Jayson Tatum Aced One Of The Biggest Tests Of His Return And That Is A VERY Big Deal With The Playoffs On The Horizon

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When the Oklahoma City Thunder came to Boston on Wednesday night, they were riding a 12-game winning streak. Finally fully healthy, there was a whole lot of talk about how nobody in the league would be able to handle OKC at full strength.

When the Atlanta Hawks came to Boston on Friday night, they were winners of 14 of their last 15. Arguably the hottest team in the Eastern Conference that the Celts were going to have to try and beat without Jaylen Brown in the lineup

Two tough matchups. Two legit tests for a Celtics team that is in the midst of a seeding battle with the Knicks for a top 2 spot and can't really afford to be dropping games at home.

The result?

Two green Ws.

Those may not seem all that significant to some, but here on planet earth they are both very, very big deals. Remember, winning regular season games, no matter how big they are at the time, does not predict postseason success. That's not what it's about. What it is about, is stacking important Ws at a time in the schedule when you need to be not only playing your best basketball, but also need to keep winning while you solidify your playoff positioning. 

What made last night unique was that it was our first full game with Tatum active and Jaylen resting. There was the half againest SA sure, but this was the first start to finish test where Tatum was going to fully assume his old role as the #1 option and everything that comes with it. If we're talking about boxes to check as we ramp up to the playoffs, this is a pretty important one in my opinion. Part of Tatum getting back to being Tatum, is having the role and responsibility of pre-injury Tatum. Those reps matter, and for it to come against one of the hottest teams in the NBA was a great challenge.

How'd he do? Well let's dive in.

The Good

- Jayson Tatum has played 10 games since his return on March 6th. If during the season I told you that within Tatum's first 10 games, he would already be playing 35+ minutes and essentially averaging 20/10/4 in those minutes, you would have called me a highly deranged homer. You'd tell me that nobody comes back and does something like that immediately off an Achilles, and that I was being completely delusional. Well…..

Jayson Tatum through 10 games: 19.8/9.5/3.8 

Last night? A cool 26/12/5 in a season high 37 minutes, once again playing the full 4th quarter for the second straight game

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21 points in the 2nd half with a 61% TS%. A 37.2% USG% in his 37 minutes. With each passing game, Tatum continues to look more and more like himself, which you don't need me to tell you IS A VERY BIG DEAL.

Haters and losers of which there are many, will point to his broken ass jumpshot like we're supposed to give a fuck. I'm sorry, but you could not pay me to care about how Jayson Tatum is shooting the basketball right now. For starters, the fact that he's even playing at all is enough for me. Second of all, please act like you've been there before. We've all lived through prolonged Tatum shooting slumps, so honestly these first 10 games don't even faze me in the slightest. I've seen Tatum have a 10 game stretch where he shoots 38% from the floor before, and that was pre-injury. What makes Tatum so unique is that he impacts every other aspect of basketball while he's on the court, so the shooting struggles barely matter. He's still giving you the production you need on both ends of the floor, and this is WHILE his jumper is broken as hell.

Imagine what things look like when he's in better basketball shape and his legs are under him? He's already a 20/10/4 player as it stands right now!!

Even knowing that, there will be people out there who try to gaslight you into thinking Tatum "hasn't looked that great" in his return. Don't take the bait. The man has 6 double-doubles in his first 10 games coming off a major career-altering injury. To be anything other than thrilled with this start to his season

is simply trying too hard to be a contrarian. Tatum has been awesome since the second he stepped onto a court this year. So he's shooting like dick, who gives a shit? 

When it came time to show up and close this game out, who was there? Jayson Tatum. A team leading 13 points in the 4th quarter while playing all 12 minutes, it was a perfect combination of burying the Hawks with jumpers while ALSO being super aggressive and getting to the line (6-7 FTs). The way he's rebounding, the way he's defending multiple positions, it's all been way better than any of us could have expected coming off this injury. 

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I watch him play, and I legit can't even tell that he was hurt. The biggest thing I was always worried about was his mentality and how aggressive he would be, because we all saw how Hayward struggled with those things once he came back from his gruesome injury. So far? I'm watching Tatum pull off the same moves and play with the same approach he always has, and that is such a good sign moving forward. 

