Jayson Tatum, Celtics pull out odd win over Hornets, sweeping mini-series: 10 takeaways
Tatum is getting to the line consistently, but his three-point shot isn't falling at the rate it did to start the season.
Jayson Tatum and the Celtics beat the Hornets 113-103 on Saturday, pulling out their second win over Charlotte in as many nights to improve to 6-1.
Here are the takeaways:
Jayson Tatum is getting to the free-throw line a lot but his 3s are gone.
Much was made during the preseason about Tatum’s new shooting form, which was supposed to fix his streaky 3-point shot. During preseason games, Tatum appeared comfortable and confident, and he came out firing against the Knicks in the opener. Some fans (and some people who write takeaways for Boston dot com) wondered what a consistent 3-point shot might do for Tatum’s season, particularly in the MVP chase.
Since then, Tatum has gone ice cold again. In his last four contests, he is a frigid 10-for-44 from 3-point range (22.7 percent), firing up triples at a high volume with very limited success. On Saturday, he went 1-for-9.
A closer look at those 3-pointers is interesting. The first was a bad attempt – an opportunity to go 1-on-1 against Grant Williams that Tatum may have forced.
The second was another tough one, although Tatum appeared to create enough space by stepping back against Moussa Diabate. The eye test suggests he might not have entirely gotten his feet underneath him.
Tatum’s lone make was a heavily contested, pump-fake triple to close the first quarter. His fourth was a pick-and-pop, lightly contested by the much smaller Tre Mann, which hit the front rim. His fifth landed on the front rim as well after he shook Williams badly with a double-cross step-back. His sixth hit back rim as he attempted to create a 2-for-1 over Mann once again.
You get the picture. The looks were good. The results weren’t.
Tatum is still scoring a ton of points – 30.5 per game so far this year – largely thanks to his sky-high free-throw numbers. He finished with 29 points on 15 shots on Saturday largely thanks to a 14-for-17 performance at the free-throw line – his third game in a row in the teens (15 against the Pacers, 13 on Friday against the Hornets). He’s been aggressive getting to the rim, despite his high volume of 3-point attempts, and he’s contributing in a number of other ways as well.
“They need to put potential assists and screen assists on here,” Joe Mazzulla said afterward. “I thought he controlled and made the right play almost every single time. I thought he played a great game.”
That’s all true, and the Celtics proved last season that they can win a championship with Tatum playing great basketball but missing 3-pointers.
Still, it’s difficult not to wonder what might happen if he made them a little more consistently.
Boos for Grant Williams.
The Celtics were less than pleased with their former forward Grant Williams after Friday’s fracas, when Williams plowed through Jayson Tatum with the game already decided down the stretch. Williams told reporters afterward that the play wasn’t intentional, but Jaylen Brown compared the moment to Ray Lewis coming across the field to tackle an opponent and said he thought Williams and Tatum were friends, tacking on an ominous “I guess not” to the end of his answer.
On Saturday, Williams was given a microphone to deliver a message about voting. In front of a Charlotte crowd that included a lot of green jerseys, Williams was resoundingly booed (although the boos turned to cheers after a few seconds).
The game itself didn’t deliver any major fireworks — Tatum went 1-on-1 with Williams at one point, but he air-balled the 3-pointer. Tatum threw a big dunk down in the fourth quarter and hung on the rim long enough to bump Williams, and shortly afterward, Neemias Queta caught a lob from Tatum and slammed down a big dunk before mean-mugging Williams. Derrick White and Williams also got mixed up in … whatever this was.
Williams, meanwhile, was very quiet offensively (2-for-6 overall, 1-for-4) and tossed up a floater so bad that the NBA Centel account got involved.
According to the Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn, Williams was apologetic to Tatum. Tatum, meanwhile, was reportedly “annoyed,” but he accepted the apology.
“I don’t really want to talk about it,” Tatum told reporters afterward. “Just got ready for the game today, came to Charlotte, did what we were supposed to do and go to Atlanta and try to get another win and move on.”
The Celtics went big, while the Hornets went small.
The Hornets were without Nick Richards or Mark Williams, which meant they were without both starting centers.
