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Jayson Tatum drops 38 points as Celtics narrowly escape in win over Pelicans: 9 takeaways
The Celtics' win felt less like a victory and more like a very narrow escape for a team that already had some uncomfortable questions to answer.
Jayson Tatum’s big night helped the Celtics escape with a harrowing 120-119 win over the Pelicans on Sunday.
Here are the takeaways.
1. Jayson Tatum lifted the Celtics to a win.
One of the crucial things about having a genuine superstar on a contending team is that when you inevitably hit the part of the season where things aren’t going right — the doldrums of the regular season when a team might otherwise might rattle off a number of losses in a row — there’s one player you can go to who can take matters into his own hands.
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The Celtics have a player like that in Tatum, who rebounded from one of his worst performances of the season against the Kings on Friday to put up 38 badly needed points and 11 rebounds against the Pelicans.
Like the rest of his team, Tatum couldn’t make 3-pointers (2-for-10), but he got to the line 10 times and made eight of them (we’ll discuss his two misses shortly) and he went 12-for-20 inside the arc, scoring in a variety of creative ways.
Maybe most notably, he had what should have been the game-icing play with just over a minute remaining. Flying to the ball after a miss by Dejounte Murray, Tatum snagged the rebound and raced up the floor with two Pelicans in hot pursuit. All three players flew out of bounds as Tatum missed the layup, but Tatum hustled back to the ball and grabbed the offensive rebound, slamming home a two-handed dunk.
The Celtics are mired in a slump, which is both an odd thing to say about a team that is 28-11 but also is borderline undeniable when you watch how they are playing. If Tatum can keep the team alive during this stretch, it would be a nice addition to his MVP resume.
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2. The Celtics came incredibly close to blowing the game late.
These takeaways almost had a very different tone after the final minute of the game.
First, the aforementioned free throws by Tatum — after scoring 38 points and putting his team in a position to win, Tatum took an inbounds pass and had an opportunity to make two free throws and put his team up by five with 13 seconds remaining. As an added bonus, Tatum would have cracked 40 points for the second time this year.
Instead, Tatum missed both.
“Uncharacteristic, missing those two free throws to put the game away,” Tatum said. “No excuse for that, but I’ve made countless plays to win games and stuff over my career, so pretty confident in those moments, but, like you said, I smoked those two free throws. I wasn’t happy about that.”
On the other end, the Celtics gave a take foul with seven seconds remaining to prevent the Pelicans from hoisting a 3-pointer to tie. C.J. McCollum made both free throws, and the Celtics needed an inbound and two more free throws just to push their lead back to three. They called a timeout and set up on the sideline, but the play drawn up by Joe Mazzulla broke down, and Derrick White turned to the official to call timeout.
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Instead, the official blew his whistle. White, according to referee Brian Forte, had taken too long to call timeout. The Pelicans had the ball and a chance to win.
They very nearly did.
The Celtics were livid with Forte even in the aftermath for the five seconds call. Zion Williamson, it seems, may have been livid too.
In either case, the Celtics won, but it felt less like a victory and more like a very narrow escape for a team that already had some uncomfortable questions to answer.
3. Joe Mazzulla had no intention of answering those questions.
A reporter asked Mazzulla postgame about the five seconds call.
“Yep,” Mazzulla said.
What did he see?
“Yes,” Mazzulla said.
He saw the five seconds?
“Sure.”
What should have happened on the play?
“Yep.”
Mazzulla’s team was slightly more forthcoming, but not much.
“Oof,” Porzingis said, before pausing for several seconds. “Far from perfection. And obviously the missed timeout, the five seconds, so it was a weird ending. And a couple of missed free throws from JT made it a little bit also kind of uncharacteristic. But I’m just happy we got this hard-fought victory.”
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Al Horford admitted it was “very stressful.”
“Kind of wacky there,” he said. “I’m just glad it didn’t cost us and we were able to get it done, because we had a lot of chances and missed layups.”
4. The Celtics’ poor shooting continued to continue.
The Celtics simply cannot find the range. After going ice cold against the Kings, the NBA’s top 3-point shooting team by volume continued to fire up bricks, shooting 13-for-44 from behind the arc (29.5 percent).
The worst offenders were Tatum and Derrick White (0-for-5), but Jrue Holiday was 1-for-4, Kristaps Porzingis was 3-for-9 and Jaylen Brown was 0-for-2.
