On Tuesday evening, Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics blew a 22-point fourth quarter lead en route to a crushing loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. A large portion of the post-game criticism was directed in Tatum's direction, as the MVP candidate reverted to some poor isolation basketball habits despite statistics suggesting he has been a below average player in those situations throughout his Celtics tenure.
One person who has an appropriate level of caution for how that poor decision making will translate to the playoffs is former NBA sharpshooter JJ Redick, who recently took to his Old Man and the Three podcast to relay his concerns about Boston's late-game execution.
“Boston, in the fourth quarter, has iso'd the fourth most in the NBA in terms of frequency,” said Redick, per Noa Dalzell of CelticsBlog on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter. “Fourth most iso's per one hundred possessions. They are 27th in points per possession on those iso's in the fourth quarter in the NBA. At times, their offense feels a little stagnated in the fourth.”
Indeed, as great as he has been over his Celtics tenure, Jayson Tatum has shot his team out of many tightly-contested playoff and regular season games with his propensity to take Kobe Bryant-esque fadeaway jumpers, when sharing the ball with his superteam teammates would probably be the higher percentage option.
Whether that hero ball will cost the Celtics come the playoffs, as it has at times in past years, remains to be seen.
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