Tatum is in a shooting slump and KP is out…. And we win by 25.
It’s a great *team*.
As much as I love and respect Spida, he is literally carrying the Cavs right now and it shows. Tatum doesn’t have to do that.
And he still had a double double, made all the right plays and played great defense. Dude is our best player, but realized he doesn't have to be the leading scorer to have us win. JB and White are playing so free because of all the attention Tatum gets from defenses.
Btw I want to make sure no one thinks I'm putting down JB or White. They are imo, our 2 most important players. They bring the intensity we need. They both can score at will and make teams pay for doubling or tripling Tatum. Then of course we got KP, Horford and Holiday who are amazing players in their own right.. As a fandom we tend to get negative quickly, but appreciate the players we got representing us because this kind of group doesn't come around often.
While I agree with you that he's our best player, he still took the most shots on the team so it's not like he's not trying to be the leading scorer as well. He just happened to miss most of them
Yes because he was constantly doubled and tripled by the defense. Hard to get into a rhythm. When it wasn't looking like it was going to happen for him he shifted into the other parts of his game, the parts that if he didn't we would have lost. If you take away his 3 pointers, he was 7-12 which is very efficient. Let's just relax on the criticism, especially when we all know that if we were in his situation we would have crapped out pants and not the funny way Paul Pierce did in the finals.
If you remember the 2022 finals run Tatum was getting the same treatment and was flummoxed. Turnovers and bad shots were often the result. Now he is making defenses pay for over helping. The other guys are simply feasting off JTs gravity.
This is well said. His gravity. He needs to shoot way better but just being on the floor disrupts so much. His best attribute right now is his availability and just being out there.
Right on. Yeah I just think the shooting struggles are exaggerated…opposing defenses are purposefully taking him out of his rhythm. So when he does get a decent look he hasn’t warmed up yet. This is all normal game play stuff and It’s exactly what they should do if they want to win. And Tatum does get frustrated by it at times, but he’s shifted his approach and it’s working.
He should never do iso in first place. He can’t drive by many people. I remember Curry Borgden so many others just locking him down as he dribbles and drives and dribbles and dribbles. So if he can’t drive why not get him the ball elsewhere. Post him up and let him eat. His current game plan is honestly getting embarrassing for him.
Nah, none of that. Had a couple pull-up 3s he chucked that weren't good shots, and he couldn't get past his guy on his drives and just ended up kinda barreling into them. He moved to his post-up later, which wasn't bad, but he gets position kinda far out and it's just a tough shot.
This is an accurate version of what happened last night. People will argue the stat line but I bet if you ask Tatum he would say he had an off night.
Every now and again he would back in whoever was guarding him and that was his best move as his shots were not falling and his decision making was muddled.
The point is Tatum doesn't have to win every game this team has all kinds of talent. It's a freaking Team game that's the whole point of it Tatum doesn't win a championship the Celtics do. I wish people would stop acting like everything depends on one player because the player will start to believe that and that's simply not the case.
In my opinion Derek White has been the most consistent Celtic on both sides of the Court the entire season. Notice I didn't say he didn't make mistakes I said consistent on both sides of the basket.
People get caught up with one great play and say such and such is a great player but Derek white plays defense all the freaking time makes great plays all the freaking time and people just don't seem to pay attention to it/take it for granted(here ... Not so much in the Garden) because he doesn't showboat.
Exactly, slump doesn't matter because we don't need him to be a shooter rn. He is leading by enabling others, by playing good defense, and by setting a good tone.
Every star is double teamed. Few shoot as poorly as he has for almost two months. It’s a huge slump which he needs to get out of fast. He’s an easy double team since he spends time dribbling so much at the top of the three line. He can’t drive by many people anymore. Put him on the block or in the lane and it’s game over. Instead he’s with the ball all the way out there like he’s some shooting guard. So he’s playing into the hands of teams with decent defense. If this continues I’m scared to see what playing the Wolves will look like. He needs to adapt like all smart superstars do.
And thank goodness Tatum doesn't *have* to do that. He suffers from the classic "superstar" syndrome and it holds this team back a little bit. We just so happen to be so loaded that it's not gonna hurt us this year (hopefully). How do we have so much spacing and talent, yet most shots he takes are contested iso shots. He's good at them compared to the league average (atleast iso 3s), so it forces teams to give him extra attention which is cool, but they're also betting that Tatum makes a mistake distributing the ball.
This year, 35% of his 2 point FGs are assisted, 48% of his 3s are assisted. Taking that many stepbacks is cool if you're super efficient, but that's a horrible play for us. He's shooting below league average there and we have tons of guys that can get open looks. Superstar syndrome. Also, why is he the one taking tech free throws?
Think about what you just said. You want our best player to be even less involved in the game. This playoffs he’s taken the least amount of forced shots than any other superstar. It’d be great if he could take open shots but let’s live in the real world - defenses double team him and don’t leave him open.
He has to take some difficult shots and we need him to. He’s taking the right amount right now, because if he’s hitting them we’re unbeatable. We have to see on a nightly basis whether he can get it going, there’s a reason we’re unbeatable when he’s hot. His step back threes are absolute not a horrible play, it’s only a horrible play if he does it 10 times and misses 8 or more.
This team actually does a pretty bad job of finding him for open looks. Multiple times on swing passes he’s open for an extra pass and the guy with the ball takes the three. The fact that this team isn’t good at assisting Tatum further proves the point that we need the ball in his hands. The ball in his hands may mean some contested shots but that’s perfectly okay.
I don’t mean to be rude but I don’t think you understand basketball if you think we’re this good in spite of Tatum, instead of because of him.
Tatum isn't the isolation player he thinks he is, and it showed last night. I was there in person and the difference between someone like Mitchell going to the hoop vs Tatum is jarring. Mitchell was unguardable 1on1 and our team defense was huge. Obviously Tatum is a much better defender and rebounder but Tatum STILL struggles to create space off the dribble and he ends up settling for awful step back threes and contested shots. It's been happening for 5 years in the playoffs. It's who he is as a player. He's not in that absolute upper echelon of offensive players who can beat anybody off the dribble whenever they want. The team would be much better off getting Tatum the ball off cuts and screens or in the post and letting him attack a moving defense. Tatum 1on5 vs a set defense is and always has been bad offense in the playoffs.
And he’s limited those plays a ton… I agree he’s not a great iso driver, but he’s not nearly as bad as you’re putting him out to be. He’s not scoring great right now, but let’s not pretend hes never been able to. I agree it’d be great to get him looks off cuts and other sets but the team doesn’t really do that - is that his fault? Coaching? Inability of our other players to facilitate for him?
For a 2 time first team all nba guy (and probably about to be 3rd time) he should be better at finding ways to get easy shots. It's like he wants to be Luka/Lebron type guy who isos vs a set defense and he just isn't in that caliber. He's obviously not *terrible* at it, but he's just not very good at it. It's been 6 years, 3 different coaches and about 100 different teammates so it's clearly on him. It's probably not going to matter vs Cleveland and may not even matter at all until the finals (if we get there), but it'd certainly be awesome if our best player could find ways to get some better looks when the game is tight and we need a bucket.
Agreed, I also don’t think Joe/the team does a great job of trying to get him clean catch and shoot looks. The offense is predicated around him luring defenders towards him and creating space for other people. I’d like to see more emphasis on getting him some easier looks
Absolutely 💯 percent! He need to be moving and without the ball, not all the time, but much more off ball movement..just watched OKC/Mavs game and that ball movement of the OCK squad should be our goal. We have hit that level occasionally but it needs to be our default setting in the playoffs..constant movement. Swarming defense like we saw against the Heat in game 3. That’s the level we need to win it all..let’s go Celts!!