When the Celtics make 30 percent or fewer of their 3-pointers, they are now 3-6 this season. Shooting a lot of 3-pointers is a solid way to try to win a math game, but the math only works if you make a respectable percentage, and the Celtics’ recent slump is pretty easily explained when you remember that they haven’t been a .500 team when they struggle from deep.
“If we’re not making shots it starts to wear on us a little bit and then we’re at five percent less effort on defense, like 10 percent less effort,” Porzingis said. “If somebody takes a bad shot or I take a rough shot or whatever it is, you know? So we just have to be mindful of those moments, play smart, take the right shot at the right moment, but still shoot the ball because we’re a great shooting team, but just be really smart about it.”
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5. Trey Murphy III had a career night.
The Celtics have recently fallen victim to opponent 3-point shooting from sources we will (to be respectful) call surprising, but Murphy — who scored 30 points Sunday — doesn’t really fall into the surprising category.
Murphy is starting to blossom as a really interesting player — a sharpshooter with explosive athleticism and an improving handle. On Sunday, he recorded the 11th 30-point game of his career, three of which have happened since Christmas.
Murphy shot 10-for-17 from the floor and 5-for-10 from three, adding seven rebounds and four assists to his total.
As a team, the Pelicans kept themselves close by shooting 17-for-37 from three.
6. Kristaps Porzingis and the Celtics’ starters are struggling.
In a relatively small – but growing – sample size, the Celtics’ preferred starting lineup is struggling.
Porzingis, Tatum, Brown, Holiday and White have been outscored by 10.1 points per 100 possessions when they share the floor, according to Cleaning the Glass, which is a 22-point fall off from last year, when they outscored opponents by 12 points per 100 possessions. Replace Porzingis with Horford, and the Celtics are outsourcing opponents by 22.9 points per 100 possessions, although it’s worth noting that a lot of those numbers might be juiced by the Celtics’ early-season performance when they were making a staggering number of 3-pointers.
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“Honestly, the first game I came back against the Clippers, it felt pretty natural – boom, I was right in,” Porzingis said. “But then again, I’m out, I’m in, I’m out a little bit, not playing my best basketball, not being as efficient. That adds up a little bit to the team. But now I look forward to having a good, long stretch of being healthy and getting in a good rhythm and us hitting our stride.”
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Porzingis shot 7-for-19 from the floor on Sunday, although he did block three shots.
Mazzulla pointed out that the starting lineup is “essentially in training camp form,” and last year at this time, the sample size was nearly triple.
“Hopefully we remain healthy to where we can continue those reps, the trust and the accountability that we have to hold each other to to get where we are,” Mazzulla said. “And sprinkle in a make.”
7. The Celtics’ stars have been turning it over.
For some reason, the Celtics’ stars have been loose with the ball recently.
On Sunday, the primary culprit was Brown, who coughed it up four times. Several of the turnovers were live ball, as he ran into Zion Williamson and lost control. Tatum, despite his scoring heroics, turned it over three times.
Those turnovers are part of a larger trend. In the Celtics’ loss to the Kings on Friday, Tatum turned the ball over eight times. Brown turned it over four times against the Nuggets, and three times each against the Thunder and Raptors.
Brown and Tatum handle the ball often and are tasked with a lot of playmaking, which puts them at higher risk of turnovers, but the numbers ticking upward are a little strange and somewhat reminiscent of struggles the Celtics have encountered in the past.
8. Joe Mazzulla, perhaps predictably, claims he loves the struggles.
Mazzulla would probably balk at the description of himself as a contrarian (like any good contrarian), but he does love to think about things from every angle.
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So perhaps it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that Mazzulla claims he loves how the Celtics — who have the third-best record in the NBA — are being discussed right now.
“The ultimate compliment is we’re 28-11, and these are the types of conversations that we’re having,” he said. “So it’s a beautiful place to be. I’m serious. I think it’s great. It’s a great standard and a great expectation to have, and we have to deliver.”
Mazzulla quipped that the media room sounded “like a morgue,” despite the win.
“And that’s how it should be, because of where we’re trying to get to,” he said. “So it’s the ultimate compliment, and we just continue to work through it.
“[…] This is the space that we’re in. I love the fact that we’re not happy. Best place to be in. And we’ll figure it the hell out.”
9. Three games in four nights loom.
The Celtics will hit the road again on Wednesday for a matchup against the Raptors, who will look to bounce back after managing just 71 points the last time they faced Boston.
That game is the start of a three-games-in-four-nights stretch. The Celtics return to TD Garden to face the Hawks and Magic on Friday and Saturday respectively.
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