Jayson Tatum has had one of the better postseason runs in recent NBA history, and he has the Boston Celtics within 2 games of the title. He has surprisingly struggled with efficiency in this series, however, as he is shooting 34.1% from the field, but he has found other ways to help them win with his playmaking and defense.
The scoring is still a concern, as he was a lot more efficient in the earlier rounds, and it was a topic of discussion on the latest episode of the Bill Simmons podcast. After Game 4, Simmons claimed he feels more comfortable with Jaylen Brown having the ball in critical situations over Tatum. He also felt that the latter needed to cool it a bit on the Kobe Bryant tributes during the game.
starts at the 13:00 mark:
“It’s so weird with this Celtics team because everybody’s been in such a rush to anoint Tatum, including himself, with the Kobe wristband and all that stuff. Maybe cool it on the Kobe stuff for a game. And Jaylen, as I’m watching this just as a fan of the team, today I wanted them to give the ball to Jaylen.”
Simmons was talking about Tatum wearing a Kobe Bryant armband during Game 7 against the Miami Heat, and Bryant has become a big talking point here as Tatum has brought up his idol’s name on numerous occasions. He needs to focus on the game itself and not think about how is going to honor Kobe.
The Black Mamba would care about just one thing at the end of the day, which is winning a championship, and that would be the greatest tribute Tatum can give to him. He was a chance to put himself in a prime position to do just that if he goes out there and puts on a dominating performance in Game 5.
