If you haven’t heard by now, Jayson Tatum is a young superstar in the making who will struggle keeping his crown steady on his head as he grows into his role as the face of the franchise.
I’ve said it. You’ve probably said it. I’m sure sports talk radio has had a field day with it for a while.
But every once in a while, even in the midst of a career night, we get smacked with just how long a road this has been for Tatum.
“It didn’t matter who was in front of him,” his childhood St. Louis friend Bradley Beal said after the game with a laugh. “And that’s something that I’ve been trying to tell his ass for years.”
Oh you have? So it hasn’t just been us?
Tatum has not generally torn his way through defenders the way he did in this game. Perhaps that has to with the quality of defenders he faced.
“It’s tough when you guard him,” Beal said. “I mean, he’s 6’ 9,” he can get his shot off, he’s strong, and he can shoot the ball. He’s a three-level scorer, so you have to respect everything he can do on the floor and just try to make it difficult, be physical with him. I know a lot of his moves. A lot of them, I was there, but I’m only 6’ 3.” I wish I was 6’ 9” with robotic arms, but he’s a special talent, man. I’ve been saying it since he was in diapers.”
Tatum took another couple of steps forward in his zig-zaggy season that has alternately shown us the early signs of a Hall of Fame career and the ugly sausage-making of a young star growing during a pandemic-impacted season.
“We know how great his jumper is, but tonight we wanted him to put pressure on the rim,” Tristan Thompson said. “I’ve always been in his ear saying the skill level he has and how much room he has to grow. And it was great to see tonight him putting pressure on the rim and forcing their bigs to make a decision and he’s getting to the free throw line a lot. Especially in the playoffs, the easier a bucket can be, especially attacking the rim early, it opens up so much for himself but also for us as a team.”
Perhaps appropriately, his 50 points sits in a bit of historical limbo. The play-in tournament is not the playoffs, nor is it the regular season. It’s his third-highest scoring performance, but historically it seems to simply rank as a record for play-in games, of which two have ever been played.
It’s a weird wrinkle to a weird season.
Still, it’s 50 points in what we can probably just call a “postseason” game. A game Boston needed for many different reasons.
“Jayson was special, man. He was unbelievable,” Kemba Walker said. “It ain’t new to me. I’ve been watching this guy put in this kind of work over the last year or so, year or two. So I’m here for the ride. It’s fun. It’s always exciting to see him go off the way he go off. So we’re going to need that throughout this whole run.”
“This whole run” might only be four games long. The Brooklyn Nets sit waiting for Boston to go to their house Saturday night for their first round tango. At full strength, the Celtics might have had a puncher’s chance. Without Jaylen Brown and with Robert Williams hobbled with turf-toe, the Celtics can probably start booking June vacations. Unless the Celtics sign Westley, Fezzik, and Inigo Montoya before the weekend, there isn’t likely to be a miracle on the way.
In some ways, Tatum is in a no-lose situation. He’ll be blitzed, harassed, and beaten up by everything the Nets have defensively while probably having to defend a future Hall of Famer on the other end. No one would blame him if his play suffers.
However, if he can put his team on his still-broadening shoulders and at least go down with a vicious fight, it could serve as a sort of warning shot.
I know Boston isn’t the city for moral victories, but those are probably all the Celtics have left over the next couple of weeks. If Tatum can rise up again, then maybe people will believe in the circumstances that decimated their seasons.
The expectations are all on him.
“I’m prepared for that. At the end of the day I came here for a reason. I came here to play in the playoffs,” he said. “With my playoff experience and what I’ve been through making deep runs, I prepare myself for these moments all season long. Of course the regular season is important, but me, whether it’s preparation in the weight room or training room or on the court, I prepare myself for these moments. It’s a next-man-up mentality, so whatever coach needs me to do, I’m mentally preparing myself and physically preparing myself for these minutes. So, I'm ready.”