- With Jaylen Brown getting a rest day, it meant that everyone else on the depth chart had to slide up a spot. For someone like Payton Pritchard, it meant he was going to have to not only produce in his role off the bench but also be efficient while doing it. Someone had to step up and make sure Tatum got the secondary scoring to help cover for Jaylen being out, and call me crazy, but I'd say 36 points off the bench fit the bill

Despite not being eligible for 6MOY because he started the first 40+ games this year, make no mistake. Payton Pritchard is the best 6th man in the NBA. You can argue a wall if you disagree with that objectively true statement. One of the weirdest parts of this entire year is how people have evaluated Pritchard's season. When he crushed his role as a starter, people were weird about it. Now sliding back into his previous role he's been even better, and people are still weird about him. They complain about his shooting, they complain about him not passing to guys, it's all very bizarre to me, because no matter how you slice it, Payton has been great this entire season. He's taken leaps as a playmaker, as a defender, as a rebounder, the scoring is as legit as ever, and last night was a perfect example.

While the 36 points and 6 3PM were nice and very much needed, I could make the case that Pritchard's biggest plays of the night came with two late 4th quarter OREBs. The man was a +26 in a 7 point win! The Celtics now move to 16-1 on the season when he hits a buzzer beater, and I'm not sure what's a more ridiculous fact. That record, or the fact that Payton has 17 buzzer beaters already on the season. 

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I'll just never understand the hate towards Pritchard from some within this fanbase. Sometimes it makes me question what they're watching, because all I see is a DAWG who is playing some of the best basketball of his career. Whatever the team or the game needs, Pritchard steps up and delivers. Never complains about his role, never makes excuses, he's everything you could want in a Celtic. 

- Over their last 15 games heading into last night, the Hawks had the 3rd best offense in the NBA with a 120 ORTG. They were leading the NBA with 124 points a game during this stretch. Not too shabby if you ask me.

Which is why when I see the Celtics holding them to only a 112 ORTG and 102 points last night, that moves me a great deal.

The same way I found it to be super impressive holding OKC to only 109. In fact, since Tatum's return, the Celtics own the 3rd best defense in the NBA. They are #1 in the NBA in opponent points, holding teams to an insane 105.7 points a game. That's nearly 2 full points fewer than OKC's historic defense if you were curious. 

Once things settled down in terms of the Hawks early magnet ball, one reason I would point to for the Celts success on that end of the floor was how badly they dominated the rebounding battle. When I'm looking for trends ahead of the playoffs, rebounding is at the top of the list. You HAVE to rebound in the postseason if you want to advance and have a deep run. Celts won that battle 52-35 last night, which limited the Hawks to just 9 2nd chance points (Celts had 18). Tatum with 12, Neemy with 11, Pritchard with 7, Baylor with 6, it was a collective effort on the glass in this win, and that's exactly what I'm looking for.

End defensive possessions cleanly and you'll be surprised at how quickly things can turn. Part of the reason the Hawks only scored 42 second half points was because they were largely only getting one shot. A 28-18 rebounding difference to go along with holding the Hawks to 34/22% splits, as great as Tatum/Pritchard were offensively at times, the overall team defense is where I give most of the credit for this win.  

- Speaking of defense, how about Jordan Walsh coming back from DNP-CD hell and immediately looking like the player we saw earlier this season? You know, the defensive two way demon who can completely change a game on that end of the floor?

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The fact that this is a player who just went 6 straight games getting DNPs and then immediately comes in against the hottest team in the conference and puts up that type of performance?

Giphy Images.

It's why I'll never quit Jordan Walsh. I'll never sell my Walsh stock. There's a real NBA rotation player in there, and I think this season has confirmed it. This was yet another reminder of just how loaded the Celts depth is with all of these young wings collectively taking a leap all at the same time. You see somehting like this and wonder how the hell Walsh is getting DNPs, well, part of that is because guys like Baylor Scheierman and Hugo Gonzalez have also been incredible in their minutes. But on a night Jaylen was out, for Walsh to step right in and not skip a beat after not playing for so long was so impressive to me. His defensive discipline continues to get better and better, and on the offensive end, he's shooting well over 40% on C&S 3s. I'll remind you, he's 22 years old. 

- We also can't ignore the fact that the Celtics may actually be Garzilla's franchise. I mean, what a player

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If you want to talk about a guy thriving in his role and giving you elite consistency, look no further than Luka Garza. Ever since Vuceviv went down, Garza has essentially been giving this team Vuc production. The rebounding, the effort, the shooting, you keep waiting for things to fall back down to earth, but they just never do. This is simply who Luka Garza is now. He showed he was playable against OKC, he was extremely impactful against a red hot Hawks team, it's all such a joy to watch.

Do I have concerns about his foot speed at times and how he may be attacked in a playoff series? Sure. But there are ways to adapt to that, and I think the positives of his minutes outweigh those issues. There's something to be said about knowing exactly what a player is going to bring to the table every time he steps foot on the court, and considering the majority of Garza's production comes from playing hard as shit and killing you with effort, I have little worries about that translating to when the games truly matter. 