The Celtics, who were without Jaylen Brown, countered by playing both Luke Kornet and Al Horford in the starting lineup, which proved to be very effective. Kornet was a lob target for much of the game, scoring 19 points on 6-for-6 shooting and 7-for-7 at the free-throw line. Running pick-and-rolls with Kornet opened up the game with vertical spacing, which was crucial since the Celtics shot just 16-for-52 from the 3-point line (30.6 percent).
“[Kornet] gets a lot of stuff that goes unnoticed,” Mazzulla said. “One of the things that they don’t chart is block outs where someone else gets the rebound. He did a great job keeping his guy off the glass so someone else can go get it.”
Payton Pritchard was back to his normal self.
Pritchard went 4-for-16 combined from deep in his last two outings against the Pacers and Hornets, but he was back to his normal self on Saturday – 6-for-12 from 3-point range and 8-for-15 overall, tallying 22 points. Pritchard made five 3-pointers in the first half as the Celtics pulled away, punishing a Hornets defense that kept losing track of him.
The Celtics missed an opportunity for a blowout.
The Celtics appeared to be on the verge of a blowout in the second quarter, pushing the lead as high as 21 before the half. But the Hornets hung around thanks in large part to LaMelo Ball, who converted several baskets both inside and outside the 3-point line. The Hornets didn’t make up much ground – they trailed by 18 at the half – but Ball’s mini-flurry kept them competitive going into the break.
That ended up being important, because the Hornets came out of halftime firing. Brandon Miller (twice), Josh Green, Grant Williams and Miles Bridges all connected from three, and Ball dropped in a floater as part of a 17-2 run that brought the Hornets roaring back into the game. Williams missed multiple attempts to tie the game with the Hornets down three, but after a hot shooting first half, the Celtics couldn’t put the Hornets away when they had a chance.
A note for Joe Mazzulla
In the middle of that 17-2 run, Mazzulla called a timeout trying to tourniquet the bleeding. The Hornets scored eight straight points immediately afterward.
A reporter started to ask Mazzulla about the run after the game.
“Yeah, how about that timeout? That worked, huh?” Mazzulla said, dripping sarcasm. “You guys aren’t going to write about that? You call a timeout, and THEN they go on an 8-0 run?”
A fair point by Mazzulla: The timeout to stop the run did nothing. Consider it written about.
Derrick White’s quest for 1.0 blocks per game is very much alive.
White was uncharacteristically cold from the field, shooting 5-for-17 and 4-for-13 from 3-point range. After making one triple in the second half, White threw his hands into the air in exasperation as if to say “FINALLY.”
But White did swat away a pair of shots, marking his fifth game in a row with at least one. He was averaging precisely one per game prior to Saturday, which is one of his stated objectives this year, and Saturday’s game will push him slightly above that.
LaMelo Ball fouled out for the second game in a row.
After fouling out of Friday’s game, Ball was once again in foul trouble on Saturday and committed his sixth during a confusing sequence in which the Hornets opted to foul repeatedly down 10 with less than 30 seconds remaining, Ball fouled out of the game for the second time in a row.
Ball committed at least three very preventable and unnecessary fouls (including his second on a Tatum 3-pointer in as many games). Ball is as good a scorer as you could ask for in the NBA – 36 points on 15-for-26 shooting and 6-for-12 from 3-point range to go with six assists – but the Hornets need him available, and he was missing for an important stretch in the second half after committing his fourth foul.
Jaylen Brown’s health – a concern?
Brown will have a second MRI on a hip flexor issue that has been bothering him since training camp, according to Washburn.
Brown assured Washburn that he will be fine, but he admitted it hasn’t felt like he has his explosion and burst.
Getting Brown healthy is crucial, and the hip flexor area isn’t an area with which a team’s medical staff will want to play games. It wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see Brown miss another game as he tries to get right.
The end of the road(trip).
The Celtics wrap up their road trip against the Hawks on Monday, but a much more intriguing matchup looms on Wednesday when Steve Kerr – who earned the ire of Celtics fans for his treatment of Tatum during Team USA’s gold-medal run at the Olympics – and the Warriors visit Boston.
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