A classic beatdown like you read about.
Whether that was against an under .500 Rockets team or a 24-19 Mavs team.
In a game like this, you tend to need your stars to show up.
Thankfully, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown did more than show up, they dominated.
Let’s talk about it.
If you narrow that down to over his last 3 games, it’s 35/12.7/6.7/1.3/2.0 on 44.8% shooting.
And that’s just the offensive end of the floor.
That seemed rather significant.
Kyrie tried, and he was simply too small (9 points).
Maxi Kleber tried as well, but he’s too slow (8 points).
Josh Green has good energy, but none of it mattered (7 points).
If this is what locked in Tatum looks like, that should have you pretty excited.
That never happens, but it should.
Maybe the best part of Tatum’s entire night for me was his 0 TOs.
When the two best players on this team don’t turn the ball over, good fucking luck.
That’s basically all a defense can do at this point.
Either pray the Celts stars miss all their shots or that they can’t take care of the ball.
If neither happens, you’re going to find yourself on the wrong end of an ass kicking.
In 33 possessions defending Luka, Jaylen held him to 5 points on just 2-6 shooting.
At the 5:01 mark, Luka hit a nice stepback 3 to bring the Mavs within 7.
Joe called a timeout and Jaylen did the rest.
A few possessions later after a Kyrie 3PM, Jaylen answered again with another pullup of his own.
That’s exactly what you want from your star player in that moment.
If that doesn’t impress you, I’m not sure what you’re watching.
Remember all that questioning about it in the DEN loss?
They were aggressive, they didn’t turn the ball over, and they executed.
To put it simply, they didn’t play like assholes.
This is really my general point when it comes to the DEN loss.
I’ll admit, that is refreshing as hell.
He’s just solid.
That’s the best way I can describe him with the ball.
- 11/6/3 on 4-7 (3-6) in 31 minutes for Al Horford.
That is the shit that matters to me.
Thankfully Jayson Tatum does exist.
In no world should Tatum and Brown be combining to miss 7 FTs.
That is not the time to start bricking and leaving points at the line in my humble opinion.
I’m talking about the final 2 minutes of every frame.
Up double digits with a minute to go should not result in your lead being cut in half.
Sooner or later, that shit is going to come back to bite them.
- Celts lost the rebounding battle, points in the paint battle, and the fast break points battle.
It was the opposite actually.
His first true stinker in what feels like forever, the man simply couldn’t buy a bucket.
Several of his 3PA rimmed out so that was tough, but even his floaters were short.
If you wanted another measuring stick game, enter the Celtics boogeyman.
