Category: Jayson Tatum

Celtics guard Marcus Smart reveals painful reality of Jayson Tatum’s early injury in Game 7

May 30, 2023

Every single year, it seems like the playoffs devolves from a battle between some of the best teams in the NBA to a war of attrition. The Miami Heat, in particular, know this all too well, as they lost Tyler Herro and Victor Oladipo to injuries in this postseason run alone. Meanwhile, the Boston Celtics, amid stretches of shaky postseason play, have gone through the playoffs mostly unscathed.

But everything changed for the Celtics in the first possession of their Game 7 tussle against the Heat, just when they were on the precipice of becoming the first team to ever come back from a 3-0 series deficit. After only 26 seconds have elapsed in the winner-take-all Eastern Conference Finals matchup, Jayson Tatum turned his ankle on a layup attempt over Gabe Vincent, hampering the effectiveness of the Celtics’ best player.

Tatum tried his best to power through what clearly was a painful injury, but as Marcus Smart acknowledged in his postgame presser following the Celtics’ season-ending 103-84 defeat to the Heat, this was simply a part of the game that, heartbreakingly, they have no control over.

“Obviously, you can see he wasn’t himself. He wasn’t as explosive. The ankle was really killing him. He tried to fight, it just didn’t go in his favor,” Smart said, per ASAP Sports. “But it’s part of the game. Certain things you can’t control and getting hurt like that is nothing you can control. So, it just happened at the wrong time.”

There were no guarantees either way that Marcus Smart and the Celtics would have won had Jayson Tatum remained healthy throughout Game 7. But one would think that the Celtics would have had a much easier time solving the Heat’s stifling zone defense if they had Tatum playing at his best.

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Jaylen Brown vocal on his Celtics future after East Finals disaster

May 30, 2023

Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics’ Banner 18 hopes closed right before their eyes with the loss to Jimmy Butler’s Miami Heat. Offseason talk ran rampant along with their disaster of a loss. No one’s future has been more in the dark after the curtains closed than Jaylen Brown’s.

After the loss, however, Brown talked to the media and cleared up the talks.

“I expected to win today and move on. That’s what my focus was on. That’s what my focus has been on. We failed. I failed. And it’s hard to think about anything else right now, to be honest. I’m going to cross that bridge when we get there,” Brown said when asked about his future with the team, per Jay King of The Athletic.

Brown has always been at the center of trade rumors whenever the Celtics fall short. However, he recently dispelled these rumors as well, ensuring that their fans would get another run with the Tatum and Brown duo.

His co-star Jayson Tatum also made sure to send a message that they would not break up. Tatum did not operate on uncertainty. Rather, the Celtics star guarantees that he wants Brown to be his running mate for years to come.

“It’s extremely important. He’s one of the best players in the league,” Tatum said on whether the Celtics should keep Brown long-term.

Both Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have been with this Celtics team since their rookie campaigns. They have both developed into All-NBA level stars in Boston’s system. There is no other show of brotherhood that comes close to the duo in Beantown.

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Celtics’ Malcolm Brogdon drops truth bomb on ‘disappointing’ forearm injury

May 30, 2023

The Jayson Tatum-led Boston Celtics hoped to repeat as Eastern Conference Champions against Jimmy Butler’s Miami Heat. In pursuit of that, they added a playmaking guard by the name of  Malcolm Brogdon. Since then, Brogdon exceeded expectations come the regular season, even winning the Sixth Man of the Year award. However, things would take an unfortunate turn for him as he got injured in the Eastern Conference Finals

Brogdon missed Game 6 due to a forearm injury, and while he was cleared to play in Game 7, he did not look the same. After their brutal 103-84 loss on Monday, during which he failed to score on three attempts, Brogdon opened up regarding his injury.

“What was reported was correct. It’s a partial tear of a tendon, I don’t know the name of the tendon but it’s coming out of my elbow. Unfortunately, you use it a lot to shoot. So, when I’m shooting, I’m having a lot of pain,” Brogdon confirmed with much dismay as he lost his shooting touch, per Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints

“Yeah, super disappointing. I came here to win a championship, to help this team as much as I could. I thought we had a great season. After the season we had, it’s definitely crushing. For me personally, I did feel, I do feel great, my body feels great. I just have this tear in my arm which is unfortunate but it’s part of the game.”

