Jason Tatum basically had milk carton status in the biggest game of the Celtics improbable run to the championship series.
The NBA Finals could have been a coronation of sorts, not only for the Celtics, but their resident superstar. It could have been an affirmation of Jayson Tatum’s place among the greats in the game, an indelible stamp on the first All-NBA First Team nod of his career. Instead, we’re all left with an unsettling question: “Where the heck was he?”
In do-or-die Game 6, the only place he made a significant dent in the box score was in the turnover column. During the 103-90 loss to the Golden State Warriors, Tatum had five of the team’s 23 turnovers, as the Celtics just couldn’t kick their annoying habit of giving the ball away. Moreover, Tatum now owns the NBA record for most turnovers in a single postseason with 100. With the Celtics playoff lives weighing in the balance, Tatum’s 13-point, 5-turnover effort was a killer. Jaylen Brown came to play and did his best to carry the team and avoid elimination, pouring in 34 points. Al Horford also did his best to will the team to another comeback, with 19 points. Tatum, meanwhile, took the invisible route, especially in the second half of the Finals-clinching loss to the Warriors. How bad was it? Tatum mustered just two points during the final 24 minutes of the game. He went 1-for-8 from the floor. His shooting drought proved deadly to any Celtics hope to extend the series to a Game 7. Tatum basically had milk carton status in the biggest game of the Celtics improbable run to the championship series. And this wasn’t a one-game deal. It was representative of too many games in the Finals. In the Game 4 loss, he had 23 points, but shot 8-for-23 from the floor (4-from-8 from distance) with six turnovers. He didn’t hit 30 points in any of the Finals games. Steph Curry, the Finals MVP, had three 30-point games, and one where he completely buried the Celtics almost by himself with a Herculean 43-point effort. Yes, Tatum is only 24. And yes, he may have been hampered by a right shoulder problem dating back to Game 3 of the Miami series.
