Celtics Bubble Notebook: Jayson Tatum eager to bounceback from nightmare outing, Marcus Smart fined

Friday’s game against the Bucks wasn’t the worst shooting performance of Jayson Tatum’s career purely based on a technicality. He was credited with an extra bucket since he was the only Celtic in the vicinity when the Bucks accidentally tipped in a Jaylen Brown missed jump shot early in the fourth quarter.

Without that bucket, Tatum went 1-of-17 from the field, mustering a mere three points in first real action in over four months.

The performance hit hard as the sole weak spot among the starters in a 119-112 defeat to the Bucks but it also left Tatum poking fun at himself after a day to reflect on his struggles.

“I think I can’t get any worse, so I think I’ll play better tomorrow,” Tatum said with a smile.

It was a perfect storm of misery for Tatum as a flat jump shot (0-of-4 from deep) kept his confidence low from the perimeter. That forced him to seek out opportunities in the paint that fell right into the Bucks gameplan as Brook Lopez (six blocks) and other long Buck defenders teamed up to ensure Tatum saw sparse clean looks in the paint.

“I mean, he’s seen all these coverages before. Some nights it’s just not your night,” Brad Stevens said Saturday. “He’s an unreal basketball player. It doesn’t mean that every day the ball will go in at 60%, so at the end of the day, he’ll watch, which he already has, he’ll learn what he needs to do, and try to do it better next time. One of the things that I think all of these guys that are great understand is not every day is your day. Sometimes you have to be able to learn, laugh it off, and move on.”

Tatum’s struggles were so apparent that some had even called for a Tatum benching late in the contest given his high usage rate (team-high 18 shots). Stevens was not afraid to back his star however for how he handled a rough shooting night.

“Yesterday he had the ball a lot in the last five minutes of the game,” Stevens said. “We think he’ll always be able to do that. We just think he has a special makeup about him. On a night when he’s struggling he can make a huge play -- on a night when he’s rolling he can make a huge play, because he doesn’t get too high or too low. He’s special, and that’s why I lose no sleep over nights like last night.”

The key now will be with how Tatum reacts to the struggles that have been present through two scrimmage games in Orlando as well. The speedy every other day nature of the bubble seeding games schedule will make it easier for the All-Star to dwell less on a bad night.

“It’s just all about watching film,” Tatum said. “Watch about what I could have done better yesterday and try to implement it to the next game, and that’s what I’m going to try to do tomorrow. We play every other day, so you always have a chance to bounce back and forget about the last game.

“Can’t do nothing about it now, you just got to focus on the next game and whether you play good or bad, I think that’s always how I approach it. That’s just how I approach it. It is what it is.”

Against a Blazers frontcourt that is starting Carmelo Anthony and Zach Collins, Tatum will be positioned well for a bounceback effort on Sunday afternoon.

Kemba Walker could see an uptick in minutes

The veteran point guard hits his minutes limit early in the third quarter on Friday night after his best shooting performance since early January. With no ill effects in his knee after the additional workload, it appears Walker is graduating to a slightly bigger minutes load on Sunday.

“He was great,” Stevens said when asked about how Walker felt on Saturday. “We didn’t practice, we just kind of jogged through walkthrough today, did a little skill work, so it wasn’t a heavy practice, obviously, with a 3:30 game tomorrow. But he was great, responded well, and he will incrementally increase his limit.”

Walker’s additional minutes load will make playing chance tougher to come by for other parts of the bench in coming days. Brad Wanamaker was the main beneficiary of Walker’s limited playing time on Sunday with 26 minutes thanks to a hot shooting night but other younger talent like Romeo Langford and Grant Williams may be waiting for Walker to get a night off before being given a chance. Wanamaker also stands to get his minutes cut as well.

“I understand everybody’s—even when I call home, my kids are asking me who’s all playing all the time and how much everybody’s going to play, and there’s only so many minutes to go around,” Stevens said. “And Brad (Wanamaker’s) going to play a significant role for our team. Do I know the exact minutes he’s gonna play? No. But I know this: When Kemba’s minutes restriction is lifted, he’s gonna play a lot more. So, like, there’s only so many minutes to go around, but Brad understands that.

“Brad is a guy that’s willing and ready to play 28-32 minutes on any given night or 10-12, and that’s a hard position to be in. I have a lot of respect for people that have to balance that appropriately. And at the same time, like I was saying when I call home, I’d love to get Romeo in. I’d love to get Grant in. I’d love to get Carsen in. I’d love to get all these guys in. But, you know, there’s only so many minutes in the game. We’ve got a pretty deep team, especially at the wing.”

Race tightening for No. 3 seed

While a loss to the Bucks came as no surprise in the opener, the Heat’s dominating win over the Nuggets on Saturday afternoon put a little more focus on the race or the No. 3 seed. The Celtics still have a 1.5 game lead over Miami and own the head-to-head tiebreaker already. However, a head-to-head matchup on Tuesday night between the two squads could put the C’s in danger of dropping to the No. 4 spot in the East standings. That would put them in greater danger of a first round matchup against the Sixers in the 4/5 slot.

With a motivated Blazers squad playing for their playoff lives on Sunday afternoon as well, the road will not lighten up for the C’s in Orlando much until next week. Winning these early matchups will also allow for being of flexibility for rest later in the seeding games.

Smart fined 

Marcus Smart has been fined $15,000 for public criticism of the officiating, it was announced today by Kiki VanDeWeghe, Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations. Smart criticized the video review of the overturned foul call on Giannis Antetokounmpo with 90 seconds remaining in the game.

"The excuse was I was late on the charge," Smart said. "They said the replay center said that I was late and it was a block. Quite frankly I think we all know what that was about; Giannis’ sixth foul and they didn’t want to get him out. Let’s just call that spade a spade and that’s what it is.”

Smart has now piled up $337,000 in fines from the league over his seven-year career.