Jayson Tatum looks like Jayson Tatum again and Celtics fans can officially dream

Fans across the NBA’s Eastern Conference are in a living nightmare. Jayson Tatum is back in the Boston Celtics’ lineup and he looks like Jayson Tatum. The star forward, of course, missed the first 62 games of this season as he recovered from a torn Achilles sustained in the 2025 playoffs.

Even in the weeks where a potential return began to feel less like a pipe dream and more like reality, there were still plenty of doubts.

“Is he going to be able to return to peak performance?” “Is he going to disrupt the chemistry that the second-place Celtics have built thus far?” 

Even the long and tired, “Can he and Jaylen Brown co-exist?” question reared its ugly head.

Through two games, the concerns are quickly dissipating. It’s become painfully obvious how impactful Tatum is going to be for this Boston team.

“I still got a long way to go, but this was a huge first step for me,” Tatum told ESPN’s Jorge Serdano in his walkoff interview after Friday’s season debut.

The scoring will come

The 28-year-old’s self-assessment is an accurate one. There’s clearly another level for him to get to. He’s averaging 17.5 points per game on 37.5% from the field and 29.4% from beyond the arc. Those numbers aren’t what fans have grown accustomed to over the past several seasons.

Nonetheless, the experience they’re getting actually watching him looks similar.

Even with his scoring, which in the pair of appearances hasn’t been as dominant as it’s been traditionally, the flashes are there.

Tatum came out and poured in 12 early points in Sunday’s win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. He made threes, drove to the basket, and created opportunities for himself -- all Jayson Tatum things.

There was no fear. No hesitation. Just buckets.

Watching this in real time was enough to make me text a few friends and share that I thought the Celtics were going to win the title.

Two days prior, there was a stretch where he sank five straight shots en route to a 16-point debut performance.

As of right now, it just seems like there’s a limit to how long he can sustain these stretches. That’s okay, to be clear. He’s two games into his season while others have been playing for five months. There’s going to be a conditioning curve woven into this process for Tatum.

Even so, he gave Boston a much-needed boost with seven fourth-quarter points to hold off a comeback attempt from the Cavs.

The more he plays, the longer I expect to see him sustain his offensive bursts.

Tatum has wasted no time getting settled in to Boston's system

On a more sustainable note, Tatum has slipped into the Celtics’ system seamlessly. His willingness to make extra passes and set his teammates up for easy looks has stood out significantly when watching this weekend’s matchups.

Not only that, but defenses automatically have to show him extra attention because of the reputation he’s spent years building for himself as a threat.

In the below play, Evan Mobley and Dean Wade focus all of their attention on Tatum, which leaves Derrick White and Sam Hauser in a two-on-one against Donovan Mitchell. They completely sell out to stop JT from creating for himself in the half-circle area, which creates a lane and open dunk for White.

There have been several examples alike of him making his teammates better in this small sample size. This “fit,” if you will, stems far beyond this past weekend, though. Tatum has made a point to be around the team as much as possible.

He’s been in the film room. He’s been at the Auerbach Center. He’s been on the team plane. He’s been on the bench for just about every single game, home or away. There’s something to all this where he’s become a part of the team’s chemistry without having played hardly at all.

“I can’t commend the group and the coaching staff enough for how they’ve attacked this season,” he said Friday. “How they’ve competed and played together every single night. I don’t know if there’s been a team that’s been more fun to watch this season play as a unit.”

He looks better on defense than anyone could've expected

That same connectivity has shone through on the defensive end, too, where Boston has spent the season playing a scramble-type of scheme. Tatum finds himself in the right position consistently. His athleticism inherently makes him an incredible asset here, too.

You probably saw this clip somewhere online in the past 24 hours. Tatum does it all on this defensive possession.

He collapses in help on Mobley, gets back out to defend Keon Ellis, then switches onto Donovan Mitchell after a screen and forces him into an uncomfortable mid-range fadeaway.

His ability to fly around and carry the above responsibilities is a testament to his conditioning ahead of the reintegration to the lineup. Not only that, but also, again, it’s the dividends to the time he’s spent around the team studying how they play.

Defense has also showcased the six-time All-Star’s mobility. He gets around just fine. He can change direction without any issue. Most importantly, he doesn’t look like he’s thinking about moving.

“Today felt a lot more normal,” he told reporters in the Rocket Arena locker room on Sunday. “Today, just kind of felt like getting back into the flow of things, and that felt good for me.”

As the days go on, the feeling is going to continue to creep towards normalcy for Tatum and the Celtics -- horrendous news for the rest of these teams in the Eastern Conference that had hoped to take advantage of his absence this season.