tatum magical in Ot win
Celts drop Orlando in the bubble
Of all of the things now projected for Jayson Tatum, what happened Sunday may be the ultimate indication of where this young star is headed.
Tatum took over, hitting a 3-pointer with 34 seconds left in regulation that cut the Orlando lead to 112-110. Then, with 4.2 seconds left in regulation, Tatum easily lost his man and drained a game-tying fadeaway from 15 feet. And when Orlando inbounded for the last possession, Tatum and Marcus Smart were there to make sure Terrence Ross put up an airball.
He went on to score another seven points in overtime to propel the Celtics to a 122119 win, their third straight. And though he flirted with triple-double territory with his 26-point, six-assist, ninerebound performance, it was Tatum’s crunch-time takeover that spoke loudest.
This, of course, is what the stars do.
“Every good player wants to shoot the last couple of shots but I think he recognizes that there will be times where he’ll shoot it and times where he’ll dish it off,” said Brad Stevens. “We have a unique team in that regard where we have a lot of different guys we can go to and will go to. But the big three off the rebound was excellent, and then the poise to get that shot, to get to where he wanted to and take his time to score the ball was good too when we were down two with however many seconds left.”
Tatum, who doesn’t need every last shot, sounds happy to accept the opportunities that come his way.
“It just depends on the situation. Not afraid to take that shot, even if it didn’t go in, those are the moments I live for,” he said. “But it’s all about game situation — a matchup maybe, or who has it going. It just kind of depends.”
And in an otherwise uneven game in which the Celtics couldn’t put any distance on the eighth-seeded Magic, the lesson was valuable. Unlike in Friday’s win over Toronto, they didn’t have their A game against Orlando Sunday. They won without it.
“I thought that was really good,” Stevens said of having to come back and win in overtime on the eve of the playoffs. “You’d never want to script it that way, but it wasn’t at all bad to be down five, either, with a minute-44 or a minute-50, just to have to find a way in that moment, have to get stops, have to put our defense in a situation where we had to get a stop to go to overtime, had to get a bucket right before that. It’s not all bad, but there’s a lot that led up to that that we didn’t like as well that we’ll go back and look at to make sure we’re better.”
It may be finally safe to say that Gordon Hayward is playing his best basketball as a Celtic: Before Tatum heated up, and with Kemba Walker in a night-long struggle to find his shot, Hayward made most of the necessary plays to keep the Celtics in a flow. He finished with 31 points on 12-for-18 shooting to go along with nine rebounds and five assists, and even had a chasedown block of D.J. Augustin.
Though he’ll generally be the facilitator for Tatum, Walker and Jaylen Brown, Hayward showed Sunday that he has the bounce and power to be a premium finisher.
“I think our team is at our best when I’m aggressive and attacking. Just it opens the court for everyone else,” said Hayward. “A lot of times when I’m attacking it doesn’t necessarily end up with me scoring, but it can be a pass or an extra or something else. But I think just getting more paint threats for our team is good. So just trying to attack.”
Walker can afford to have an off-night with this group: Walker played to his limit of 32 minutes, didn’t play in overtime, and only had four points and six assists and shot 1-for-9 from the floor. But that’s why the point guard has Tatum and Brown on his wings, and was more than happy to help another hot hand Sunday evening.
“Obviously, Kemba is one of the best players in the league, he’s been doing it for a while,” said Tatum. “He’s hit some big-time shots, and mature enough to understand when it’s not his night offensively. He’s been doing a great job all year of, when he sees me going, encouraging me and wanting me to take the challenge and the big shot.”
Brown continues to use his social justice platform: The
Celtics forward said earlier last week that he’s only begun to speak up, and spent all of his post-game press conference doing just that. He raised the named of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Travon Martin, said the term “police brutality” should be changed to “domestic terrorism,” and also discussed the need for better mental health awareness in the Black community.
“It’s very tough. African American people are very strong people,” he said. “We survived slavery, we survived separate but equal, Jim Crow and all in between. A lot of African American males in particular feel like they have to portray masculinity and toughness. In these environments sometimes that leads to violence just because we feel we have to display this form of toughness all the time.
“That in itself can lead to violence and things like that. To answer your second question, mental health plays into it by just being open, having more conversations about it — people like me, people who have influence, in using it and making sure that other guys see me talking and can relate, because they might have gone through it as well. Keep leading that charge. I see that Kevin Love has spoken out about it openly, DeMar DeRozan etc., because people need our help.”