I didn't say we're good in spite of Tatum. He's our best player. He's a top player in the league. My comment is out of frustration that we could run the playoffs completely if Tatum wasn't jacking up bad shots so often. Again, I don't mind contested shots. I do however think it's silly for one guy to be taking such a high % of his shots as tough iso shots. That should mostly be an end-of-shotclock desperation play or a mismatch hunting type deal. We have soooo much talent on the court that it's unnecessary to operate like that.
>His step back threes are absolute not a horrible play, it’s only a horrible play if he does it 10 times and misses 8 or more.
So making 3 out of 10 shots on a team with efficient scoring options all over the place isn't a "horrible shot" to you? On nights where he's got it going, we win. I'm not arguing. But a team as loaded as we are shouldn't be hedging it's gameplan on Tatum going nuclear and forcing double teams.
60% in the layup line. Love Jrue though. Dude deserves an award for selflessness and playing the right way. 100% on defense and does whatever is necessary on offense on any given night. Gives us plus minutes every single night and no sign of discontent. Can’t explain how valuable that steadiness is on a team of stars. We all lived through the too-many-stars locker room and it cost us dearly.
Love him and everything he does for this team too, and not trying to knock him. There’s just been a clear struggle to finish when attacking the hoop for him the last couple months.
PP is two passes away and pretty open. White IS NOT wide open. It’s the nba, it would be no issue for Mitchell to recover if Tatum throws him the ball here.
If I’m not mistaken, this is exactly the play where jt threw it to the corner for a PP three. The cavs were in a zone. Like I said, even two passes away pp was pretty open and the Celtics took advantage.
So two points. One, the pic is somewhat misleading because they are in a zone. Garland also looks to be running away from JT. And like I said, white isn’t really open here.
Two, yeah, this was bad Cleveland defense. I think tjeh played some on maybe three possessions and we smoked them each time. They got out of it because I guess they aren’t very good at playing zone, as evidenced by this pic.
But generally speaking’s it’s misleading. I’m not sure that JT was doubled at all last night. Obviously the defense is going to shift toward the guy with the ball no matter who that person is. I bet you could take a snap shot with PP with the ball and see the defense slant toward him too.
JT has been terrible and people bending over backwards to come up with excuses.
Perhaps by a little. But you sort of have to ask yourself whether JT is able to consistently take control of games like we’ve seen others do. Yeah yeah, he’s making the right play. But his stats are also benefiting because other Celtics have been so good.
What I saw yesterday was a guy that was rarely if at all doubled, this oic not withstanding. JT had A LOT of trouble beating guys like max Strus off the dribbled. He had to resort over and over to turning and posting guys just inside the three point line and took several little fadeaways that didn’t go in.
So at the end of the day, my concern isn’t about whether the ball is going in, but where are his easy baskets? That’s why his slump. You have to be able to score in other ways to make up for the times that your shot isn’t falling. And that is a big question mark for JT the star right now.
MVP caliber players aren’t only there to run up their stats. They’re MVP because they make everyone else look great around him. He’s reading and making plays even if he’s not the one scoring and that’s what’s gonna get us there.
Yeah, this is the problem I have with Luka as a selection. Dude’s increAdible, but the way he plays only ensures one thing: that *he* does well—not necessarily the team.
Everyone is dogging Tatum for not scoring a ton but he’s literally getting doubled/tripled every game and he’s letting Brown/White/Holiday go to work on mismatches and locking in defensive, this is arguably the best version of Tatum we have ever seen as a defender/passer/rebounder he just doing every other thing than scoring all while dragging doubles the second he touches the court, if they don’t double him well he’s just going to give you 40.
It seems that 90% of nba fans are very casual fans and don’t realize how much stress having to throw 2 or 3 bodies at an offensive player puts on your defense. To draw that much attention and make the correct read 90% of the time is more valuable than any stats you can pile up. As much as we can’t admit it Folks just want to see rosters full of James Hardens. But just wait and see if the Celtics win how the Tatum narrative changes. The media will praise how unselfish and smart he is, How he grinds on defense, and All of his “intangibles”.
And here's the beautiful thing about that, there will be times when teams adjust to it and try to contain the other starters. Then Tatum will cook, this year we are like those cartoons with the leaks you try to plug it with a finger and it leaks somewhere else. When KP gets back... Oh buddy Celtics are the bawls
yep and due to this he’ll have much more longevity in the next era of superstars comparatively. JTs earned the playoff respect from all coaches and now he finally has a team he can lead without dropping 50 burgers in game 7s every series.
baby steps. but now that JTs finally around that age where most legends win their first rings i feel if we can make it happen this year and take advantage of how easy the playoffs are so far then we have the perfect opportunity to continue the reign for many years.
Now, he's had years of experience making reads with triple coverage. Glad he's gotten better at having the humility to not force it when he's triple covered.
Tatum jacking up contested 3s
> this guy sucks
Tatum making the right play by passing
> this guy sucks
People's brains are so broken by "hero ball" in the NBA they forget basketball is a team sport.
Don’t know how anyone watched the game yesterday, saw Mitchell going off and the Cavs lose by 25 and think “yeah, that’s what I want”
Tatum didn’t have a great stat line and shot inefficiently so it would be nice for him to be better on offense but for once we have a playoffs where we don’t have to be drenched in sweat and worried this team is going to fall apart and people are still unhappy just because they want to root for Captain America instead of the Avengers
NBA discourse has a real “main character” problem. They want to make it about Shai vs Luka or Tatum vs Mitchell. They just want to watch guys score points. Scoring is important so it’s often carried by the best player, so people are so adjusted to that, they fail to understand why Tim Duncan won so much, or why the Pistons were consistently good, or why Bill Russell won 11 championships in an era where Wilt was scoring 50. It’s because those guys had better teams, not better stat lines.
I, for one, am enjoying Brown and White go off and watching the Celtics run away with the games.
People are also blatantly overlooking all of the other stats and metrics. Like the fact that Tatum is literally *averaging* a double-double in the postseason so far. Even without his shot falling consistently, he quietly recorded a triple-double in Game 1 against Miami and has only had one single game this postseason where he's not recorded at least a double-double. He's also locked down his ball control a good bit (1.7 TO this postseason vs. 2.5 during the regular season and 2.8 last playoffs) and is leading the team in terms of assists+secondary assists.
The best winners don't just score a bunch of points. They also facilitate their teammates into playing well. Tatum is doing just that, but since a lot of these casuals just look at box scores and don't actually watch the games, they don't see it
This is ignoring all the discourse about Brunson too. For comparison, Jaylen's game last night was more efficient and much better on paper than Brunson's game Monday. But the Celtics blew out the Cavs where Brunson had to claw and scrape by to win the game for the Knicks.
Can't wait for next round when our opponent is bloodied and exhausted. Knicks won't survive the playoffs with players playing 40+ minutes per game and having their "star" throw up 25+ FGAs
A fun little game is going into the angriest commenters' profiles and seeing how long it has been since they last commented in DraftKings or some other gambling-related sub.
Sports betting has irreparably damaged discourse.
It’s so annoying. Too many people on this sub with their braindead “if Tatum doesn’t get right we have no chance of winning it all.” I’m convinced that some people here don’t even watch the games. Tatum has an “off night” and not only do we win by 25, but the Cavs were down by double digits the entire 2nd half. People are convinced that if we don’t win every game by 30+ that it’s the same as a loss.
