Everything was aligning for Wednesday night’s trip to Toronto to be a scheduled loss for the Celtics. It was the final leg of a four-game road trip that had the team playing or traveling to different cities for 13 straight days. They played as emotionally exhausting a regular-season game as you’ll ever see on Tuesday night in Philadelphia against Jaylen Brown and the 76ers, then went straight to Toronto, arriving around 3 AM Wednesday morning.
So, less than 24 hours after their showdown in Philly, the Celtics were back on the court, facing the Raptors without Paul George. To make matters worse, the Raps came out and set a franchise record with 10 made three-pointers in a 38-point first quarter.
Jayson Tatum went to the bench to start the second quarter, and the lead ballooned to 22 points for Toronto. With everything seemingly working against Boston, it would have been very easy to throw in the towel and accept that it just wasn’t their night. That’s what most teams would have done. But it’s not what the Celtics did.
When Tatum came back in the second quarter, the game shifted
Instead, Tatum came back into the game midway through the second quarter and decided that his team wasn’t going to roll over. He put the team on his back with his play and his mentality, and willed his teammates to come along with him, staging the second-biggest comeback in Joe Mazzulla's coaching tenure.
It’s one thing to hear your leader preaching, but when you actually watch them do it, it’s different. And that’s what was happening with Tatum. Seeing the way he locked in and dug deep was inspirational, and when it comes from a team’s best player, it’s contagious. He picked it up on both ends of the floor, hitting a big three right away, getting to the basket and to the free-throw line, setting up his teammates for baskets, and getting out in transition.
It turned into an absolute rock fight, and the Celtics were only able to come back because of their commitment to guarding. They buckled down on the defensive end and completely cut off the water for Toronto. That started with Tatum and was a reflection of his will to win, and everyone else fell in line and joined him.
Tatum controlled every element of the game
If you missed the game and just see the box score, it would be hard to grasp Tatum’s full impact. He finished with 24 points, 8 assists, and 7 rebounds, and only shot 6-for-21 from the floor. But even though his shot wasn’t falling, he took over the game and controlled every single element.
When the Raptors blitzed Tatum, he was happy to get off the ball and set up a 4-on-3; when they switched, he drove hard to the basket; when they dropped, he set up his pull-up. He dominated without ever getting hot from the field. He ramped up his defense, controlled the glass, and protected the rim as well.
And when the game was on the line, he came through in the clutch. He hit a huge off-balance jumper in the lane, drove and set up an easy dunk for Neemias Queta, and then he got to the line and buried two free throws that proved to be the game-winners.
This was an impressive, total team win, but it all started and ended with Tatum. He was the lynchpin and the one who jolted the comeback, and if he didn’t provide the necessary energy and aggression, the team likely would’ve folded. And after the run they had been on, nobody would have blamed them. But that’s not Tatum, and that’s not the Celtics.
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