The game turned when Tatum came out of the half guns blazing. I thought at half time they showed a graphic of Tatum and Brown having almost identical stats, both like 4-10 with 10 points, and Pierce said that wasn't good enough. For Brown, I think that is a solid half, but I agree that Tatum had to step up. Tatum is the guy about to sign a $220 million deal, Tatum is the guy who can be a top five player and MVP candidate; if he is going to be all of that he has to go out shooting; and he delivered tonight.
Perhaps this is a bit of a hot take, but part of me feels like Tatum is a little too unselfish at times. I think he really wants to take the optimal shot each time down the floor; which is great 90% of the time, but in the playoffs, when you face disciplined defenses and teammates may be limited, you have to be a little selfish. Even during his bad first half in Game 4; he was only like, 0-6 at the half right? He has to be comfortable missing shots and he should be taking 10-15 shots in the half, or taking a lot of free throws, no matter how hot or cold he is. I think Durant at times has struggled with this as well; someone so gifted offensively but mentally beholden to taking only good shots; which in turn allows less gun-shy teammates, like Smart or Westbrook, to take more shots than they probably should.
I think Kawhi Leonard's Game 7 from the ECSF is a perfect example of a star player having to be selfish. Kawhi went 16-39 in that game, and on the box score that looks ugly, but if you watched the game, it was actually an amazing performance from Kawhi and that he really had to take all of those shots for his team to win, even if he shot a lousy percentage.