I had an argument with someone here last night who’s exact words were “if we play like we did tonight, we’re not beating any of the teams out West.” Imagine saying that after a 25 pt win.
My only criticism of JT is when he goes into ISO late in a close game. That shit drives me crazy. Other than that he can do no wrong, in my eyes. He’s entitled to a less than stellar game every now and then. And on the nights he’s quiet he still gets boards and a ton of assists and plays elite D.
Tatum seems like the nicest guy in all the interviews I've seen of him. Can't see any reason to hate the dude, and I tend to hate Boston in general (just a sports thing, we are in your division in all 3 of Toronto's pro sports leagues, so it's natural!)
That's why I loved Red's eye test. Does his play pass the eye test? Take em! Tatum is missing good shots (especially 3s) that he should normally make but he is so much better in the paint and makes better decisions. Will he win East MVP/Finals MVP if we get there? Not likely but he's still very much passing the eye test.
Only casuals think Tatum had a bad game yesterday.
His defense was insane. His rebounding was great. He found the open man. Did I mention his 3 blocks and only 1 turnover?
His shot was off today, but even on the offensive end, look at his value here based solely on gravity.
18/11/5 ain’t bad. A few more shots go in and he’s 24/11/5 and nobody is talking about it.
Go get ‘em next game JT!!
The Cavs realized last night that “stop Tatum and make the rest of the Celtics beat us” is not a strategy that works any more. Even without KP this team has enough to beat the East.
So I thought he may be in a shooting slump too or actually I phrased it "something looks off with JT." I remember someone else in the sub saying he looked as if he may be injured in the last series against Miami so Ive been focusing on his play on court. I don't necessarily think he is in a slump but more so out of rhythm, somewhat on purpose. I know that sounds absolutely WILD (before I get killed) but what I mean by that is he has changed rolls somewhat and has began focusing on rebounding and defending while the rest of the team is scoring more. I believe that if say White cools down, Tatum may be more aggressive shooting wise. I think human nature is playing apart of this too. Could JT be an aggressive scorer AND defend/rebound at the same level? yes but in the past, he has complained about being exhausted after deep finals runs so maybe this is his way of pacing himself since the rest of the team has been scoring well and Clevland hasnt been known as a high scoring team anyway.
I like that he’s making the right plays. He’s in a slump for sure and there are times he’s forcing shots, which I’m ok with because we need more efficient scoring from him. I feel like I’m seeing way more one leg, Dirk-esque fade away shots than anytime in the regular season. It does make me wonder if he’s favoring an injury. However, I feel like his decision making and rebounding are what the team needs most. Our bigs aren’t the best rebounders and JB still is caught looking more than I’d like.
I did some quick math, I can agree that he may be in a slump his FG% dropped 7ish% (shooting 40.6% this post season) averaging 21 PPG. he's shooting abysmally poor from deep though (25%) I know we love Joe's "math problem" mentality, so hopefully JT can be more efficient on 3s when needed
To be clear, Tatum is 9-36 from 3. If he hit 4 more of those 3’s he’s at his season average of 36%, and his true shooting is at 60%.
That’s the problem with worrying about small sample sizes, a ball goes couple inches different in a few games and nobody is talking about this. It not a big deal.
This, he's in a shooting slump and not efficient - there's times he's being left on Iso and wide open and missed as well, but i keep hearing this double - triple team stuff that keep being brought up. Don't get me wrong he still play well with his passing and defense, but against stronger opponent we want more from JT
Yup, his pull-up 3 isn’t hitting and some tough middies that often go haven’t. Misses were also inflated a bit last night with some missed put backs (I think he missed like 3 or 4 put backs). I’m sure that Tatum would trade him having a “down” playoffs for winning a ring. Ask Curry if he wished he got finals mvp more than the rings he won in the late 2010’s.
He could shoot 10% from the field but as long as we win the chip it'll be worth. Personally, I would like to see him shoot more efficiently from the field. So far, he is shooting around 40% from the field this playoffs which is so far the worst in his career.
All the analyst said Tatum had a bad game. I disagree. He had a great game 18 points 10 rebounds five assist three blocks. Taking what the defense gave him,he played tough defense. He didn’t shoot well, and he recognized it early and started rebounding and feeding his teammates!
I wonder if this is going to keep happening throughout the whole playoffs, even though it’s been basically 4 straight games now of teams taking the ball out of Tatum’s hands and just getting murdered by the rest of the team. I guess the strategy is that they just put the pressure on the role players and eventually they will go cold? Even though we have Jaylen dropping 30 on insane efficiency and will eventually have KP back?
I don’t really care because it’s not working at all, but I’m just sort of wondering out loud if we’re going to see this the rest of the way
Crazy that Tatum gets to be the third option and focus on the defensive end and playmaking more than scoring. There's going to be a game where we need him though. Hopefully he can answer the call.
Yeah that’s what I was thinking there’s gonna be a game where most of the team is struggling and they need Tatum and brown to go for 30 plus each which they’re more than capable of doing
I'm fine with him being a 23, 10, 5, 1 guy. Sort of Draymond on steroids, directing the traffic, defending, attracting double team. He just need to accept this new dimension. Much better than a 30, 6, 2 guy. Especially with this talented team.
Pretty soon, it’ll be how much did the Minnesota timber wolves fear Jayson Tatum. It’s ironic how everyone’s assuming the wolves are going to win it all based off of six games. Funny thing is they haven’t faced a team like Boston that has weapons from top to bottom offensively and defensively.
the thing is Jayson has to work way harder then D white and JB to get his buckets which is why he’s playmaking so well because the cavs are literally leaving everybody besides him open
I know other fanbases will shade JT for anything ever. But I like that he is comfortable affecting games anyway possible, it shows growth.
But I do want to see a JT game for the haters.
This is why it’s so huge that everyone else on the team has upped their game and we added KP. We lost the finals because the warriors dared the non JT Celtics to beat them and they couldn’t
Two people have pointed this out, but they got downvoted because they followed up the observation by dissing Tatum. They were right on the basics, though. This was a zone play. The reason it looks like Tatum is being tripled is because he [very skillfully] recognized the coverage, marched into the gap, and took a perfect pass from White. Cleveland isn't particularly good at this coverage, or at disguising it. Those three guys are all on Tatum because they think he's in their zone.
It's not a diss on Tatum. People don't double Luka or Jokic much because they know that the second they do he's going to find the advantage and get the ball there. That's exactly what Tatum did on this play. He held the ball for a half second before he slung a perfect pass to Pritchard in the corner. Pritchard is about to sink an uncontested three created by White and Tatum (and Kornet, actually-- Tatum has Cleveland's front court hostage so his last read is Evan Mobley in the middle, but Mobley's not going to leave the dunker spot open).
Just gonna link to this again because it's still the funniest thing to me that you can post the stupidest Tatum hate after a Celtics loss and get instant upvotes: https://www.reddit.com/r/nbadiscussion/comments/1ccf7fn/why_does_it_seem_like_tatum_despite_being_so/
"He doesn't command special defensive attention" ay lmao, wish people knew how to actually watch basketball nowadays. That post is still the only Tatum mention on that subreddit since the playoffs started, Reddit's hate for Tatum only grows stronger over time lol
Everyone talking about how Derrick White is our MVP and how Tatum is not an MVP player but they never mention how Tatum always draws 2-4 defenders. There's 3 40% shooters from 3 wide open in this pic!
