3 reasons why the Boston Celtics lost pivotal Game 6 to the Warriors

Reason Boston Celtics lost Game 6 No. 1) Jaayson Tatum was putrid

Ultimately, any team’s fate ends up being determined by if their best player has some type of impact on the game. The Boston Celtics could not get that level of production from Jayson Tatum this evening in an elimination game.

Maybe it’s the fact he’s 24 years old and the moment became too big for him.  Maybe we will learn that his shoulder injury was far more serious than the C’s would initially reveal.

Neither of these choices are glamorous for Celtics fans. It will all become much clearer in the next 24 hours.

There were three critical areas of the game where Tatum struggled.

The first was the fact he only scored 13 points in the biggest game of his career on 6-of-18 shooting. There was a sense of hesitancy off the catch on his jump shots while also displaying poor shot selection.

The superstar forward needs to learn to play through contact, not for it, as he was foul hunting far too often.

His complaining about fouls constantly, regardless of justification, hurts his reputation among officials. Every time he drives, it seems like he’s searching for contact instead of finishing what should be a simple layup.

As a result, the wing is waving his arms in the air and making no concerted effort to get back defensively.

Next, is the careless turnovers by not valuing the possession of the basketball. It’s a combination of sloppy passes and poor decision-making to drive into a crowd of Warriors players in the paint.

Tatum will finish his playoff run with the most giveaways of any player in NBA history at 100.

Lastly, his lapses on the defensive end were all too noticeable.

In previous games where Jayson struggled with his shot, he still was impacting the game in other ways, be it by making the right reads offensively, not forcing up bad shots, or playing an elite level of defense.

Three early fouls were what forced him to be subbed earlier in the game and he seemed to play tentatively on defense the rest of the night.

Make no mistake: LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and even Kawhi Leonard struggled in their first Finals series. He’s only 24 and has yet to hit his prime years.

As long as the Celtics keep adding pieces around him, they’ll be in a position to win the conference title again and vie for banner 18.