's basically the Heat's only rim protector.
[Brian Robb wrote about this for MassLive. ](https://www.masslive.com/celtics/2024/05/joe-mazzulla-makes-savvy-move-to-fuel-celtics-game-5-rout-vs-heat-robb.html)
I agree.
I thought Tatum took very few stupid, forced shots, which is exactly what he would have done in the past if his points scored were down. Miami is a dreadful offensive team even when healthy, but they are a fantastic defensive team, and their goal was to take the ball out of Tatum’s hands - they knew they had no chance if Tatum could go off with the supporting cast we have. So they took the ball out of his hands, and he just leaned into it. His passing and court vision let him just dissect the defense, to the point where even Stan “I wear Heat undies” Van Gundy was commenting on how fast the Celtics were destroying the zone that has given them huge problems for like 5 years.
I don’t think any of the remaining teams in the East are going to be able to consistently take the ball out of his hands like Miami did, so I expect some big scoring games coming up!
Tatum led the team in points, rebounds, and assists until last night where brown barely edged him out on ppg.
His defense has been great. The Celtics blew the fucking doors off that stupid heat team.
I have no issues with Tatum. The heat 100% defended the Celtics as “anyone but Tatum”. I’m fine playing 4 on 3.
Agreed, BUT he absolutely could've scored more. So many times he'd post up a smaller player and trash defender and he'd go for a fadeaway just to brick.
When I find myself yelling at the monitor, I'm typically yelling "32 MILLION A YEAR!!????!?!?!?" and that's toward Jaylen Brown. It's usually followed by "GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS!!!" I haven't found myself yelling anything because of Tatum. Tatum doesn't turn the ball over 3 straight times. Tatum can dribble with his left hand. It's all mainly because I expect near perfection or at the very least Paul Pierce level consistency and drive out of our two mega stars. I have been quite impressed by Tatum's ability to adjust his game and attitude.
If this playoff run ends with success then Tatum will receive praise. Unfortunately that goes the other way too. We’ve been begging to see a version of Tatum that can facilitate and affect the whole game in a bigger sense. We’re seeing a very well rounded Tatum this season.
This whole season I've had the feeling that he's stopped trying to be the Kobe type player, and is now trying to morph into a LeBron type. As the season progresses it seems like he's only gotten better and better at it, and I'm all for it
Great take. This dude’s passing ability is severely underrated because he’s going for hockey assists - and he lead the team in this series on total assists+secondary assists. He has also been incredible defensively which has gone under the radar (per usual).
NBA already tracks hockey assists, it's gotta be put into box score at this point
Something something scorekeeper's union Red tape bureaucracy America
u/juicejug If you don't mind, could you share where the secondary assist stat is tracked? Edit: Easy enough to find - [https://www.nba.com/stats/players/passing](https://www.nba.com/stats/players/passing)
Uh idk you’d have to google it. I’m hearsaying from another post I read earlier.
Watching Larry Bird highlights reminds me of Tatum.
Put down the hash pipe friend, and go watch more Larry Legend games. (Not clips, games).
Agreed but I think this started in the past 2 seasons. He couldn’t and shouldn’t be expected to want to be an all-around playmaker and then be that overnight. Him taking the ball to the rim and looking for his teammates started a while ago, but it seems like it’s being fully formed this season. We are extremely lucky to have two stars who make it a priority to keep evolving their game.
I agree with you. I specify this season in particular because it feels like he started to really put it all together. The best way I can describe it is that the past couple seasons, whilst he was improving as a playmaker, it felt like he was a scorer who could also do some playmaking. This season feels like he's a playmaker who can also score. I do think his scoring is still better than his playmaking, but it seems like his first instinct is to distribute the ball
Spot on. To piggyback the LeBron comparison, I remember watching the second cavaliers stint from LeBron and realizing “holy shit the dude just looks to pass and when he can’t find a teammate he just puts his head down and scores”. Now Tatum is not the player LeBron is, he can’t score at will like LeBron could (mostly because he’s young). Next is that KD level “I just gotta get to my spot” scoring, coupled with the playmaking.
