Chris Mannix and Evan Turner break down how Jayson Tatum has looked since returning from injury and why Jaylen Brown should have not been ejected from a competitive game on national television
Three games into uh Tatum's return to the Celtics lineup coming off that Achilles injury , and you really can't ask for too much more from Tatum.29% from 3, that's not great, but you expected some rust to be on Tatum coming back after a nearly 10-month layoff.
To be this productive on the offensive floor now, he sat out the game Thursday night against Oklahoma City.You don't wanna risk some kind of further injury to Tatum, recurrence of an injury against a physical player like like injury, something like that.Now, I've had coaches that have been watching Tatum send me some clips where it's pretty clear that Tatum is not.Like he's not, he, he's, he's balancing it out, uh, somewhat. He's, he's making adjustments, uh, for a player coming off this type of injury, but that was expected to, to be at a point.You know the shooting percentages are going to improve.Uh, I thought, I think he's been very good since coming back.Um, I think one thing that occurred even from the first couple of games, I know he's been cautious on like pushing off on that leg, but some of his movement kind of looked like that of old form. I remember, uh, him coming off with the Mavericks in and out, and he missed the dunk, but it was like, hey, your reaction time, you know, how you got to the rim and, and your handle, like your awareness is still pretty much there. The corner three that he hit, shot fake, sidestep, I, I think some of that stuff looked like Looked like days of old , but of course, when you look at his shooting numbers, he's missed a few chippies over the past few games that, that has affected his numbers, but I thought he looked really good. I thought, uh, you know, he could still be used in a high impact way still with him trying to figure his ways out from how I, I've seen him score these past 3 games.But we were talking 15 points.And we're talking maybe 16, an average like a 20, and then also like, man, he could be averaging 24, 25, for 3 or 4 shots a game look good, you know.Because, look, they go 1 and 2 on this road trip, but they were ultra competitive against San Antonio, might have won that game had Jalen Brown not gotten ejected in the 2nd quarter, we can get into that.These are the two best teams in the Western Conference.They did win the game in Cleveland, which is considered one of their peers in the Eastern Conference. Uh, you know, those oddsmakers, and I talked about this with Rachel earlier in the week, the oddsmakers have made the Celtics, given them the second-best odds to win an NBA championship.I think a lot of people looked at that and said, well, that's a lot of faith you're showing in a guy coming back from an injury. But the game against Cleveland, the way they played against San Antonio, the way they played against Oklahoma City, I don't know how you can look at this, what, four-game stretch, 5-game stretch, and say, that's not the best team in the Eastern Conference.I, I think the oddsmakers here, they've got it right.I, I just, Man, just these past few games has kind of show where their potential can be and what they're able to do. And like I said, when you watch them play the mentality, you don't see like a guy struggling or you don't see players struggling.That's what I like most about the Boston Celtics. I think when it comes down to that playoff time and trying to come out the east, Like I said prior , I don't, I don't think.I think, I think Boston has, uh, picked up their play and their toughness around this way to be able to combat a Detroit, or even if you want to go deeper in there, combat a New York Knick. But, uh, when you hit the, the finals, just judging from last year with the Indiana Pacers, and if you say it comes down to like an OKC situation, OKC is unbelievable, but I think that, I'm not saying played down to the level of their competition, but I think certain teams such as the Pacers who weren't even supposed to be there were able to get with them in a seven-game series. I think if they had to match up versus Boston Celtics, a good coaching staff and everything, I like their odds just as much as if the Pacers were to occur. And this is coming with In my mind, uh, Jayson Tatum probably 22 months in playing, and I think that's a completely different night. Yeah, I, I'm really anxious to see what Tatum looks like a month from now, right before the season starts, because he's talked about the frustration of playing under a minute restriction, which is right around 25, 30 minutes per game.You shouldn't have a guy coming off this kind of injury and throw him back in the mix for 30, 35 minutes, but that minutes restriction is going to melt away over the next month. Um, being back as early as he got back gives the Celtics the opportunity to ramp him up and get him postseason ready to play 30, 35 minutes every single night.I mean, Vusovich is out for another 3 weeks.They're, they're stitching this together with, you know, tape and wire and finding ways to get it done.I thought that showed maybe a little bit too much faith in a player coming back from this type of injury, but he has stepped right in, fit in virtually seamlessly, and the Celtics very easily could have gone through this road trip at 3-0.It is because in the San Antonio game, Jalen Brown got tossed.I gotta say this off the top.Like Jalen Brown remembers whatever, whatever slight you gave Jalen Brown like 8 years ago, he remembers it to this day.Whose selection was booed on draft night. Like his selection back in 2016, I think it was, was booed on draft night by a bunch of fans that either wanted Boston to trade the pick for Jimmy Butler or they wanted to draft Chris Dunn.Jalen Brown's had his name in trade talks, so I understand where Jalen's coming from, but the point is Jalen remembers everything, and Jalen sure as hell remembers the game two months ago where the Celtics played against San Antonio and shot 4 free throws.So when he gets bumped a little bit by Stefan Cassel on the baseline, gets hit, gets knocked out of bounds, there's no call, he loses his mind on Tyler Ford.I think the players in the locker room would say the same thing.That's where the question becomes, do you take into account if you're a referee, the fact that you are ejecting Jalen Brown from a nationally televised game between two of the top 4 teams in the NBA.It was the umpire who did it from the basketball equivalent of right field.Should not have tossed Jalen Brown from that game.You're not the referee that Jalen Brown is going at in that moment.Understood it more because Jalen was coming at him, man.Tyler Ford didn't eject him from that game.So I thought he was in the wrong there.Obviously I know how frustrated he's been a couple of months ago when he was discussing not getting free throws , feeling slighted.I thought one thing that really threw it off that we can all relate to, like, his moment was no different than a Draymond Green moment. And that's no diss to Draymond Green, but when we're sitting here in, in a situation, even when you go last year with, what was it? New Orleans when Draymond Green freaked out on the New Orleans team and called them all P-words and everything, I feel like we've seen this numerous times.Like, it it's about money.And like, that's my only thing where I really had a problem with it's like you guys, like Jason said, you guys have a problem with superstars never playing national TV games and then you throw them out the game. And at this level, I believe Jalen was ultra like ultra wrong, but I believe he deserved a level of leeway and to keep hooping and to keep entertaining us.You know, this is uh, an entertainment league.The best player on the Boston Celtics who is cooking at that 0.8 points through 1.5 quarters.Uh , and I don't think the NBA, like when I've talked to the NBA about it, you know, privately, like they have made the same point that I just made here.It's gotta be the crew chief making a decision of that magnitude.They wound up losing by what, 8 or 9.Jalen was hot.Like it was a little bit of a, a little bit of a hip thing from my eyes anyway.I think one thing that encouraged the Spurs and just even the players, it's like, shit, bro, we, we're trying to see them in a few months.I think it was also like a, a blessing in disguise and being like, hey, they don't know how to game plan for us.Big Dog had 41, other dudes did other stuff, but it's like they, they don't really know how to game plan for us yet, especially with JT back.
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