3 reasons you can’t blame the Boston Celtics’ Game 7 loss on Jayson Tatum’s ankle injury

Reason no. 3: It must always be a “next man up” mentality

In the NBA, and in all sports, injuries happen. What’s important is how the team finds a way to overcome it. How does the rest of the team respond? This means that someone needs to rise to the occasion if the team is going to have any hope of prevailing. Basketball is a team effort, so a singular star player going down can’t take the wind out of everyone’s sails. Other teams, even the Boston Celtics in the past, find ways to keep going forward.

For the Celtics, the first one looked at is Jaylen Brown. Brown earned second-team All-NBA honors this year, and rightfully so. But with that comes added weight. And for much of the year, Brown was able to bare that weight. Especially when Tatum was having an off night, Brown was able to step up and become the number one option. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for game seven.

Where Tatum struggled, Brown followed suit. He shot 34.8% from the field and 1/9 from beyond the arc. But where it was clear things were off for Brown was his turnovers. He gave the ball up eight times, for a majority of the Boston Celtics’ 15 turnovers. Even more troublesome for Brown was some turnovers came unprovoked by the defense. His lack of ball-handling ability has become outright confusing and frustrating.

To some extent, it isn’t fair to put everything on Jaylen Brown. He was also banged up and there are other guys on the court. But there does need to be some consideration as to how reliable he can be in these, the biggest moments, especially when considering he might be offered a super-max contract. If Derrick White or Al Horford had themselves a breakout game it would have been viewed as a bonus. But if Brown were to step up, it would be viewed as what he was supposed to do. That is what that kind of potential money is for.

Overall this team and this roster still had a great season. Making it to the Eastern Conference Finals is by no means easy. Many teams have never even gotten that far while the Celtics have made frequent appearances over the last decade. Making it to five and winning just one since 2017 is impressive, and each one has its own story. But the question is: what do they do now? What do they need to get over the final challenges they’ve faced in the last two playoffs?

Maintaining the status quo might be enough but it also might not.