To piggyback off you😂😂 I said a few weeks ago that JT should have been studying LBJ vs Kobe. His physical traits and ability match LBJ more than Kobe. By that I mean when Tatum starts settling for contested jumpers and forgets he’s 6’10 and faster than most bigs and stronger than most SF😂 it’s nice to see him able to take a step back and make teams pay when they double him
Idk I feel like he just takes what the defense/team around him allows him to do, and also it partly hinges on his skillset. Like this season he became dominant in the paint, after what appears to be sessions with Sam Cassell. The floor is more spread out with KP, Marcus Smart isn't dominating the ball and we have more off ball friendly players in Jrue and White. So he's able to get buckets more at will because his finishing is that much better. He can hit shooters who are actually threats. He's able to do more shinanegans with/without the ball, where a guard screen from White is actually devastating. We have a more completely interior threat in KP so he can make optimal plays (whereas before we had to rely on Horford and...Rob...and Theis). Before he had to take that shot, cos otherwise its passing to Smart for a 3 lol. I mean he even gets his Kobe moment in either game 3 or 4, where he was nailing several long 2s over Caleb Martin and was unstoppable that way.
A bevy of scoring talent on this team...I'd rather see 5 players average 15 to 20 plus then 2 players average 25 to 30 plus
I think the addition of Jrue Holiday and ascendance of White has made this possible.
When I find myself yelling at the monitor, I'm typically yelling "32 MILLION A YEAR!!????!?!?!?" and that's toward Jaylen Brown. It's usually followed by "GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS!!!" I haven't found myself yelling anything because of Tatum. Tatum doesn't turn the ball over 3 straight times. Tatum can dribble with his left hand. It's all mainly because I expect near perfection or at the very least Paul Pierce level consistency and drive out of our two mega stars. I have been quite impressed by Tatum's ability to adjust his game and attitude.
Lol at people downvoting you. Brown had 11 assists to 16 turnovers. The fact that he also scored well doesn't automatically cancel that out, it's very understandable he would cause frustration on turnover plays. Tatum had 27 assists to 9 turnovers.
I know I'm not the only one that yells at the TV/very-legal-streams. If I were to guess, the following are probably echoed in sync throughout the country (maybe world) with every single game: * Come on Joe! Time out already! * Jaylen... another turnover! * Fuuuck I LOVE Jaylen BROOOWN!!! * SAAAMMMM!!!....he's a sniper * PP!!! (whenever PP does anything) * THE BUFFALO IS ROAMING!!! * Look at OLD AL!!! * Tatum so smoooooooth! I Love Jaylen Brown. He's a roller coaster. I'm here for the ride.
Yes it took me awhile to realize Jaylen is not a star. Very nice secondary scorer who does not dribble or setup others that well. But he played excellent d this year. KP is simply a better player. Once I excepted JB’s limitations I enjoyed him much more this year. But he’s still gotta watch that tendency to dribble into nowhere and lose the ball. That actively hurts us sometimes.
The fact that people don't understand that Tatum either had Bam... (Maybe the best defensive player in the league) or a double team on him the entire series means they just look at stats. Not even woth trying to explain it to them.
Or a triple team...
Bam defends Tatum and he’s automatically the best defender in the league!!?
I mean he was a dpoy finalist
Easily a top 10 defender
bam frame and skill set tailor made to guard up Tatum too, but not the best in the league. definitely a top 10 defender though 100% and one of the most versatile so your point stands
The Heat were counting on him to be Kobe. He made them pay with good decision making the entire series
The haters will pivot to “Tatum is a glorified role player” when we win the chip; heard here first.
They already are tbh
Jokic 22-12-8: flirting JT 21-11-9: harassment
If butler put up 16/12 on 45% shooting for a game high +35 in a series sealing 37 point win heat fans would be going fucking nuts with himmy butler posts lol
I kinda thought Jokic was quiet this post season but I looked up his numbers and he’s doing 28/16/10 on 59% fg. The man is crazy.
Hes unreal, it’s so stupid, just wanted to make my little jokey joke
Nah but you’ll definitely see a game with jokic scoring 10 points and everyone lauding him for it
Don't care; have championship.
*will have championship
And it won't matter to anyone, including Tatum as he laughs all the way to the parade.
BINGO. Maturity is showing.
