Celtics’ Tatum, Brown forge winning duo
SAN FRANCISCO – Boston Celtics stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown heard what was said.
Break up the Tatum-Brown tandem, it’s not working.
“They can’t co-exist,” ESPN NBA analyst and former Celtics player Kendrick Perkins said in January. An ESPN story in November quoted an unnamed league executive saying, “I can’t believe this whole era for them hasn’t really worked.”
It wasn’t just the sports network trumpeting the demise of that partnership. In December, Bleacher Report’s Jake Fischer said, “I think this is definitely the beginning of the end of the Jayson Tatum-Jaylen Brown pairing.”
Four nights after hugging each other on the court following a victory against the Miami Heat in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals and a smiling Tatum telling a smiling Brown, “They said we couldn’t play together,” the Celtics played the Golden State Warriors in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
Tatum and Brown extinguished that storyline.
“I honestly believe just two young, extremely competitive guys that just really want to win at all costs,” Tatum offered as an explanation of why it worked. “So I think obviously that made us closer in the sense of we just wanted to figure it out. Not necessarily prove people wrong, but just prove that we can win and put ourselves in a position to do that.”
It’s not like the concerns were unfounded. The Celtics struggled earlier in the season, hovering around .500 for the first three months of the season, and the often-referenced 18-21 mark on Jan. 6 left them in 11th place in the East.
Brown missed 14 of Boston’s first 24 games, and the Celtics had a new and first-time head coach in Ime Udoka.
“The narrative isn’t going to say that,” Brown said, ever thoughtful with his answer. “They are just going to say that you guys lost. Doesn’t matter what the excuse is. … We were trying to figure it out. We play in a city that it has no patience for any excuses, so we didn’t make any.”
It’s a credit to Tatum and Brown and who they are not just as players but as people. They didn’t allow the team’s struggles to have a detrimental effect on their relationship or allow outside opinions to drive them apart.
In separate press conferences on Wednesday, Brown and Tatum uttered similar statements of resolve.
“There was always a sense of belief between us and the group that we were capable of figuring it out,” Tatum said.
Brown said, “I will always have unwavering faith even in the midst of situations that look like things are about to go in a direction that nobody wants to go in. I will always have faith in this group and in this organization and in myself that we’ll be all right.”
As the season progressed, the Celtics were healthier, and they began to grasp the offensive and defensive concepts that Udoka installed. They started winning games. A nine-game winning streak in February. Five in a row to start the month of March. Six in a row later in March. From Jan. 29 through March 27, the Celtics were 22-3. Eleventh place became eighth place which became sixth place which turned into fourth place. By the night of March 27, the Celtics were 47-28 and tied for first place in the East.
Tatum and Brown were at the heart of that turnaround. Tatum made the AllStar team, and for the first time in his career, he made All-NBA first team. He averaged career highs in points (26.9) and rebounds (eight) and averaged 4.4 assists. Under Udoka, Tatum improved as a playmaker, more willing to trust his passing and his teammates.
In the Miami series, Tatum earned the first Larry Bird Trophy given to the best player in the East finals. In two Games 7 in the playoffs, he had 26 points, 10 rebounds, six assists, two blocks and a steal against Miami and 23 points, eight assists and six rebounds against Milwaukee.
“A guy that’s carried us throughout the season,” Udoka said. “Asked a lot to be put on his shoulders and has delivered.”
Brown is a consistent scorer with an ability to put up a big number. He scored at least 20 points in 14 of 18 playoff games, dropped 30 in Game 2 against Milwaukee and 40 in Game 3 against Miami. He is shooting 48.5% from the field and 38.6% on 3-pointers.
Sometimes, Brown and Tatum are sloppy with the basketball, and that irks Udoka. But there’s far more good than bad from those two players.
One thing to consider in all of this is how young both players still are. A team executive at some point has to move on from a roster that isn’t working. But Boston had still reached the conference finals in three of the previous five seasons. They just didn’t have a Finals appearance. It was too early to give up on two guys who are 24 and 25 years old even as Golden State’s Klay Thompson said, “I feel like Brown and Tatum and (Marcus) Smart have been there for 10 years already.”
Maybe a blockbuster trade involving Tatum or Brown would have yielded a player who also helped Boston get to the Finals. But there’s something fulfilling about president of basketball operations Brad Stevens and Udoka seeing it through and getting to the Finals with players Boston drafted.
Brown is more pragmatic about Boston’s turnaround. Health and key trades were the reasons, he surmised. “If you ask me, that’s what I believe,” he said. “But you ask somebody else, they might say something different.”
Tatum was asked, and he gave a different answer.
“As hard as it can be in those times,” Tatum said, “you’ve got to come closer together.”