BOSTON -- It’s a new season for Jayson Tatum, but some things remain the same for the second-year forward, who continues his mastery of the Philadelphia 76ers.
Tatum led the way in Boston’s 105-87 season-opening win over the Sixers with a game-high 23 points, similar to how he absolutely dominated the Sixers in the second round of the playoffs last season.
“Well, we need him to be great,” said Celtics head coach Brad Stevens.
Especially after a preseason in which, like most of the Celtics, he didn’t perform particularly well at either end of the floor.
But like most of his teammates, the Tatum we saw in the preseason was nothing like the one we saw in the season opener.
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And the Celtics needed him to be special, with Kyrie Irving having one of his worst season-opening performances ever.
Boston Celtics
“Our strength has to be our depth,” Stevens said. “And when one guy doesn’t have it going the rest of the team has to pick them up.”
And on Tuesday, that was Tatum who scored nine of Boston’s first 11 points which allowed Boston to play with a lead most of the first half before eventually pulling away in the second.
Tatum managed to generate points on a variety of Philly defenders, including Sixers All-Star Joel Embiid -- whom the 20-year-old Tatum worked out with and against, this summer.
“We were talking the whole game,” Tatum said. “We had fun.”
But as much as the Celtics benefited from Tatum’s scoring, it was his defense that once again drew the praise of his coach.
“As I’ve told him and all our other wings, if those guys just really commit to being great defensively and making the next right play, everything’s going to work out,” Stevens said. “Because there’s a lot of good players out there.”
Especially on this Celtics roster, as they flexed their depth throughout the game.
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But nowhere was this more obvious than how they rallied together on a night when Kyrie Irving (seven points on 2-for-14 shooting) had a very un-Kyrie Irving-like game.
“Kyrie's not going to have it some nights. I can go down the line, everybody not going to have it going, otherwise we’d have 200 points,” said Terry Rozier. “You can always look down and somebody step up.”
And in the opener, it was Tatum picking up where he left off against the Sixers, when he averaged a team-best 23.6 points per game in Boston’s second round series against them last spring.
Aron Baynes was around some of the NBA’s all-time greats during his days with the San Antonio Spurs, and knows all too well what a player who has that “it” factor looks like.
Jayson Tatum?
Yup. He’s got it.
And what makes Tatum stand out in Baynes’ eyes, is how quickly the game has slowed down for the 20-year-old who has shown the ability to dominate play.
“It’s pretty phenomenal,” Baynes said. “I played with some great players but they were towards the end of their careers. Seeing a guy who is that talented offensively and committed defensively is fun to be around. His growth over this past year, and he didn’t take it back a step over the summer which was great. He’s going out there being assertive, but he’s not trying to take shots that aren’t him, either.”
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