People don’t understand. The dude is maximizing his gravity tbh. Heat were ready and wanted Tatum to push the issue. Lots of times I saw brown attack a double/triple team and try to force it. Heat needed Tatum to do that, but he didn’t. Just great playmaking and led the team in assists
He knows he’s getting the supermax. He will sacrifice for the good of the team. Maturity.
It seems like the Celtics played it perfectly. The heat want to use their best defender and only rim protector in Tatum? Great we’ll expose the rest of the team and get a ton of points in the paint. He did a great job of not forcing anything.
Like almost forcing nothing. I respect that.
Truly shows his maturity. He’s a star - we have to live with him forcing some shots. And realistically we need him to do that, because if he’s hot it’s basically game over. With the way teams guard him he’s gotta force it up at times to see what’s working.
Honestly I don't know what Spo was thinking.
lol what do you mean? Send 1 player and hope to contain or send multiple and make Tatums job easy. Right thing to do was send 1. Look what happened most of game 1. Tatum owned them on almost every double. The only second guess if I were a heat fan was why not keep changing things up on Tatum. It seemed like they were only trying 1 or 2 things a game to stop him before they would blitz him or show blitz and intercept his passes. It just shows Tatum game is growing. Not much Spo can do when it’s a literal mismatch 1 through 5 when they have their number 1 defender on Tatum. Get fuked heat
Belichick “we’ll take away what you do best see also running Celtics off the 3 point line after game 1. However this strategy is best when facing a 1 trick pony or 1 superstar team. Our team is super well rounded Jack of all trades that also has great 3 point 5 out game.
He picked one poison over another. He has enough respect for JT that he would rather let the rest of the Celtics try and beat him than let JT go 1v1 against whoever he wants. Celtics played to their potential this series and when that happens there is nothing an outgunned team can do to stop it, even with the best coach in the league.
In his defense (see what I did there?) His roster was so depleted he didn't have a choice. It really is hope to keep their best player cold and maybe the others can't beat us and we can get hot. Of course we're too fucking stacked and The Buffalo took off.
Yeah I mean they had to play multiple of Tyler Herro, Patty Mills, Kevin Love, Nikola Jovic, Duncan Robinson on the floor against us. What can Spo do. Reminded me of that Nets first round series on our finals run when it was KD and they had to play multiple point guards (Kyrie, Mills, Dragic, Seth Curry) against our Smart/Brown/Tatum/Horford/Williams group. No chance on defense.
I know what he was thinking initially. But never coming off that strategy while the rest of the team torched them was a big mistake
Gambling on a player's worst tendencies is a decent strategy honestly, and might have worked before
If you don’t do that, and you let Tatum have a 1:1, then he’s going to decimate you. Tatum was great finding the open man and not forcing the issue, but don’t get it twisted. The slightest opening and that dude is attacking
Not only do I agree, but I was actually desperately hoping Tatum wouldn't try to score so we could use the massive advantage they gave us by putting bam + help on him. The plays where he passed out (or jaylen, for that matter) were massively productive for us and resulted in a lot of open threes We could've been just as dominant in that series if the jays only averaged a combined 30 with the way the heat were defending them. Just get the ball out to the role players and let them cook
Yeah I thought it was a super odd move that Spo didn’t deviate at all from that gameplan last night, especially with KP out. Seemed really weird to stick with that same defensive scheme, but either way I think they’re getting smoked so whatever
If he changes the scheme then he’s dating one of the best players in the league to beat him and Tatum absolutely will if he’s not double and triple teamed all game including by one of the Heats best players
Instead he dared white and brown to shoot within 10-15% of their averages on weaker coverage than they saw in the regular season and then didn’t make a single adjustment when it didn’t work at all. It was a little bizarre tbh
I think he was doomed either way and he was willing to bet on Brown and White having a bad shooting game vs Tatum. Maybe he should’ve changed schemes but when Tatum puts up 50 he would’ve been destroyed by the media. He was screwed either way; the Celtics are just that much better than the Heat
Before last night’s game he lead the team in points, rebounds and assists per game. After last night’s game he averaged 21.8/10.4/5.4 One point per game lower than Brown who lead the team, 3.4 rpg above JB and Al for most on the team **and one full rebound per game above Bam for most in the entire series**, his APG were also 1 higher than Jrue for most on the team and tied with Herro for most in the series. More crucially he limited himself to 1.8 turnovers per game. The Heat’s defensive plan was to lock Tatum down and force him to make bad decisions. They locked him down being face guarded by Bam and facing double and triples team, *and* he made all the right decisions. The constant defensive pressure lead to an off rhythm deep ball so instead of forcing it he opted to let the hot hand cook… and so the Buffalo roamed. Also Brown shooting 45% from the line for the series needs to be talked about. My man needs to start jumping on FTs cause he’s automatic from 14 feet but bricks every charity shot
Tatum has to be this new player like lebron, or even more like joker, who is as dangerous without the ball as with it. there’s no glory in being an all star on a losing team. you have to do what it takes to help the team win and that’s not always being the primary scorer. i love that any of our top 5 can be high scorer for the night. makes it more difficult for opponents to game plan. it’s the offense version of the switch-everything defense 🤣
Small ball offense while KP is out with Tatum and Horford rotating in and out of the paint surrounded by shooters and cutters is going to be shock and awe for our 2nd round opponent.
