Jayson Tatum, it’s time to show the world who you are

The Boston Celtics are down 2-0 to the New York Knicks after sweeping their regular season series in dominant fashion. It’s almost inexplicable.

The Celtics have been the better team all season long. They already proved that they can more than handle these types of situations having won the championship last year. Yet, they’ve dropped two consecutive home games in which they held 20-point second-half leads by a combined four points.

Boston’s defense has more or less done their job. They held the Knicks to 100 points in regulation of Game 1, and just 91 total points in Game 2. The offense, on the other hand, has most definitely not been up to snuff. In this series the Celtics are shooting an abysmal 35.6% from the field, 25% from three.

It’s officially go-time now. Boston can’t play around anymore, and it has to start with Jayson Tatum.

Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

Defensively, Tatum has done his job. As the primary defender, he’s kept his opponents at just 39.3% from the field. He’s averaging 2.5 steals and 1 block per game while also bringing in 15 rebounds per game, nearly all of them defensive. He leads the team in both steals and rebounds.

The other side of the ball is where Jayson has really struggled. He’s averaging a mere 18 points per game in this series on 28.6/25/77.8 shooting splits. He leads the team in assists per game at 5.5, but he also leads the team in turnovers at 4 per game. That ain’t gonna cut it, plain and simple.

For comparison, when the Celtics were dominating the Knicks during the regular season Jayson was averaging 33.5 points, 6.8 rebounds, 7 assists, 0.8 steals, and 0.5 blocks with only 1.8 turnovers per game. He did this with 53.5/47.8/80 shooting splits, nearly two times better than he’s currently shooting.

Forget the numbers. We all know JT is a much better player than he’s shown so far, and no one knows it better than him. In his recent media availability Tatum had this to say: “I take full ownership for the way that I’ve played in this series. Can’t sugar coat anything. I need to be better. And I expect to be a lot better.”

I couldn’t care less about anything any of the sports talking heads have to say. The Twitter narratives, the ESPN segments, the hot-take podcasts – they all mean absolutely nothing. Everyone has had Tatum’s name in their mouth since he came into this league. They’ve all tried to tell us who he is or who he isn’t.

It’s not theirs to tell, though – it’s Jayson’s. Now is his time to tell it.

He’s shown us he can be clutch. He’s shown us he can show up in big games. He has numerous accolades. He’s broken and set several records. He’s even an NBA champion. This series won’t define him, but it can highlight some not-so-great trends.

JT has made the playoffs at the end of each season in his 8-year career so far. Since the 19-20 season, his third year in the league, he’s only had a field-goal percentage above 43% once – the 22-23 season in which he shot 45.8%. Over the past three seasons, his three-point percentage has been especially concerning, just 30.7%.

Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

He’s had a few wrist injuries over the years, recently picking up a bone bruise in Game 1 of Boston’s first-round bout with the Orlando Magic. It’s entirely possible that the injuries are what’s limiting him. That doesn’t matter, though. We as fans tend to call out other players if they consistently have injuries which limit them in the playoffs. We’ve done it for Kawhi Leonard, Joel Embiid, and even Kristaps Porzingis.

Now the main difference between those guys and Jayson is that JT is always ready to suit up. He’s only missed one game in his entire playoff career, that absence coming in Game 2 of the previous round. Not only that, but he consistently produces on the court in almost every aspect of the game outside of scoring. He deserves full credit for being the all-around amazing player and iron-man that he is.

The shooting efficiency still stands as a valid criticism, even with the wrist injuries. His shot selection can be iffy at times too, something he can clean up to improve his efficiency. It may be the one thing that holds him back from being considered the best player in the league, or at the very least top-3.

The bottom line is that he has to figure it out, and do it soon if the Celtics want to come back in this second-round series against the Knicks.

So, #0, how do you respond?