Jayson Tatum didn’t get off to the greatest start to his season on Tuesday. His finishing around the rim wasn’t great, his burst and explosion weren’t fully there, his outside shot was off, and his activity level on the glass wasn’t good enough. He finished with 13 points and 4 rebounds, shooting a woeful 6-for-23 from the floor and 0-for-7 from three-point range.
He also came up small down the stretch, scoring just 2 points on 1-for-10 shooting in the second half, as the Celtics gagged away a 22-point lead to the Pistons. All in all, it was a bad showing, and the media discourse that followed was extremely toxic, distasteful, unfair, over the top, and downright disrespectful.
That’s exactly what I said in the moment, as I preached patience and implored Celtics Nation not to panic over one off-night, that JT would be fine and is still the elite, face of the franchise superstar that we all expected him to be.
And sure enough, just three days later, he got back on the court and looked like one of the best players in the NBA, doing it all for the Celtics and leading them to a huge 107-103 win over the defending champion Knicks. JT went for 36 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists, and 3 steals. He shot 14-26 from the floor and poured in 25 of his points in the second half, including two monstrously clutch buckets to ice this one away.
Tatum took over in the clutch
First, with 50 seconds left on the clock and Boston clinging to a 3-point lead, the shot clock was winding down, and the possession was going nowhere. JT was stuck in the corner with Josh Hart draped all over him. And it didn’t matter. He rose up and buried a deep two right in Hart’s eyeballs to push the lead to 103-98.
Then, moments later, with the Celtics up three, Tatum dribbled to his left as the clock ticked under 30 seconds, pulled up, and buried a three-point dagger with Karl-Anthony Towns all over him, putting Boston up by 6 and effectively ending the game, as the TD Garden crowd went crazy.
This is the Tatum we know. This is the Tatum we love. And this is what we should have expected all along. He had a tough first game, and not every night is going to be perfect. There will be off-shooting nights, and some hiccups along the way, perhaps. But even in his “disaster” game, he put up 13 points and 11 assists. That just shows the standard that he has held to and the level of respect he has earned and established.
On Friday night, he came out and delivered, completely shutting up all the doubters and haters and reestablishing himself as one of the best players on the planet and a force to be reckoned with. Anyone hoping his run as a top-5 caliber player was over, I’ve got some bad news for you. He’s back.
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