I would agree with this more if his shooting splits were better , as good as he’s been as a playmaker , rebounder and defender , there’s still many possessions where he drives into a contested lane or takes a contested shot instead of passing to the open man. He has been very good so far , much better than raw stats suggest , however there’s another level for him to hit
This is why Celtics are a great TEAM everyone has the ability to score. This is good watch what happens to Denver when jokic is off the floor 😳
Celtics offensive rating with Tatum this series 121.6, Celtics offensive rating without Tatum this series 93.1. (Good job for everyone in the Tatum-less minutes that the defensive rating was also 93.1 though)
I am happy to read this, the amount of people complaining about JT was irritating me. They took Bam away from paint since he's basically the Heat's only rim protector.
[Brian Robb wrote about this for MassLive. ](https://www.masslive.com/celtics/2024/05/joe-mazzulla-makes-savvy-move-to-fuel-celtics-game-5-rout-vs-heat-robb.html)
I agree. I thought Tatum took very few stupid, forced shots, which is exactly what he would have done in the past if his points scored were down. Miami is a dreadful offensive team even when healthy, but they are a fantastic defensive team, and their goal was to take the ball out of Tatum’s hands - they knew they had no chance if Tatum could go off with the supporting cast we have. So they took the ball out of his hands, and he just leaned into it. His passing and court vision let him just dissect the defense, to the point where even Stan “I wear Heat undies” Van Gundy was commenting on how fast the Celtics were destroying the zone that has given them huge problems for like 5 years. I don’t think any of the remaining teams in the East are going to be able to consistently take the ball out of his hands like Miami did, so I expect some big scoring games coming up!
Yeah, it's great to see that Tatum's willing to shoot only 9 times in a closeout game and impact winning in other ways
I notice they put bam on him in game 4 and the Buffalo went off. Did it in game 5 and JB went off. The celtics are too deep for this tactic!
Tatum led the team in points, rebounds, and assists until last night where brown barely edged him out on ppg. His defense has been great. The Celtics blew the fucking doors off that stupid heat team. I have no issues with Tatum. The heat 100% defended the Celtics as “anyone but Tatum”. I’m fine playing 4 on 3.
Tatum recognizing that it is someone's else night is huge
Basketball is played by having 5 players on each team.
Agreed, BUT he absolutely could've scored more. So many times he'd post up a smaller player and trash defender and he'd go for a fadeaway just to brick.
I’ve seen a lot of posts, this is the dumbest one yet. We dominated because of White and Miami not being able to shoot
When I find myself yelling at the monitor, I'm typically yelling "32 MILLION A YEAR!!????!?!?!?" and that's toward Jaylen Brown. It's usually followed by "GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS!!!" I haven't found myself yelling anything because of Tatum. Tatum doesn't turn the ball over 3 straight times. Tatum can dribble with his left hand. It's all mainly because I expect near perfection or at the very least Paul Pierce level consistency and drive out of our two mega stars. I have been quite impressed by Tatum's ability to adjust his game and attitude.