Coming off a rough season-opening loss to the Pistons, Jayson Tatum faced a uniquely high level of scrutiny for one game.
In a second straight primetime matchup against the reigning champion New York Knicks, Tatum flipped the script.
In the span of the game’s final 84 seconds, Tatum hit Boston’s last three field goals, each a little crazier than the last, and all perfectly defended.
It’s what everyone will remember about this 107-103 win: the jumpers on both corners, the “Good Night, Safe Travels” pump-and-fire
three, the unstoppable, unguardable, unyielding force of a star simply playing on another level from those unfortunate enough to guard him.
The Anomaly was anomalous.
And yet, there’s so much more to this performance than three clutch shots. Jayson Tatum did everything on offense.
36 points on 54% efficiency, 9 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals, with just 2 turnovers and 2 fouls. That is a superstar-level performance.
Three aspects of Tatum’s offensive game stood out about this primetime masterclass: his patience attacking the Knicks, his passing vision exploiting their attention toward him, and the final chef’s kiss of his elite shot-making to close the game.
Patient Scoring
The most noticeable thing about Tatum’s scoring in this game was how effectively Boston’s early actions got him into his preferred spaces, and how methodical he was in attacking New York’s help defenders.
In the first minute of the game, this play got Tatum on the board, with Jordan Walsh setting a backscreen that allows JT to cut to the low block. Tatum has a great view of the rest of the floor, and he takes a beat to see if help’s on the way. It doesn’t come, and he attacks, hitting a fallaway over Josh Hart.
This third quarter play was an excellent example of JT’s quick decision-making working to counteract New York’s defensive attention geared toward him as a slasher.
As Tatum gets into his drive from the right slot, the Knicks cut him off by building a wall. Tatum quickly retreats, gets the ball to Derrick White, and works into a pick-and-roll.
This decision was, effectively, a relocation in the form of a short roll. Credit should go to Mitchell Robinson for pulling KAT to the paint and Paul George for floating to the corner, breaking up the wall and allowing Tatum to operate in the mid-range against a single defender.
Two minutes later, Tatum has this excellent baseline drive, and his awareness and quick reaction to the strongside help goes a long way to clearing the lane.
As Miles McBride closes in, Tatum quickly kicks to the corner. McBride recovers to get up a contest as White fakes and drives, and Tatum fills in his space in the corner at the perfect time. It both gets him a switch onto a more favorable matchup in McBride and clears the lane for a baseline drive. Tatum gets a step on McBride, maneuvers around Karl Anthony-Towns, and finishes an impressive reverse layup.
Tatum would later take over in a different fashion, but a majority of his scoring success came from a patient approach that broke down defensive barriers and created space for him to attack from all over the floor.
Gravitational Playmaking
For a second straight game, Tatum led the Celtics in assists.
Like in the previous section, it was Tatum’s problem-solving against a high-pressure defense that created easy opportunities for his teammates.
This early pick-and-roll to Mitchell Robinson shows a Knicks trap. It’s a gamble, especially with the 7-foot Robinson rolling toward a stranded OG Anunoby, but the Knicks are banking on him going to the roller. This is an opportunity for a deflection, and KAT nearly gets it, but Tatum hits Robinson in stride and it leads to a putback finish.
Tatum faced another double just before halftime on a play that ends in a Paul George buzzer-beater.
This one doesn’t come immediately though. It’s a switch onto Jalen Brunson at first, but when the clock hits four seconds, Hart fully commits to the trap, and it’s like Tatum was just waiting for it the whole time. Tatum holds his dribble just for a second when Hart comes into frame, hooking a pass to Sam Hauser, who forces a Knicks rotation that’s just a little too late to George.
Going back to the first quarter, this was Tatum’s most impressive pass of the night.
We see the Knicks build another wall, this time surrounding Tatum with three defenders in the corner.
It forces Tatum to pick up his dribble, usually a bad sign for the offense, but Tatum processes the floor so quickly once he puts two hands on the ball. Jose Alvarado is left to defend two shooters on the opposite end of the court, and Tatum gives Payton Pritchard the quickest look on the left slot. Alvarado cheats to that spot ever so slightly, and then Tatum fires a pass all the way to the opposite corner to Baylor Scheierman, who sends Alvarado flying on the way to a one-dribble jumper.
Tatum’s passing out of traffic or heavy pressure was his biggest positive out of the Detroit loss, and it remains a positive here.
Holy Shotmaking
There are two reasons I saved JT’s late-game scoring for last: First, it’s the best and therefore has to be last. Second, there’s not really a way to analyze this kind of shot-making. At least not in a way that’s just amounting to me saying “oh wow.”
It’s like asking Jackson Pollock to describe every squiggle and splatter on the canvas. Great shot-making just is. It exists not to be broken down but to be admired. So let’s admire it.
Before even getting to that fourth quarter show, there’s one play late in the third quarter just before Tatum took a breather that we should look at. In retrospect, it feels like the moment that foreshadowed the finish Jayson would ultimately deliver.
Spin-Cut back-Stepback. Cash.
And then there’s the fourth quarter.
After an ill-timed Knicks run cut into what was a 12-point lead, Tatum scored four buckets in the game’s final three and a half minutes.
It’s the final two that sort of boggle the mind. Hart really couldn’t have defended the second baseline jumper any better. He has his hands involved the whole time, yet never gets too deep into Tatum’s space. Great defense, better offense.
The same goes for the 3-pointer. KAT bites on the fake, but Tatum releases the ball so quickly after he pumps that it ends up being a contest on the shot anyway. It doesn’t matter.
The Knicks spent the night trying to solve Tatum. In the end, he solved them.