Trust in the Garzilla. Believe in the Garzilla. He's earned that. 

- 26 AST on 38 FGM gets the blood flowing to all the right places for me. Mind you, this was all coming with the Celts shooting like assholes to start this game, but what I liked about how they played is that it never really felt like guys had to force things isolation to make up for Jaylen's 30 points not being available. Three players with at least 5 assists, four players with at least 4, when the ball moves like that the Basketball Gods will always reward you. Once the Celts start getting up to 25+ AST a game, they basically never lose.

The Bad

- We can probably just burn the Derrick White footage of this game. Woof. Not great in pretty much all areas. Offensively, he couldn't make a shot to save his life, finishing 3-13 (0-4), and what I found to be extremely annoying is how many little paint floaters he can't seem to make right now. Everything is super long whenever he takes that shot, which is normally a good shot for him. I love when he's aggressive and gets into the paint, but for whatever reason that floater/jumper is a gigantic brick right now and you can see how frustrated he gets whenever he misses a bunny like that. Add in the 3 TOs, and it was not the best offensive night we've seen from Derrick.

Defensively, also not all that great. A ton of fouls, not a ton of resistance, one of the very few times we'll ever see Derrick White have a negative +/- in a game the Celtics win, so I'm willing to just forget this performance ever happened. Everyone gets a mulligan or two over the course of 82, and this was one for Derrick.

- Just once I'd like to see the Celts now allow a team to feast early in a game from behind the arc. I get their approach is by design and whatnot, but boy is it annoying to see every team they play start 10-20 from deep or some shit like the Hawks did in this game. Down 25-9 before you know it, all because they couldn't guard the 3pt line.

And while water did eventually find its level, this is something that I am weary of in a playoff series. You let one team get hot because you allow endless open looks, and that's how you drop a winnable playoff game, which can change the entire direction of a series. I know they play the percentages and whatnot, but all it takes is one game. Do we all remember the MIA series in 2023? Yes? Or the Knicks series with Josh Hart? I'm just saying, this approach makes me nervous.

- While they were pretty good with it against OKC, I thought the Celts were brutal last night when it came to their ball security/points off TOs. They finished with 15 TOs / 20 points allowed off TOs, and that's simply not going to cut it in about a month. That will lead to death in a playoff game, and we know this because we've seen it. You give up 15+ TOs and allow 20+ points off those TOs, you're going to get blown out. For that to come at home, was also very annoying. 

5 TOs for Pritchard was absurdly high, and it was a bit shocking to see multiple possessions of him getting the ball stolen from him while dribbling, something that rarely happens. The Hawks have good length, but there's no world in which Pritchard should finish with 5 TOs. That was bad.

- Tony Brothers remains the absolute worst. It was so obvious how he was refusing to give Tatum the whistle he deserved on drives, and sadly that's nothing new. He probably wanted to bait Tatum into a tech so he could finally give him one this season, but every single Celtics game Tony Brothers works, it's the same shit. No consistency, no calls only impacting one side, the man is a basketball terrorist. 

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The Ugly

- I'm getting very tired of the Celtics starting the first half of every first quarter at home with the team as a whole shooting 30/25%. Nobody, and I mean nobody shoots worse on their own floor to start a game than our beloved Boston Celtics,

Here's the not so sneaky thing about this current stretch too. The Celtics have legit been one of the worst shooting teams in the NBA since Tatum's return. They own just a 57% TS% as a team, which ranks 25th in the league. They're winning sure, but they're doing it while the entire roster is a collective brick. It's not just Tatum, nobody can make a jumpshot right now which is pretty crazy. It just shows you how impactful they are defensively, because right now we're working through a big time shooting slump that in my opinion needs to turn rather quickly. You can't be among the worst jump shooting teams in the NBA during your playoff run. I hate to bring it up again, but we all saw what brutal shooting caused during the Knicks series. 

The concern is it's not just from behind the arc. The paint production has been dogshit too. Celts are shooting just 41% in the paint (non-RA) since Tatum's return, which is in the bottom third of the league. You look at their shot charts recently, the paint execution has really struggled. Not great for a team that also can go on prolonged droughts from deep.

But hey, coming off that huge OKC win, there was a chance this team took a step back and gave that game right back against the Hawks. Instead, they had yet another impressive win. With the Knicks playing OKC tomorrow, there's a chance things improve to +3 in the loss column for the 2 seed. That's why these last two games have been so massive. After dropping the game against MIN, the pressure was on for the Celtics to respond against two elite opponents, and respond they did.