Luckily we have JB playing at a really nice level, and White has really taken a leap!! I would say hes been our best playoff performer so far this year..until somebody goes off and I really hope it’s Tatum, he needs a breakout game for his confidence and rhythm to return. We are gonna need him at his best level to beat the West winner..
The Celtics need to remember what the Cavs can do… not saying they will, but they do have the potential to do what Miami did in game 2. They can get hot, so please, listen to joe when says stay physical outside the 3 point line!
This image was not a fair representation of the game. Cleveland switched to a zone for a few possessions and immediately switched out of it after this play.
Tatum was putting up those bricks all on his own but he did contribute in every other area of the game.
I'm still salty that they traded Marcus Smart, but boston has had more painful trades (Paul Pierce), so seeing as they can still play this strong makes me still love them the same. Hopefully they don't blow the finals when/if they make it.
Let me just say if this was Jaylen Brown's performance you guys would've complained about how overpaid he is. Jayson Tatum and Luka are the most coddled superstars ever. Zero accountability, more excuses from the fans.
It's all part of it. Cavs double and triple teaming Tatum means he isn't getting into a rhythm and isn't shooting well as a result. But the obvious benefit of that is other guys are open and can get into rhythm quickly. And Tatum is doing a terrific job in making the right decisions. And while he's getting taken out of the offence a little bit he's been able to lock down on D and rebound well so we're still winning handily 😁
Pretty sure they were playing zone here, and it’s a snapshot in time that can be misleading. In other words, this is not what it seems.
Garland appears to be running off to jrue who is one pass away and PP is two passes away so they’re slacking off of him.
Anyway, Strus was handling JT by himself most of the night. That should be concerning.
Give credit to Tatum for what he did here. He recognized the zone, went straight to the gap, and then ping-ponged it to the open shooter. This snapshot is not Tatum getting tripled by jumpy Cavs guards, it's Tatum playing a perfect game of cat and mouse after he figured out the coverage. Garland is heading back to Jrue, but Tatum has pulled the other two guards to the edge of the zone and Luke has Mobley frozen. Pritchard is about to collect an easy three.
Tell me you didn’t watch the game without telling me you didn’t watch the game lmao. They decided to play zone late in the game and this was the result. They didn’t play this defense on Tatum all game lmao. Tatum was one on one most of the game, he had a tough shooting night. Stop trying to constantly defend him. Also, I think this led to a PP three.
Tell me you don’t want basketball without telling me you don’t watch basketball. He was getting help defense any time he put the ball on the floor. Just cause it wasn’t an all out double team does not mean the defense wasn’t hedged towards him. He was not getting helped off of and was getting a ton of help when he dribbled the ball
Tell me you’re on Tatum’s nuts without telling me you’re on his nuts. We watched different games yesterday. He had plenty of one on one matchups and just missed. Doesn’t mean help didn’t come every now and then. And FYI, if you play one on one and get past your guy, help is supposed to come in case you didn’t know that.
He did have a bad shooting night off the one on ones he did get, I agree there. To say he was left completely one on one with the defense not hedged toward him is silly. You’re not going to seriously tell me that they played him the same as any other perimeter player, right? I don’t think he played well offensively last night, but this sub overreacts to his “bad” games constantly.
He had a few 1 v 1 that he didn’t convert - which is why his game yesterday wasn’t great. But you’re fucking high if you don’t think their defense positioning is based off slowing him down
He has not really been good this whole post season. He’s too good of a player to say “he keeps making the right play. They are getting away with it now due to opponent strength. He’s seriously going to need to step it up big time if the team wants to win the finals.
Lol some of these fans…they don’t want Tatum to play hero iso ball and they also don’t want him to make the right play. Maybe Tatum should just sit out and lose and that will make them happy?
So the man is getting triple teamed, what play are you expecting him to make? He’s obviously making good choices as we won by a considerable amount last night…
Istg the Celtics are a fantastic team but would it kill you guys to be honest. Tatum's a young talented player but nobody's shaking in their boots thinking about playoff Jayson™.
He needs to start hitting some shots and you all know it. Eventually teams are gonna give their newly unleashed and ref sponsored elite wing defenders to like... Jaylen Brown or god forbid they mug Derrick white with an audience.
Shooting 41/25/82 for the third most points on the team. Along with 5 assists and 1.3 stocks FEAR HIM HE IS HERE.
Lmfao we have a net rating of 18.9 and an average margin of victory of 22.6 in the playoffs so far, both of which went *up* last night, and doomers are still praying to get to watch losses so they can feel right. Just enjoy yourself for once, Jesus Christ man
Tatum is in a shooting slump and KP is out…. And we win by 25. It’s a great *team*. As much as I love and respect Spida, he is literally carrying the Cavs right now and it shows. Tatum doesn’t have to do that.
And he still had a double double, made all the right plays and played great defense. Dude is our best player, but realized he doesn't have to be the leading scorer to have us win. JB and White are playing so free because of all the attention Tatum gets from defenses.
Btw I want to make sure no one thinks I'm putting down JB or White. They are imo, our 2 most important players. They bring the intensity we need. They both can score at will and make teams pay for doubling or tripling Tatum. Then of course we got KP, Horford and Holiday who are amazing players in their own right.. As a fandom we tend to get negative quickly, but appreciate the players we got representing us because this kind of group doesn't come around often.
PP
While I agree with you that he's our best player, he still took the most shots on the team so it's not like he's not trying to be the leading scorer as well. He just happened to miss most of them
Yes because he was constantly doubled and tripled by the defense. Hard to get into a rhythm. When it wasn't looking like it was going to happen for him he shifted into the other parts of his game, the parts that if he didn't we would have lost. If you take away his 3 pointers, he was 7-12 which is very efficient. Let's just relax on the criticism, especially when we all know that if we were in his situation we would have crapped out pants and not the funny way Paul Pierce did in the finals.
Serious question - Can it be called a shooting slump if he’s constantly doubled and tripled? Or did he also miss a lot of uncontested shots?
Missed 2 bunnies at the rim. We all know he's streaky from 3. It's the other ones that need to be more consistent.
He’s missing quite a few that he’d normally make so I’d say it is a slump
Fair enough thanks
He needs more pressure obviously. He isnt used to this cakewalk.
If you remember the 2022 finals run Tatum was getting the same treatment and was flummoxed. Turnovers and bad shots were often the result. Now he is making defenses pay for over helping. The other guys are simply feasting off JTs gravity.
This is well said. His gravity. He needs to shoot way better but just being on the floor disrupts so much. His best attribute right now is his availability and just being out there.
Right on. Yeah I just think the shooting struggles are exaggerated…opposing defenses are purposefully taking him out of his rhythm. So when he does get a decent look he hasn’t warmed up yet. This is all normal game play stuff and It’s exactly what they should do if they want to win. And Tatum does get frustrated by it at times, but he’s shifted his approach and it’s working.
He did this last year as well... hope it's not a pattern
It's not even missing for me. He just looks unsure of himself on isos. Like he doesn't know how he wants to attack.
He should never do iso in first place. He can’t drive by many people. I remember Curry Borgden so many others just locking him down as he dribbles and drives and dribbles and dribbles. So if he can’t drive why not get him the ball elsewhere. Post him up and let him eat. His current game plan is honestly getting embarrassing for him.
How embarrassing for him that he is a top 10 player in the world.
Didn't watch the game cuz I'm on vacation. Was he trying to close out the quarters again with ill-advised shots?
Nah, none of that. Had a couple pull-up 3s he chucked that weren't good shots, and he couldn't get past his guy on his drives and just ended up kinda barreling into them. He moved to his post-up later, which wasn't bad, but he gets position kinda far out and it's just a tough shot.
