5 takeaways as Jayson raises Tatum’s late Celtics heroics over Wizards

5 takeaways as Jayson raises Tatum’s late Celtics heroics over Wizards

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The Boston Celtics fought back to defeat a streak of Washington Wizards teams and secure their second straight victory on Sunday – a thriller of 111-110.

The big picture

In a familiar scene, the Celtics once again took a double-digit lead in the second half and ceded control to the Wizards. But rather than unfolding the piece, Boston continued to fight back. Jayson Tatum’s lead basket with four seconds left gave the Celtics a one-point lead, and Boston chased Bradley Beal into the corner and caught him in Washington’s final attempt to win.

Star of the game

Jayson Tatum – 31 points, 12-for-22 shooting.

Tatum looked healthier and more energetic, and his baskets on the piece were just as good as it gets – he hit four shots in the final 1:33, including a spin jumper and three baskets in the paint that included the eventual match winner . .

Boston overcame the lack of Jaylen Brown, largely thanks to Tatum and Walker, whose eight assistants were important, but Tatum’s heroism was very important.

What it means

The Wizards are not the best team in the NBA, but for the Sunday game they were one of the most popular – winners of seven of their last eight. Beating a hot team is an achievement, and the Celtics have overcome two of their biggest problems – a cold stretch in the second half and an opposing superstar.

Now the Celtics are back to .500 and have some momentum. If they can split two tough games against the Los Angeles Clippers and a better Toronto Raptors group, they could stay there with a little life to enter the All Star break.

Takeaways

1. Here’s a look at Tatum’s mandate.

The game itself was pretty broken, but Tatum made the best of it – beating Beal with a quick fall from the posts and scoring a challenging defender.

Tatum in the post is deadly if he works out of it – according to NBA statistics, he scores 1.56 points per possession on 0.6 post-up games per game. The match winner may not quite be able to classify as a post-up, but Tatum starts with his back to the basket and makes a smooth move to leave Beal in his tracks.

“It’s just a feeling for the game,” Tatum said when asked about his last post-match. ‘It’s just something you feel, use your instinct, be reactive. I’m 22 and I’ve been playing basketball since I was three, so a lot of exercise in that sense. I played a lot of games. ”

2. Opponents and cold streaks hurt the Celtics. The Boston attack became icy cold during the late third and early fourth quarter and the Wizards controlled the game. Boston fought back largely thanks to Daniel Theis’ brilliance, but once again the hill that forced the Celtics to climb was steep.

Digging out of the hole was encouraging, but the Celtics need a little luck and a lot of clutch, which is not really something they can rely on.

“It’s something we can build on,” Tatum said. ‘Obviously we made some great plays, had some important points, and we just stuck to it and it turned in our favor. Hopefully we can build on this. ”

3. With Jaylen Brown out, the Celtics were forced to rely on lineups with Kemba Walker on the floor without Brown, Tatum or Marcus Smart, who were a disaster last season.

This season, however, they were a little better despite Walker’s struggles. Before Sunday’s game, the Celtics defeated teams by 3.1 points per 100 possessions, with Walker alone (from Boston’s stars) on the floor in 127 possessions. These numbers are likely to rise a bit – Walker scored +4 while posting 21 points.

“Kemba is a good playmaker and then they get so much attention from all the other guys,” Theis said. ‘If we keep moving the ball, it’s so hard for teams to protect us. Today was my moment in the third term. I had the wide shots. I think four times in a row, they did not guard me at all, but also just as a team, we move the ball, it’s so hard to watch when we have Kemba, JT, JB, whoever is there, we has many guys who can make plays for each other. This is what we need. We just have to play our way of basketball. ”

4. Tatum has a lot of poster reports for someone who is not very springy. His latest was a beauty: A one-handed second quarter over Robin Lopez, followed by a friendly knock on the back for his longtime friend Bradley Beal.

Part of the reason for Tatum’s posters is its use: he has the ball a lot in his hands, which means he drives a lot to the basket. But he is also very smooth and very confident, which also gives him a boost.

Tatum was asked if he would consider an appearance in the dunk game again. He laughed.

“No, I mean when you watched the last game, I tried to dive and I was filled to the brim,” Tatum said. “So I had to make up for it.”

5. Here’s your nocturnal Rob Williams highlight.

Rob can definitely jump.

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