I am trying to think of a way to phrase this so forgive me if this reads a bit clunky.
I want to start by saying Tatum is an elite NBA player any way you slice it. He’s elite because of the totality of his game. However, I don’t think he is an ELITE iso scorer.
Tatum and the coaching staff need to recognize that the team, and Tatum himself, are vastly superior when the thinking is “go get a bucket” vs. “Jayson you go get a bucket”. Unfortunately, in late game situations, it seems like the only operative is time for Jayson to ISO.
It’s like he has these two different sides as a player, “MVP Tatum” and “Kobe Tatum”. MVP Tatum takes what the defense is giving him and recognizes how to play to make his teammates better/more comfortable. And the Celtics as a team are much, much better when they play fast and with basic structure. Lots of getting into the paint so they have two clear options: a lay up or a kick-out. This gets the defensive rotations scrambling and then each Celtic doesn’t have to think much and just react. This playing style may not always be the way Jayson prefers to play but there’s a recognition that the way that he likes to play is always available.
MVP Tatum is there the vast majority of the time (obviously, since he’s going to finish 4th in the voting)
However, Kobe Tatum still rears his ugly head too often for anyone’s liking and especially in close and late situations. Kobe Tatum walks the ball up court, pounds the air out of the ball, and never imposes his will on the defense. There’s constant settling, his teammates are literally never involved (other than setting one pithy pick so Jayson can get to his beloved sidestep easier), and it rarely works.
Last night was one of the worst games I have ever seen Tatum play. Not only did Kobe Tatum show up constantly, he showed up at the most inopportune times to absolutely destroy the teams pace and momentum. The 3 at the end of the first half was unconscionably bad. The lack of awareness was stunning. Slowing the team down to take a heat check 3 when the teams offense is humming and you’re 3 for 10 is criminal. The lazy passes all game.
@128 correctly pointed out that fortuitous bounces and Sam Hauser saved him from two disastrous turnovers by hustling to the ball. I believe there were 2 more passes like that that DIDNT turn into turnovers, so excluding the play at the end of the game where he just threw the ball right to DeAndre Hunter.
There’s a lot of talk about CJM, Smart, Blake, and missed FTs. All fair. That loss last night was solely and squarely on Tatum.
Luckily, he can wash this all away with a great game 6 but if the Celtics get to where we all think they can get to and end up running out of gas, this game and this performance will loom very large