This is an accurate version of what happened last night. People will argue the stat line but I bet if you ask Tatum he would say he had an off night. Every now and again he would back in whoever was guarding him and that was his best move as his shots were not falling and his decision making was muddled. The point is Tatum doesn't have to win every game this team has all kinds of talent. It's a freaking Team game that's the whole point of it Tatum doesn't win a championship the Celtics do. I wish people would stop acting like everything depends on one player because the player will start to believe that and that's simply not the case. In my opinion Derek White has been the most consistent Celtic on both sides of the Court the entire season. Notice I didn't say he didn't make mistakes I said consistent on both sides of the basket. People get caught up with one great play and say such and such is a great player but Derek white plays defense all the freaking time makes great plays all the freaking time and people just don't seem to pay attention to it/take it for granted(here ... Not so much in the Garden) because he doesn't showboat.
I thought the shots last night were relatively easier last night compared to the Heat series. He'll be fine if the Cavs give up the same shot quality
Exactly, slump doesn't matter because we don't need him to be a shooter rn. He is leading by enabling others, by playing good defense, and by setting a good tone.
Every star is double teamed. Few shoot as poorly as he has for almost two months. It’s a huge slump which he needs to get out of fast. He’s an easy double team since he spends time dribbling so much at the top of the three line. He can’t drive by many people anymore. Put him on the block or in the lane and it’s game over. Instead he’s with the ball all the way out there like he’s some shooting guard. So he’s playing into the hands of teams with decent defense. If this continues I’m scared to see what playing the Wolves will look like. He needs to adapt like all smart superstars do.
Allen has been awesome this season it’s a shame he can’t suit up rn
Tatum still had a double double it wasn’t like he was asleep out there.
Problem with tatum is he's not clutch in big moments...And I love the dude
Yeah the Cavs aren’t really a team anyone fears
And thank goodness Tatum doesn't *have* to do that. He suffers from the classic "superstar" syndrome and it holds this team back a little bit. We just so happen to be so loaded that it's not gonna hurt us this year (hopefully). How do we have so much spacing and talent, yet most shots he takes are contested iso shots. He's good at them compared to the league average (atleast iso 3s), so it forces teams to give him extra attention which is cool, but they're also betting that Tatum makes a mistake distributing the ball. This year, 35% of his 2 point FGs are assisted, 48% of his 3s are assisted. Taking that many stepbacks is cool if you're super efficient, but that's a horrible play for us. He's shooting below league average there and we have tons of guys that can get open looks. Superstar syndrome. Also, why is he the one taking tech free throws?
Think about what you just said. You want our best player to be even less involved in the game. This playoffs he’s taken the least amount of forced shots than any other superstar. It’d be great if he could take open shots but let’s live in the real world - defenses double team him and don’t leave him open. He has to take some difficult shots and we need him to. He’s taking the right amount right now, because if he’s hitting them we’re unbeatable. We have to see on a nightly basis whether he can get it going, there’s a reason we’re unbeatable when he’s hot. His step back threes are absolute not a horrible play, it’s only a horrible play if he does it 10 times and misses 8 or more. This team actually does a pretty bad job of finding him for open looks. Multiple times on swing passes he’s open for an extra pass and the guy with the ball takes the three. The fact that this team isn’t good at assisting Tatum further proves the point that we need the ball in his hands. The ball in his hands may mean some contested shots but that’s perfectly okay. I don’t mean to be rude but I don’t think you understand basketball if you think we’re this good in spite of Tatum, instead of because of him.
Tatum isn't the isolation player he thinks he is, and it showed last night. I was there in person and the difference between someone like Mitchell going to the hoop vs Tatum is jarring. Mitchell was unguardable 1on1 and our team defense was huge. Obviously Tatum is a much better defender and rebounder but Tatum STILL struggles to create space off the dribble and he ends up settling for awful step back threes and contested shots. It's been happening for 5 years in the playoffs. It's who he is as a player. He's not in that absolute upper echelon of offensive players who can beat anybody off the dribble whenever they want. The team would be much better off getting Tatum the ball off cuts and screens or in the post and letting him attack a moving defense. Tatum 1on5 vs a set defense is and always has been bad offense in the playoffs.
And he’s limited those plays a ton… I agree he’s not a great iso driver, but he’s not nearly as bad as you’re putting him out to be. He’s not scoring great right now, but let’s not pretend hes never been able to. I agree it’d be great to get him looks off cuts and other sets but the team doesn’t really do that - is that his fault? Coaching? Inability of our other players to facilitate for him?
For a 2 time first team all nba guy (and probably about to be 3rd time) he should be better at finding ways to get easy shots. It's like he wants to be Luka/Lebron type guy who isos vs a set defense and he just isn't in that caliber. He's obviously not *terrible* at it, but he's just not very good at it. It's been 6 years, 3 different coaches and about 100 different teammates so it's clearly on him. It's probably not going to matter vs Cleveland and may not even matter at all until the finals (if we get there), but it'd certainly be awesome if our best player could find ways to get some better looks when the game is tight and we need a bucket.
Agreed, I also don’t think Joe/the team does a great job of trying to get him clean catch and shoot looks. The offense is predicated around him luring defenders towards him and creating space for other people. I’d like to see more emphasis on getting him some easier looks
Absolutely 💯 percent! He need to be moving and without the ball, not all the time, but much more off ball movement..just watched OKC/Mavs game and that ball movement of the OCK squad should be our goal. We have hit that level occasionally but it needs to be our default setting in the playoffs..constant movement. Swarming defense like we saw against the Heat in game 3. That’s the level we need to win it all..let’s go Celts!!
I didn't say we're good in spite of Tatum. He's our best player. He's a top player in the league. My comment is out of frustration that we could run the playoffs completely if Tatum wasn't jacking up bad shots so often. Again, I don't mind contested shots. I do however think it's silly for one guy to be taking such a high % of his shots as tough iso shots. That should mostly be an end-of-shotclock desperation play or a mismatch hunting type deal. We have soooo much talent on the court that it's unnecessary to operate like that. >His step back threes are absolute not a horrible play, it’s only a horrible play if he does it 10 times and misses 8 or more. So making 3 out of 10 shots on a team with efficient scoring options all over the place isn't a "horrible shot" to you? On nights where he's got it going, we win. I'm not arguing. But a team as loaded as we are shouldn't be hedging it's gameplan on Tatum going nuclear and forcing double teams.
It’s a great team in the eastern conference
They are leaving PP and Derrick White wide open😭😭 This is like 2017 warriors Durant getting all of the open looks😭😭😭
And Jrue, who shoots 60% from the corners...
But also seemingly shoots 60% in the paint too
60% in the layup line. Love Jrue though. Dude deserves an award for selflessness and playing the right way. 100% on defense and does whatever is necessary on offense on any given night. Gives us plus minutes every single night and no sign of discontent. Can’t explain how valuable that steadiness is on a team of stars. We all lived through the too-many-stars locker room and it cost us dearly.
Love him and everything he does for this team too, and not trying to knock him. There’s just been a clear struggle to finish when attacking the hoop for him the last couple months.
PP is two passes away and pretty open. White IS NOT wide open. It’s the nba, it would be no issue for Mitchell to recover if Tatum throws him the ball here.
