Jayson Tatum is a casually great basketball player. He’s not physically overpowering like Zion Williamson. He doesn’t have any one thing, like a Steph Curry jumper, that steals an opponent’s soul.
He just hits the court, glides around, and uses his long arms and big strides to get to spots and hit shots.
Sometimes that easy tempo with which he plays can become hypnotic. Sometimes it can also work against him. He has so many weapons to use that he almost becomes that person looking at a menu in a restaurant saying “I have no idea what I want.” It’s a paralysis of choice. And then he does what everyone does in those situations.
He goes with the same old thing.
Which is why it was almost surprising that Tatum spent the end fourth quarter attacking the rim instead of setting up fadeaways and side-step 3-pointers. He loves those shots, but when it came time to carry the Boston Celtics to a win they almost threw away, he put his head down and attacked.
“I thought tonight that Jayson’s will shone through,” Brad Stevens said. “It’s been a tough stretch for Jayson, but this matters to him and he wants to win and he made big plays.”
Sometimes when players don’t have time to think, they react their way to something great. You might notice it when it’s an end-of-shot clock jumper that falls through for a guy on an 0-for-10 night; instead of thinking about his shot and trying to sort of aim it through, he just rises up and drills it.
This, in a way, is what Jayson Tatum was facing down the stretch of this game. When the lack of time on the clock demanded an immediate “shoot it or drive it” response from Tatum, he just took what was there.
Six of Tatum’s 11 fourth-quarter points came in the final 43 seconds of the game, and all of them came at the rim.
“One time they ran me off the 3-point line, I had a clear path to the basket,” Tatum explained.
The Wizards, up five and focused on not giving up a triple, almost conceded Tatum’s layup.
“And then the second time, if we had an open 3, we were going to take it. But we just wanted to get a quick score, hopefully foul, but then we got the turnover.”
With 19.7 seconds left, Brad Stevens dipped into his Kyrie Irving playbook and got Tatum running downhill at Daniel Theis, who had caught the inbound pass. Tatum set up Bradley Beal, who was defending him, with a fake so he could catch the ball moving toward the 3-point line, and when he saw Robin Lopez come over, he read that there was no rim protector, so immediately made a beeline for the basket.
He split the late challenge from two Wizards, deftly switched to his left hand, and laid it in as he fell and slid along the baseline. It was an elite finish to an elite play. In that 4.6 seconds, Tatum showed that flash of superstardom that brings thoughts of banners to the minds of Celtics fans.
BIG SHOT TATUM. pic.twitter.com/NCbeza8SWg
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 1, 2021
