Boston Celtics: 3 takeaways from C’s upsetting Game 4 loss to Warriors

Boston Celtics takeaway No. 1) Jayson Tatum was not himself… again

We have yet to see Jayson Tatum have a complete game through four outings of the NBA Finals. Will he ever put the full package together for a full four quarters?

In Game 1, JT shot 3-of-17 from the field, one of the worst marks of his career but still impacted the game in other ways to help the Celtics get the win through elite defense, playmaking, and rebounding.

In Game 2, the young forward was only looking for himself and had a great scoring outing, but did not get others involved. It led to the rest of the lot simply becoming non-factors.

In Game 3, he probably had his best game of the series, but still shot just 39 percent from the floor. It was the poor efficiency coupled with six turnovers that just added to what has been a largely underwhelming performance from the All-NBA talent.

It is that much tougher to win an NBA Championship when your best player is not even 75 percent of himself. His shoulder looked fine in Game 4, so it is really jarring to see a player of his caliber have so many mental lapses.

The lazy passes, the poor defense, the missed free throws, missed rebounds, taking low IQ shots, and missing point-blank layups.

If the Celts cannot get a signature JT performance, then it will be near impossible to get banner 18.

Through four games, he is averaging 22.3 points, 7.8 assists, seven rebounds, and 3.5 turnovers per game on a woeful 33 percent shooting from the field. The expectation for him was Finals MVP contention, but he’s not even in the running.

Now it’s a best-of-three, and the wing needs to break out of this slump. Look for a more aggressive Tatum in Game 5 that plays through contact and plays with a chip on his swollen shoulders.