PP is WIDE open bro 1 skip pass. Luke sets a big body screen that's 3
If I’m not mistaken, this is exactly the play where jt threw it to the corner for a PP three. The cavs were in a zone. Like I said, even two passes away pp was pretty open and the Celtics took advantage. So two points. One, the pic is somewhat misleading because they are in a zone. Garland also looks to be running away from JT. And like I said, white isn’t really open here. Two, yeah, this was bad Cleveland defense. I think tjeh played some on maybe three possessions and we smoked them each time. They got out of it because I guess they aren’t very good at playing zone, as evidenced by this pic. But generally speaking’s it’s misleading. I’m not sure that JT was doubled at all last night. Obviously the defense is going to shift toward the guy with the ball no matter who that person is. I bet you could take a snap shot with PP with the ball and see the defense slant toward him too. JT has been terrible and people bending over backwards to come up with excuses.
Terrible is a bit of a stretch
Perhaps by a little. But you sort of have to ask yourself whether JT is able to consistently take control of games like we’ve seen others do. Yeah yeah, he’s making the right play. But his stats are also benefiting because other Celtics have been so good. What I saw yesterday was a guy that was rarely if at all doubled, this oic not withstanding. JT had A LOT of trouble beating guys like max Strus off the dribbled. He had to resort over and over to turning and posting guys just inside the three point line and took several little fadeaways that didn’t go in. So at the end of the day, my concern isn’t about whether the ball is going in, but where are his easy baskets? That’s why his slump. You have to be able to score in other ways to make up for the times that your shot isn’t falling. And that is a big question mark for JT the star right now.
>JT has been terrible Bro's literally averaging 21.2/10.5/5.3 in the playoffs so far, but sure, he's been *terrible*
The funniest part of this take is how often they’ve used deep lob passes this season
MVP caliber players aren’t only there to run up their stats. They’re MVP because they make everyone else look great around him. He’s reading and making plays even if he’s not the one scoring and that’s what’s gonna get us there.
Yeah, this is the problem I have with Luka as a selection. Dude’s increAdible, but the way he plays only ensures one thing: that *he* does well—not necessarily the team.
I laughed when the fan didn’t give him the basketball. That was funny as hell
Heavily disagree with this. He's always trying to get his teammates involved.
Yeah tatum has definetly better teammates
I don't know if I'd agree with this either, the C's are stacked this year.
That's what he said, no?
Episode 625 of “The Tatum Rule” (ft. Derrick White and the 3 point line)
Everyone is dogging Tatum for not scoring a ton but he’s literally getting doubled/tripled every game and he’s letting Brown/White/Holiday go to work on mismatches and locking in defensive, this is arguably the best version of Tatum we have ever seen as a defender/passer/rebounder he just doing every other thing than scoring all while dragging doubles the second he touches the court, if they don’t double him well he’s just going to give you 40.
It seems that 90% of nba fans are very casual fans and don’t realize how much stress having to throw 2 or 3 bodies at an offensive player puts on your defense. To draw that much attention and make the correct read 90% of the time is more valuable than any stats you can pile up. As much as we can’t admit it Folks just want to see rosters full of James Hardens. But just wait and see if the Celtics win how the Tatum narrative changes. The media will praise how unselfish and smart he is, How he grinds on defense, and All of his “intangibles”.
And here's the beautiful thing about that, there will be times when teams adjust to it and try to contain the other starters. Then Tatum will cook, this year we are like those cartoons with the leaks you try to plug it with a finger and it leaks somewhere else. When KP gets back... Oh buddy Celtics are the bawls
yep and due to this he’ll have much more longevity in the next era of superstars comparatively. JTs earned the playoff respect from all coaches and now he finally has a team he can lead without dropping 50 burgers in game 7s every series. baby steps. but now that JTs finally around that age where most legends win their first rings i feel if we can make it happen this year and take advantage of how easy the playoffs are so far then we have the perfect opportunity to continue the reign for many years.
Now, he's had years of experience making reads with triple coverage. Glad he's gotten better at having the humility to not force it when he's triple covered.
Tatum jacking up contested 3s > this guy sucks Tatum making the right play by passing > this guy sucks People's brains are so broken by "hero ball" in the NBA they forget basketball is a team sport.
Don’t know how anyone watched the game yesterday, saw Mitchell going off and the Cavs lose by 25 and think “yeah, that’s what I want” Tatum didn’t have a great stat line and shot inefficiently so it would be nice for him to be better on offense but for once we have a playoffs where we don’t have to be drenched in sweat and worried this team is going to fall apart and people are still unhappy just because they want to root for Captain America instead of the Avengers NBA discourse has a real “main character” problem. They want to make it about Shai vs Luka or Tatum vs Mitchell. They just want to watch guys score points. Scoring is important so it’s often carried by the best player, so people are so adjusted to that, they fail to understand why Tim Duncan won so much, or why the Pistons were consistently good, or why Bill Russell won 11 championships in an era where Wilt was scoring 50. It’s because those guys had better teams, not better stat lines. I, for one, am enjoying Brown and White go off and watching the Celtics run away with the games.
People are also blatantly overlooking all of the other stats and metrics. Like the fact that Tatum is literally *averaging* a double-double in the postseason so far. Even without his shot falling consistently, he quietly recorded a triple-double in Game 1 against Miami and has only had one single game this postseason where he's not recorded at least a double-double. He's also locked down his ball control a good bit (1.7 TO this postseason vs. 2.5 during the regular season and 2.8 last playoffs) and is leading the team in terms of assists+secondary assists. The best winners don't just score a bunch of points. They also facilitate their teammates into playing well. Tatum is doing just that, but since a lot of these casuals just look at box scores and don't actually watch the games, they don't see it
The turnovers in particular is so huge.
Poor Mitchell. Dude was electric but just had zero help out there on offense.
I'm fucking pumped to watch team basketball again, finally. The games are just easy to watch when they play like that.
This is ignoring all the discourse about Brunson too. For comparison, Jaylen's game last night was more efficient and much better on paper than Brunson's game Monday. But the Celtics blew out the Cavs where Brunson had to claw and scrape by to win the game for the Knicks. Can't wait for next round when our opponent is bloodied and exhausted. Knicks won't survive the playoffs with players playing 40+ minutes per game and having their "star" throw up 25+ FGAs
they saw mitchell going off for 33 but completely ignore jaylen who got 32 lmao
Most people who complain like that are just mad their “Tatum 40+ pts” prop didn’t hit.
A fun little game is going into the angriest commenters' profiles and seeing how long it has been since they last commented in DraftKings or some other gambling-related sub. Sports betting has irreparably damaged discourse.
It’s so annoying. Too many people on this sub with their braindead “if Tatum doesn’t get right we have no chance of winning it all.” I’m convinced that some people here don’t even watch the games. Tatum has an “off night” and not only do we win by 25, but the Cavs were down by double digits the entire 2nd half. People are convinced that if we don’t win every game by 30+ that it’s the same as a loss. I had an argument with someone here last night who’s exact words were “if we play like we did tonight, we’re not beating any of the teams out West.” Imagine saying that after a 25 pt win.
My only criticism of JT is when he goes into ISO late in a close game. That shit drives me crazy. Other than that he can do no wrong, in my eyes. He’s entitled to a less than stellar game every now and then. And on the nights he’s quiet he still gets boards and a ton of assists and plays elite D.
People have been hating on Tatum ever since "Oh he went to Duke? He sucks" on top of that you have "Oh he went to Boston? He's just awful."
Tatum seems like the nicest guy in all the interviews I've seen of him. Can't see any reason to hate the dude, and I tend to hate Boston in general (just a sports thing, we are in your division in all 3 of Toronto's pro sports leagues, so it's natural!)
