Boston Celtics: Jayson Tatum cools off as the C’s continue to struggle
The Boston Celtics are only 4-5 after the NBA All-Star break, and now Jayson Tatum has cooled off
During the month of February, there might not have been a better player not named Giannis Antetokounmpo in the Eastern Conference than Jayson Tatum. While averaging 31 points, eight rebounds, and three assists on 49 percent shooting from the field and 48 percent from 3-point range, he led the Boston Celtics at a 10-3 record during the month.
However, in terms of team success, the Celtics have run into a bit of trouble after the NBA All-Star break. Since the break, the Celtics are only 4-5 and have seen their comfortable lead over the Miami Heat for the third seed in the East fall to only 1.5 games.
To make matters even worse, it appears that Tatum has fallen into a bit of a lull as well. After red-hot February and first game in March, Tatum is only averaging 18.5 points, six rebounds, and three assists on 40 percent shooting from the field.
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Even though it’s only a two-game funk for Tatum, for now, this can’t be good news for the team moving forward. Even with a red-hot Tatum, the Celtics struggled to get the results in the W-L column than they’d like. Now that Tatum is struggling, you can’t expect it to help matters any.
In fact, you would almost have to expect it to get worse. And that it has. In the two games that Tatum has struggled with his shot, the Celtics have dropped both games. The only bit of “good news” for the Celtics is that both of those losses came against playoff teams in the West – Oklahoma City Thunder and Utah Jazz.
However, I’m not sure they’ll buy any of that at the moment.
Digging a bit deeper, the advanced numbers are concerning. Since the break, the Celtics only have the NBA’s 16th ranked defense. They’ve also dropped to 9th on the defensive side of the court, and have only the 11th best net rating over that span.
To put those numbers into perspective, the Celtics had the NBA’s fifth-ranked offense, third-ranked defense, and third-ranked net rating before the NBA All-Star break.
The easy, and safe, reaction would be to simply blame the team’s offense for their post-All-Star break slump. However, I’m not sure it’s that easy. Brad Stevens is a coach that predicates his teams on cohesiveness and great defense. Since the All-Star break, they’ve certainly struggled on that front.
Perhaps this is nothing but a rough stretch of the season and schedule. After all, each of the five losses that the Celtics have suffered from the All-Star break came against playoff teams (Los Angeles Lakers, Houston Rockets, Brooklyn Nets, Jazz, and Thunder). On the other hand, the fact that four of them came on their home floor can’t be encouraging either.
Maybe you can chalk it all up to the time that Kemba Walker has missed. Since the break, he’s only played in three games (all losses). Perhaps all this changes on a dime when he’s healthy and back in the lineup on a full-time basis. At the moment, though, there’s no way in assuring that.
There’s no question that the Celtics are struggling. The big question is whether or not this is the time to be concerned about their prospects over the last 20 games and into the postseason.
Just a couple of weeks ago, many were talking about how the Celtics – in large part due to the sudden emergence of Jayson Tatum – could be the one team to take down the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference.
However, with the way that they’ve played over the last few games, whether the Tatum slump continues or not, you’d have to wonder if this team can get back to the level that it was playing at before the NBA All-Star break. Right now, that remains to be seen.
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And, more than anything, that seems to be the Boston Celtics’ biggest problem.