Malcolm Brogdon, however, is not making excuses as he understands that injuries are part of the game. He went on to point out how his teammate Jayson Tatum also got injured early in Game 7 but battled through it, as well as the Heat who have been nursing a couple of big injuries to key players for most of the postseason.

“I tried to battle through it, JT tried to battle through a sprained ankle literally on the first play of the game, so and there are guys on the Heat that are battling through stuff. So, this is how the game is. Sometimes the ball doesn’t roll your way. But we’ll regroup and we’ll be back next year,” Brogdon said as the curtains closed for the Celtics’ Banner 18 hopes.

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3 Celtics’ takeaways from devastating Game 7 loss to the Miami Heat

May 30, 2023

In 2022, the Boston Celtics celebrated an Eastern Conference championship in the Miami Heat’s building after winning Game 7. In 2023, the Heat exacted revenge by defeating the Celtics in Boston for the Eastern Conference crown with a decisive 103-84 Game 7 win.

The Celtics carried a lot of momentum into Monday night, as they had won three straight games and were hoping to become the first team to overcome a 3-0 playoff deficit in NBA history. The Heat have disregarded momentum all season though, as they came out ready to play and never really lost control of the contest.

While Heat leader Jimmy Butler might get a lot of the credit, Miami’s role players were arguably the deciding factor in the series. Guard Caleb Martin had 26 points and 10 rebounds while playing like the best guy on the court for much of Game 7. Other supporting cast members like Gabe Vincent and Duncan Robinson were also huge and were there when Miami needed a clutch shot.

As for the C’s, the timely shots weren’t there. In fact, barely any of the shots were there on Monday night. With that being said, here are three takeaways from the Boston Celtics’ brutal Game 7 loss to the Miami Heat.

3. The tone wasn’t set in the first quarter

After winning three straight against Miami and having the deciding Game 7 at home, the Celtics had a great opportunity to roll with their momentum. A good start in the first quarter could’ve got the TD Garden rocking and put heavy pressure on the Heat.

Instead, Celtics star Jayson Tatum tweaked his ankle on Boston’s first possession of the game and didn’t fully look like himself from that point on.

That injury got things off to a bad start, but the Celtics continued to do themselves no favors. They missed open shots, put up four quick turnovers and scored only 15 total points–which was tied for their lowest first-quarter output all season.

With Tatum hobbling a bit and the C’s struggling, momentum was quickly lost. The Celtics still could’ve recovered, yet their defensive intensity from the past few games just wasn’t there to keep them in it. Setting the tone for the contest with a strong first quarter could’ve changed the game for Boston.

2. Jaylen Brown unraveled

On a night where their main offensive option wasn’t 100-percent, the C’s needed someone to step up. Typically, the next man up would be two-time All-Star Jaylen Brown, but he couldn’t do it in Game 7.

Brown seemed out of control most of the time on offense, as his whopping eight turnovers truly sank the Celtics. He notched 19 points but on an inefficient 8-for-23 shooting night, and his plus-minus rating of minus-17 was the second worst of any player.

The 26-year-old’s shot selection was also horrid. On a few occasions, he would pull up from deep way too early in the shot clock and miss, which really hurt Boston’s offensive rhythm. It seemed like he knew he had to make up for Tatum’s injury, however, he was trying to do too much with the ball sometimes.

This wasn’t Brown’s only rough game in the series either, as he never had a signature performance against the Heat. He averaged just 19 points per game, in comparison to his 26.6 points per outing in the regular season, and never looked comfortable versus Miami’s stifling defense.

1. Inconsistency killed the season

The 2022-23 season was an up-and-down one for the Celtics, and this series embodied that.

For instance, in Game 4 Boston nailed 18 triples and had just 10 turnovers. In Game 7, the Celtics had only nine triples and 15 turnovers. Although that’s a small sample size, it shows how the Celtics’ turned their strengths into their weaknesses and could never find consistency.