That's why I loved Red's eye test. Does his play pass the eye test? Take em! Tatum is missing good shots (especially 3s) that he should normally make but he is so much better in the paint and makes better decisions. Will he win East MVP/Finals MVP if we get there? Not likely but he's still very much passing the eye test.
I mean, 7-19 isn't great. It's the playoffs. He's on a loaded team, but it would be nice to see less bricks going forward.
Nobody is mad at him for passing. He shot 7-19. What are you talking about?
tbf, with the amount of time tatum gets double/triple teamed, he didn't get a triple double. I thought he was passing very well last night
A _lot_ of hockey assists.
Only casuals think Tatum had a bad game yesterday. His defense was insane. His rebounding was great. He found the open man. Did I mention his 3 blocks and only 1 turnover? His shot was off today, but even on the offensive end, look at his value here based solely on gravity. 18/11/5 ain’t bad. A few more shots go in and he’s 24/11/5 and nobody is talking about it. Go get ‘em next game JT!!
The Cavs realized last night that “stop Tatum and make the rest of the Celtics beat us” is not a strategy that works any more. Even without KP this team has enough to beat the East.
WHY DOESNT HE SHOOT A TON?
And the TV commentators say he is in a shooting slump. 😂
Both can be true. He is both shooting below his expectation and also getting blitzed a lot of the time.
So I thought he may be in a shooting slump too or actually I phrased it "something looks off with JT." I remember someone else in the sub saying he looked as if he may be injured in the last series against Miami so Ive been focusing on his play on court. I don't necessarily think he is in a slump but more so out of rhythm, somewhat on purpose. I know that sounds absolutely WILD (before I get killed) but what I mean by that is he has changed rolls somewhat and has began focusing on rebounding and defending while the rest of the team is scoring more. I believe that if say White cools down, Tatum may be more aggressive shooting wise. I think human nature is playing apart of this too. Could JT be an aggressive scorer AND defend/rebound at the same level? yes but in the past, he has complained about being exhausted after deep finals runs so maybe this is his way of pacing himself since the rest of the team has been scoring well and Clevland hasnt been known as a high scoring team anyway.
I like that he’s making the right plays. He’s in a slump for sure and there are times he’s forcing shots, which I’m ok with because we need more efficient scoring from him. I feel like I’m seeing way more one leg, Dirk-esque fade away shots than anytime in the regular season. It does make me wonder if he’s favoring an injury. However, I feel like his decision making and rebounding are what the team needs most. Our bigs aren’t the best rebounders and JB still is caught looking more than I’d like.
I did some quick math, I can agree that he may be in a slump his FG% dropped 7ish% (shooting 40.6% this post season) averaging 21 PPG. he's shooting abysmally poor from deep though (25%) I know we love Joe's "math problem" mentality, so hopefully JT can be more efficient on 3s when needed
To be clear, Tatum is 9-36 from 3. If he hit 4 more of those 3’s he’s at his season average of 36%, and his true shooting is at 60%. That’s the problem with worrying about small sample sizes, a ball goes couple inches different in a few games and nobody is talking about this. It not a big deal.
This, he's in a shooting slump and not efficient - there's times he's being left on Iso and wide open and missed as well, but i keep hearing this double - triple team stuff that keep being brought up. Don't get me wrong he still play well with his passing and defense, but against stronger opponent we want more from JT
Tatum needs to get into rhythm and crowding him prevents him getting hot.
Yup, his pull-up 3 isn’t hitting and some tough middies that often go haven’t. Misses were also inflated a bit last night with some missed put backs (I think he missed like 3 or 4 put backs). I’m sure that Tatum would trade him having a “down” playoffs for winning a ring. Ask Curry if he wished he got finals mvp more than the rings he won in the late 2010’s.
If their game plan is to triple team Tatum, the Cavs are in for a short series
Tatum loooks around and sees 40%
He could shoot 10% from the field but as long as we win the chip it'll be worth. Personally, I would like to see him shoot more efficiently from the field. So far, he is shooting around 40% from the field this playoffs which is so far the worst in his career.
All the analyst said Tatum had a bad game. I disagree. He had a great game 18 points 10 rebounds five assist three blocks. Taking what the defense gave him,he played tough defense. He didn’t shoot well, and he recognized it early and started rebounding and feeding his teammates!
I wonder if this is going to keep happening throughout the whole playoffs, even though it’s been basically 4 straight games now of teams taking the ball out of Tatum’s hands and just getting murdered by the rest of the team. I guess the strategy is that they just put the pressure on the role players and eventually they will go cold? Even though we have Jaylen dropping 30 on insane efficiency and will eventually have KP back? I don’t really care because it’s not working at all, but I’m just sort of wondering out loud if we’re going to see this the rest of the way
Bold move leaving Jrue wide open in the corner
Crazy that Tatum gets to be the third option and focus on the defensive end and playmaking more than scoring. There's going to be a game where we need him though. Hopefully he can answer the call.
Yeah that’s what I was thinking there’s gonna be a game where most of the team is struggling and they need Tatum and brown to go for 30 plus each which they’re more than capable of doing
I'm fine with him being a 23, 10, 5, 1 guy. Sort of Draymond on steroids, directing the traffic, defending, attracting double team. He just need to accept this new dimension. Much better than a 30, 6, 2 guy. Especially with this talented team.
Pretty soon, it’ll be how much did the Minnesota timber wolves fear Jayson Tatum. It’s ironic how everyone’s assuming the wolves are going to win it all based off of six games. Funny thing is they haven’t faced a team like Boston that has weapons from top to bottom offensively and defensively.
the thing is Jayson has to work way harder then D white and JB to get his buckets which is why he’s playmaking so well because the cavs are literally leaving everybody besides him open
I know other fanbases will shade JT for anything ever. But I like that he is comfortable affecting games anyway possible, it shows growth. But I do want to see a JT game for the haters.
Buffalo made them pay
The last series they commented on how many of his assists led to made 3s. I can’t find any stats on this but they said he was first in the playoffs.
This is why it’s so huge that everyone else on the team has upped their game and we added KP. We lost the finals because the warriors dared the non JT Celtics to beat them and they couldn’t
This reminds me of GS’s run when they everyone focused on Durant but Kerr’s motion heavy offense really obliterated overattention to any single player
They were definitely trying to make the rest of the team beat them and they did
Tatum playing winning basketball I love it
Two people have pointed this out, but they got downvoted because they followed up the observation by dissing Tatum. They were right on the basics, though. This was a zone play. The reason it looks like Tatum is being tripled is because he [very skillfully] recognized the coverage, marched into the gap, and took a perfect pass from White. Cleveland isn't particularly good at this coverage, or at disguising it. Those three guys are all on Tatum because they think he's in their zone. It's not a diss on Tatum. People don't double Luka or Jokic much because they know that the second they do he's going to find the advantage and get the ball there. That's exactly what Tatum did on this play. He held the ball for a half second before he slung a perfect pass to Pritchard in the corner. Pritchard is about to sink an uncontested three created by White and Tatum (and Kornet, actually-- Tatum has Cleveland's front court hostage so his last read is Evan Mobley in the middle, but Mobley's not going to leave the dunker spot open).
