Jayson Tatum’s clutch game has started to feel like that old Kelly Clarkson song:
“Some people wait a lifetime for a moment like this….”
The moment for Tatum to shut up doubters was served up on a silver platter: 47 seconds left, down two points against the reigning NBA champs. It was a 3-on-2 situation where Tatum dished the ball to Jrue Holiday in the paint, who hot-potato’d it over to Derrick White, swinging it back to the short corner to Mr. Ruffles bag himself.
Uncontested corner three.
Clang.
It wasn’t technically the game, but it sure felt like the game, and it tied the bow on a night in which Tatum was a ghost. He finished the night with just 15 points and eight assists, while his counterpart, Jaylen Brown, put up 41.
“I thought it was a good shot. I thought it was going in,” Tatum said postgame.
Tatum has proven himself an NBA All Star, All-NBA, and capable of monstrous playoff performances against the Bucks and the Sixers. He’s an alpha, he’s elite, he’s top five. No doubt.
Still…there’s something he hasn’t figured out, right? In his seventh season, he’s the guy players can usually depend on for a massive fourth quarter. But his game in the final seconds is a work in progress.
Tatum’s effective field goal percentage is just 25% this year when the shot is crucial to game outcome (the literal 1% in potential win probability impact), as analyzed by the team of sports statisticians at inpredictable.com.
Compare the number to the current king of clutch, Steph Curry, who’s shooting 46.2% in that category this season.
There’s been a lot made of the points differential the Celtics have over the rest of the league, particularly in comparison to the 2017 Warriors team. Well, Curry shot 90% in that little clutch statistic during the regular season and 68% when the playoffs were factored in.
Tatum doesn’t have to be Curry – even the rarest of superstars won’t reach that level. But Celtics favorite Paul Pierce recorded a 45.8% effective field goal rating in those super clutch moments during the last Boston championship run. That’s attainable for Tatum, who posted around 26% in the same category last regular season.
NBC Sports Boston columnist John Tomase provided an excellent analysis of some of Tatum’s questionable shot selections during clutch moments in the past, but this instance wasn’t another one of those instances. This was a corner three – the cheat code of the modern NBA.
Tatum has plenty of time to figure it out. If they see Denver again, it will be in the Finals in June.
It was just one shot. But ask Kawhi, ask Jordan, ask Bird - sometimes that moment is the series.
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