Even prior to playing the Heat, the C’s struggled with inconsistency. In the first round, they’d beat up an inferior Atlanta Hawks team one night and then lose to them at home. Against Philadelphia, they’d blow a Game 1 that was gift-wrapped to them but then destroy the Sixers in Game 7. Simply put, the Celtics were frustrating all season and incapable of playing to their potential on a nightly basis.

With the NBA Finals out of reach and the offseason ahead, Boston now has some big questions to address. Do they bring back head coach Joe Mazzulla? Do they put its faith in Brown for the future? Do they pay Grant Williams and Payton Pritchard? All of these inquiries may be answered in the coming months, but what the Celtics certainly need to address is what’s to blame for their frequently erratic play.

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Stephen A Smith clowns himself after embarrassing Game 7 prediction for Celtics star Jayson Tatum

May 30, 2023

“Don’t come back to a Game 7 and put Jayson Tatum in that kind of situation.” This was Stephen A. Smith’s exact words as he warned the Miami Heat of feeling the full wrath of Game 7 Jayson Tatum. Well, after watching the Boston Celtics get blown out on their own home floor on Monday night, even the great Stephen A had to completely backtrack on his earlier prediction.

Smith has never been short of hot takes, and naturally, he’s been wrong in the past. In spite of his no-nonsense personality, Stephen A is also the type who owns up to his mistakes. This is exactly what he did in the aftermath of Game 7:

As Smith said, Tatum turned out to be “exactly who the Heat wanted to see” on Monday night. Celtics fans were hoping for another vintage performance from their superstar in this do-or-die contest, but they were completely let down by what turned out to be a stinker from the four-time All-Star.

In what was without a doubt Boston’s most important game of the season, Tatum messed up big time, finishing with just 14 points on 5-of-13 shooting, to go along with 11 rebounds, four assists, a steal, and two turnovers in 42 minutes of action.

To be fair, you have to give this man credit for playing through an early injury scare. Tatum tweaked his ankle in the first play of the game, and the Celtics superstar was clearly in pain the rest of the way. Unfortunately for him, these are the types of situations wherein no excuses are valid.

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Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown get massive backlash as Celtics fail to complete historic 3-0 comeback

May 30, 2023

Boston Celtics fans are in shambles right now after watching their team squander a golden opportunity to make history on Monday night. Instead of being the first team in NBA history to come back from being down 0-3 in a seven-game series, the Celtics have now been ousted from the NBA Playoffs after a devastating Game 7 loss against the Miami Heat. To make matters worse, Jimmy Butler and Co. ended up blowing out Boston on their own home floor, 103-84.

Unsurprisingly, the mean streets of Twitter were out and about after watching the Celtics lose miserably on Monday night. The keyboard warriors took aim at Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown as the pair once again came short this season.

Tatum, who injured his ankle in the first play of the game, was definitely not the player the Celtics needed him to be in this one. NBA Twitter had to let him know:

You have to give Tatum some sort of credit for playing through what looked like a nasty ankle injury. He was wincing in pain all game long, and it definitely played a role in his lackluster performance in the Celtics’ most important game of the season.

Jaylen Brown wasn’t hurt, though, but the fans felt like it was him who was nursing some sort of injury in Game 7:

This has got to hurt for Celtics fans, and this loss is going to sting for quite a while. The same is going to be the case for Boston’s superstar duo, who quite possibly, may have just played their last game together on the same team.

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Celtics’ Jaylen Brown clowned by Shannon Sharpe, NBA Twitter over Game 7 struggles

May 30, 2023

Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics outscored the Miami Heat by one point in the third quarter of Game 7 as they battled back from an early game deficit. Unfortunately for Celtics fans, the team’s comeback fell flat as the fourth quarter wound down in Boston.

As fellow All-Star Jayson Tatum struggled to adjust due to an ankle injury suffered early, Jaylen Brown struggled with turnovers.

NFL Hall-of-Famer Shannon Sharpe trolled Brown on Twitter during the mistakes.

Other readers began to pile on after Sharpe’s initial blast as the game entered its bitter final stages for Boston.

