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Jayson Tatum Shines in Christmas Day Loss

By Joshua Bateman

BOSTON, MA - DECEMBER 25: Jayson Tatum #0 and Jaylen Brown #7 of the Boston Celtics react after a call from the official during the fourth quarter of the game against the Washington Wizards at TD Garden on December 25, 2017 in Boston, Massachusetts. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Omar Rawlings/Getty Images)
BOSTON, MA - DECEMBER 25: Jayson Tatum #0 and Jaylen Brown #7 of the Boston Celtics react after a call from the official during the fourth quarter of the game against the Washington Wizards at TD Garden on December 25, 2017 in Boston, Massachusetts. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Omar Rawlings/Getty Images) /
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The Boston Celtics can look to Jayson Tatum’s performance to bounce back from another tough loss

The Boston Celtics were playing in TD Garden for he first time ever on Christmas, with an opportunity to end what has been the worst stretch of the season on a high note. They had their chance, with a five point lead late in the fourth quarter. Then everything fell apart, and the Celtics had one of their worst final six minutes of the season.

The Celtics played a solid game for a while, and that is something to be happy about. They have been the team to show up in the clutch all season long, but this time they completely collapsed. Fortunately, Celtics fans can still take Jayson Tatum‘s performance away as a nice gift on Christmas.

Tatum ended up tied with Kyrie Irving for a team high 20 points. We just heard Brad Stevens talk about how we should expect Tatum’s role on offense to expand as the season goes on, and we got a great glimpse of that against the Wizards.

That has proven that he can be as efficient as anyone in the league, but his tentativeness has held him back. One of the obstacles in his way was the fact that Stevens limited his role on offense, making sure he was as comfortable as possible in any situation.

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Tatum has done more than enough to earn his trust on both ends of the court, and now he is starting to instigate more, and become a more dynamic play maker. Tatum is going to be as aggressive as Stevens allows him to be, and after his performance against the Wizards, he will not be slowing down any time soon.

The best part is that Tatum was not even close to being unleashed fully in that game. We saw flashes of what he can do when he wants to take over on offense, but he did everything on just nine shots.

Third on the team is probably around the Celtics will want Tatum, but not when there are  four players tied for the third most attempts. Tatum did not miss from three, missed just twice overall and got to the free throw line.

Everything is pointing to Stevens finding more ways to get Tatum more consistently involved on offense. We have seen that Tatum is not going to do more than the role that he is given. Now that the Celtics are finally getting some practice time, it should be a lot easier to integrate Tatum in the offense more.

Irving has been playing out of his mind, and Al Horford continues to be one of the most dynamic centers in the NBA. The problem is that they need a clear cut second scoring option behind Irving. Right now Tatum is the clear favorite to take that role.

It may take time before we see everything the Celtics will want to do with him, but the best thing right now will be that practice time. The Celtics need to make sure they figure out everything that is going wrong during this stretch.

After that performance against the Wizards, it is clear that Tatum is one of the things working best during this stretch. Who knows if this defense is going to get all the way back to as good as they were during that 16 game winning streak, but there are other ways to still become a better team.

What they do know is that they still have not reached their offensive potential. Everyone still has work to do in figuring out how to work best together, but Tatum is the one player who can change everything.

Next: Celtics Need a Special Christmas Day Game

Tatum has been doing too well to not be one of the most prominent shooters on this team, and everyone cannot wait to see the kind of damage he can do with a higher usage and a lot more scoring opportunities.

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