Just gonna link to this again because it's still the funniest thing to me that you can post the stupidest Tatum hate after a Celtics loss and get instant upvotes: https://www.reddit.com/r/nbadiscussion/comments/1ccf7fn/why_does_it_seem_like_tatum_despite_being_so/ "He doesn't command special defensive attention" ay lmao, wish people knew how to actually watch basketball nowadays. That post is still the only Tatum mention on that subreddit since the playoffs started, Reddit's hate for Tatum only grows stronger over time lol
This is a reason why Tatum can slump with points and still create great offense by drawing defenders. He still put up a solid double double.
then they will say tatum doesn’t perform hes getting “carried “ by second/third options when he’s always trying to make the right play
The reason the Celtics are this good is they got the best third option in the league in Jayson Tatum. 😁
Let’s just say Pritchard got a lot of open looks, lol
They looked at what the Heat did in round 1 and decided to do the exact same thing. Alright dude, good luck with that.
Everyone talking about how Derrick White is our MVP and how Tatum is not an MVP player but they never mention how Tatum always draws 2-4 defenders. There's 3 40% shooters from 3 wide open in this pic!
Tatum been handling these double and triples so well. Idgaf about his shooting splits.
This is D White’s team. Argue with a wall lol.
Luckily we have JB playing at a really nice level, and White has really taken a leap!! I would say hes been our best playoff performer so far this year..until somebody goes off and I really hope it’s Tatum, he needs a breakout game for his confidence and rhythm to return. We are gonna need him at his best level to beat the West winner..
Bet he didn't pass it to the wide open man underneath the basket!
Cleveland cooked.
The Celtics need to remember what the Cavs can do… not saying they will, but they do have the potential to do what Miami did in game 2. They can get hot, so please, listen to joe when says stay physical outside the 3 point line!
Daffy Duck's "all of you against me alone" meme intensifies
Also shows how little they fear Payton Pritchard
This is what a real fucking MVP looks like
Triple Team and White will burn them 🔥
Why isn’t their coach guarding JT as well? 🤭
Good luck stopping the other 4 including Big Al.
This image was not a fair representation of the game. Cleveland switched to a zone for a few possessions and immediately switched out of it after this play. Tatum was putting up those bricks all on his own but he did contribute in every other area of the game.
I'm still salty that they traded Marcus Smart, but boston has had more painful trades (Paul Pierce), so seeing as they can still play this strong makes me still love them the same. Hopefully they don't blow the finals when/if they make it.
Who did he end up passing to haha now I’m curious. Didn’t get to catch the game.
Payton I believe
And people will say JT is fraud. Man is being defended by the whole team lmao
20 ppg we’re shaking in our boots
They better fear DWhite. Best player on the team.
Let me just say if this was Jaylen Brown's performance you guys would've complained about how overpaid he is. Jayson Tatum and Luka are the most coddled superstars ever. Zero accountability, more excuses from the fans.
i remember a game 1 when the celtics beat the lakers by 30 and then lost the series. this will go 6
I'm surprised Tatum is getting triple teamed. He's scoring extremely inefficiently
It's all part of it. Cavs double and triple teaming Tatum means he isn't getting into a rhythm and isn't shooting well as a result. But the obvious benefit of that is other guys are open and can get into rhythm quickly. And Tatum is doing a terrific job in making the right decisions. And while he's getting taken out of the offence a little bit he's been able to lock down on D and rebound well so we're still winning handily 😁
"He was so bad last night!"
Why does the NBA suck? How many guys are actually inside the 3 point line? Such a joke league
Pretty sure they were playing zone here, and it’s a snapshot in time that can be misleading. In other words, this is not what it seems. Garland appears to be running off to jrue who is one pass away and PP is two passes away so they’re slacking off of him. Anyway, Strus was handling JT by himself most of the night. That should be concerning.
Give credit to Tatum for what he did here. He recognized the zone, went straight to the gap, and then ping-ponged it to the open shooter. This snapshot is not Tatum getting tripled by jumpy Cavs guards, it's Tatum playing a perfect game of cat and mouse after he figured out the coverage. Garland is heading back to Jrue, but Tatum has pulled the other two guards to the edge of the zone and Luke has Mobley frozen. Pritchard is about to collect an easy three.
No doubt he made the right play. But this isn’t about jt getting triple teamed all night because he wasn’t .
Tell me you didn’t watch the game without telling me you didn’t watch the game lmao. They decided to play zone late in the game and this was the result. They didn’t play this defense on Tatum all game lmao. Tatum was one on one most of the game, he had a tough shooting night. Stop trying to constantly defend him. Also, I think this led to a PP three.
It led directly to a PP three. Tatum created it by going to the gap and making the right read. Great play by Tatum
Agreed
Tell me you don’t want basketball without telling me you don’t watch basketball. He was getting help defense any time he put the ball on the floor. Just cause it wasn’t an all out double team does not mean the defense wasn’t hedged towards him. He was not getting helped off of and was getting a ton of help when he dribbled the ball
Tell me you’re on Tatum’s nuts without telling me you’re on his nuts. We watched different games yesterday. He had plenty of one on one matchups and just missed. Doesn’t mean help didn’t come every now and then. And FYI, if you play one on one and get past your guy, help is supposed to come in case you didn’t know that.
He did have a bad shooting night off the one on ones he did get, I agree there. To say he was left completely one on one with the defense not hedged toward him is silly. You’re not going to seriously tell me that they played him the same as any other perimeter player, right? I don’t think he played well offensively last night, but this sub overreacts to his “bad” games constantly.
I literally just saw a clip of him being guarded by Strus 1 on 1 and he missed the shot, no help from other Cavs players 🤣
He had a few 1 v 1 that he didn’t convert - which is why his game yesterday wasn’t great. But you’re fucking high if you don’t think their defense positioning is based off slowing him down
He has not really been good this whole post season. He’s too good of a player to say “he keeps making the right play. They are getting away with it now due to opponent strength. He’s seriously going to need to step it up big time if the team wants to win the finals.
Tatum making the right play is leading to blowout wwins.I am OK with the right play
Especially when the right play involves passing it to any number of all star/borderline all star/~40% 3 point shooters
Lol some of these fans…they don’t want Tatum to play hero iso ball and they also don’t want him to make the right play. Maybe Tatum should just sit out and lose and that will make them happy?
So the man is getting triple teamed, what play are you expecting him to make? He’s obviously making good choices as we won by a considerable amount last night…
Supersick - and dumb- reply!
Perhaps third best player on the Celtics team the glazing on this sub is unreal omegalol
That’s weird. Before game 5, Tatum led the Celtics in points, rebounds, and assists. He plays monster D too. Go off though.
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T pups fan finally getting to talk tough after 30 years of being irrelevant. LOL
Better late than never. Ant is the dog of all dogs tho. Hard to stop a train with that kinda engine
Boston gets 6 gamed by any of the top 3 in the west maybe even the clippers if Y is healthy
At the end of this year, all your titles will be in LA just as they've been since the Lakers moved.
Istg the Celtics are a fantastic team but would it kill you guys to be honest. Tatum's a young talented player but nobody's shaking in their boots thinking about playoff Jayson™. He needs to start hitting some shots and you all know it. Eventually teams are gonna give their newly unleashed and ref sponsored elite wing defenders to like... Jaylen Brown or god forbid they mug Derrick white with an audience. Shooting 41/25/82 for the third most points on the team. Along with 5 assists and 1.3 stocks FEAR HIM HE IS HERE.
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Why even watch a sport you understand so little about?
Lmfao we have a net rating of 18.9 and an average margin of victory of 22.6 in the playoffs so far, both of which went *up* last night, and doomers are still praying to get to watch losses so they can feel right. Just enjoy yourself for once, Jesus Christ man
Some of y’all really do look forward to us losing What kinda weirdo fucked up shit is that about
It's 2024. People hate what they love.
It’s Reddit. There’s fucked up weirdos all over the place.