The Celtics finished with 15 total turnovers on the night compared to the Heat’s 12. It was the timing of costly mistakes that did them in as the Heat took a commanding lead.

Tatum was held to 14 points, wincing as he ran down the court from injury in the game’s final moments. Brown finished with 19 points, eight rebounds and five assists.

A third quarter flurry from guard Derrick White staked him to 18 points total for the game.

When the dust settled, the Celtics battled back from a 3-0 series deficit only to fail on the big stage yet again.

On the plus side, Tatum smashed a Larry Bird playoff record that stood for nearly four decades.

Poor shooting proved to be the Celtics’ undoing. The team shot just 9-for-42 from three-point range, compared to the Heat’s 14-for-28.

In the end, they met a fate similar to the Boston Bruins, who lost a Game 7 of their own last month to the Florida Panthers.

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Jayson Tatum smashes Larry Bird NBA Playoffs record that stood for nearly four decades

May 30, 2023

Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics are on the cusp of making NBA history with a win in Game 7 against the Miami Heat Monday night. From an individual perspective, Tatum has already entered his name into the record books before the final buzzer of the game, as he has just surpassed Larry Bird for the most points by a Celtics player over the course of two consecutive playoffs, per ESPN Stats & Info.

With 10 points tonight, Jayson Tatum has passed Larry Bird in 1984-85 for the most points over a 2-postseason span in Celtics history.

In the 1984 and 1985 NBA Playoffs, Bird mustered a total of 1,152 points on 49.3 percent shooting from the field across 43 total games. Jayson Tatum, on the other hand, entered Game 7 of the 2023 NBA Eastern Conference Finals with 1,144 points on 44.1 field goal percentage over 43 games as well. Tatum scored just seven points in the first half and eventually moved past Larry Legend with his first bucket in the second half.

Bird and the Celtics reached the NBA Finals in 1984 and defeated the Los Angeles Lakers in seven games. They returned to the NBA Finals the following year but the Lakers got their revenge, winning the title after beating Boston in six games.

Jayson Tatum will gladly exchange his new franchise record for an NBA title, which remains to be a missing item on his resume. At the time of this writing, though, the Celtics are down big against Jimmy Butler and the Heat, who have established a double-digit lead at halftime and remain in full control in the second half.

 

 

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Jayson Tatum, Celtics can join extremely exlusive Game 7 club amid 11-point halftime deficit vs Heat

May 30, 2023

The Boston Celtics have their backs against the wall in Game 7 of their 2023 NBA Eastern Conference Finals series against Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat, who have established an 11-point lead after the first two quarters of the contest at TD Garden. The Celtics did not battle back from 0-3 down only to put up a lackluster effort in front of their home crowd in a Game 7, so a big fightback from Jayson Tatum and company is to be expected to happen in the second half.

If the Celtics somehow managed to turn things around and end up with the last laugh in Game 7, they will just be the fourth team in the history of the NBA to overcome a halftime deficit of at least 11 points in a Game 7, via Sportsnet Stats.

“Heat lead Celtics by 11 at Halftime. The largest Game 7 halftime comeback in NBA history is 11 points, done twice by the Warriors in 1975 (vs Bulls) & 2018 (vs Rockets) respectively.”

If the Celtics are to right the ship and complete the comeback, they are going to need their biggest stars to play like, well, stars. Tatum finished the first half of Game 7 with just seven points on 3-for-7 shooting from the field. Jaylen Brown led the Celtics in the first half with 15 points, albeit on an inefficient 6-for-15 shooting from the floor.

Of course, the history everyone’s been looking out for in this game is that of Boston’s chances to successfully become just the first team in league history to win a series after losing Games 1 to 3.

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Robert Williams III’s shocking exit after Jayson Tatum injury sparks more Celtics fears

May 30, 2023

The Boston Celtics just can’t catch a break in Game 7. After Jayson Tatum’s injury scare, it’s now Robert Williams III who appears to be in some sort of pain.

Williams even had to go to the locker room, with his exit shocking a lot of Celtics fans and sparking plenty of concerns about his status.

*More details to follow.

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