The Celtics chipped away at the Heat’s lead for much of the fourth quarter of Game 1 Wednesday night and got as close as four or five points a couple times, but they could never quite claw all the way back.
Perhaps they might have been able to if they had the Jayson Tatum who took over in the fourth quarter of Game 6 and all of Game 7 vs. Philadelphia. Instead, they got a Tatum who attempted zero field goals in the fourth, turned the ball over three times, and had zero assists.
Tatum did get to the line a few times and hit all six of his free throws in the fourth, but the Celtics needed more than that from him. The zero field-goal attempts was a stat that The Greg Hill Show found to be particularly mind-boggling Thursday morning. (Listen to the full opening segment below.)
Jermaine Wiggins: How many times did Stan Van Gundy say on the broadcast, like Jayson Tatum needs to touch the basketball? … Did he have no field-goal attempts in the fourth quarter?
Courtney Cox: Zero.
Greg Hill: Zero. Zero, Wiggy. It boggles your mind.
Wiggy: There are stretches where he’ll go five or six minutes… I think it was Reggie Miller on the broadcast who said when you look at Miami, the offense runs through Jimmy Butler. I just don’t know what it is. This team, there’s an identity crisis and chemistry, coaching, all that issue. You don’t know what team’s gonna show up.
Obviously, Tatum deserves plenty of blame himself for turning the ball over three times in the span of a minute and a half when Boston did try to run the offense through him. But those three turnovers didn’t come until the final three minutes of the game. Before that, Tatum was barely involved in the offense. At one point, the C’s went three straight possessions without Tatum even touching the ball.
Tatum was also on the bench for the first four minutes of the quarter, which wasn’t ideal either. He did play 41 minutes in the game, second only to Butler’s 43 for the night, but the Celtics might want to find a way to get that rest in earlier so Tatum can be available earlier in the fourth. Butler, for instance, played the entire fourth quarter.
Tatum and the Celtics will look to bounce back in Game 2, