Brad Stevens inserted Aron Baynes into his starting five for Game 5, but that was not the only successful tweak the head coach made to his gameplan on Wednesday night.
After watching his offense go ice cold over the past two games in the first quarter, Stevens wasn’t going to let that happen again with his best scoring weapon watching from the bench.
For the first four games of the Eastern Conference Finals, Jayson Tatum was the first sub of the game for the Celtics, at some point between the 5-7 minute mark of the first quarter. During Game 5, Stevens abandoned that plan. For the first time all postseason, Tatum was the only Celtic who played the entire first quarter.
“I just talked to Coach,” Tatum said after scoring a team-high 24 points. “I knew I was going to play a little bit more in the first quarter, just to look to be more aggressive. Coach trusts that I'm going to make the right play, whether it's scoring or just finding guys out at the pick-and-rolls and just making the right decision.”
Stevens’ faith in the 20-year-old was rewarded almost immediately, as the Celtics built a 13-point lead in the opening frame that they never relinquished on their way to 96-83 win over the Cavs in Game 5. Yet, the offense of Tatum (24 points on 7-of-15 field goals, 7-of-8 free throws) did not tell the entire story of Tatum’s performance. Instead, it was his contributions in all aspects of the game that made him the best player on the floor on Wednesday night despite facing off against LeBron James.
The Duke product didn’t come into the NBA with much of a reputation as a defender. In fact, it was one of the areas that was considered a knock against him during the pre-draft process. Scouts figured he was a little bit too slow to handle speedy wings and didn’t have enough bulk to handle bigger forwards in the post. Yet, the Celtics had the best defense in the NBA this year and Tatum was the only player on the roster to start 80 of those games during the regular season. Tatum had a lot of help, but his defense was a part of that equation and the value within it was on full display in Game 5.
A closer look at Tatum's coming-out party on Wednesday night:
Length and awareness
On a night that Tatum set a new postseason career-highs in steals (four) and blocks (two), it was his length that proved to be his biggest asset. The Cavs tried to make routine passes all across the floor and ran into trouble thanks to Tatum’s strong instincts and long arms on a number of them.
The rookie helped to lull the Cavs into ill-advised passes, as was the case here with Larry Nance Jr. Tatum positioned himself to help, but he anticipated the kick-out pass to George Hill and picked off the pass and he then attacked immediately in the open floor
Tatum showed similar awareness nearly two minutes later as a J.R. Smith isolation led nowhere. The shooting guard looked for an outlet and Tatum once again showed off his long arms to deflect the ball off Jeff Green and force another turnover.
The strong instincts carried over into other aspects of Tatum’s game as well. He wisely positioned himself to cut off passing lanes from James and Kevin Love, as both stars dribbled their way into traffic and looked to find an outlet. Most would guess that a savvy veteran would put himself in those spots, but it was the 20-year-old who continuously found himself in the right place at the right time on Wednesday night.
“He’s so offensively talented,” Baynes explained. “But what’s fun about him is he wants to play the defense. He wants to get better on the defensive end. Every time he steps out there, he’s getting better and that’s a fun thing to be able to get out there and play alongside him.”
Tatum's best work came during one of his toughest assignments all series long: Sticking with the off-ball movement of Kyle Korver. After getting beat on countless occasions in Games 3 and 4 on screens, Tatum was ready to pounce yet again with his length in Game 5. He got through the pick and stuffed the sharpshooter.
“There are a lot of things individually and collectively that we didn't do well offensively and defensively,” Tatum said of the two games in Cleveland. “We watched film, we prepared and we just came out locked in on both ends of the floor from the jump.”
Turning his aggression into smart offense
While he took a series-high 15 shots in Game 5, the offense came to Tatum nicely in the flow of the game. He turned rebounds into transition opportunities by pushing the ball and used the extra attention the Cavs defense was giving him into easy looks for teammates. Watch here as all four Cavs have their eyes on the rookie bringing up the ball, which allows for a superb dish to Baynes streaking up the floor.
Later in the quarter, the defense collapsed on Tatum after an inbounds play. Instead of forcing it, Tatum immediately looks for the kick-out 3 to Marcus Morris, who knocked it down.
Tatum finished with four assists, his most in the series.
“I thought he was aggressive,” Ty Lue said. “I thought he was poised. He had scoring opportunities early he took advantage of. I thought even though he was scoring the basketball, he didn't try to rush or he didn't press. He just played within the game and took his shots when they were there.
"He played like a veteran tonight. He didn't try to force anything and just took what the defense gave him.”
There were plenty of other little things too. Tatum’s seven rebounds were the second-highest total on the team. That’s a major turnaround for a player who had been the worst defensive rebounder in the series for Boston to this point. His help from the weakside allowed the Celtics to limit the Cavs to a series-low three offensive rebounds and just five second-chance points.
All of this added up to a phenomenal night for the No. 3 overall pick even without taking his team-high 24 points into account on shots like this.
? @jaytatum0 ? pic.twitter.com/eko0jZ43wm
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) May 24, 2018
The rook is having himself a game! pic.twitter.com/z29UKqftwU
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) May 24, 2018
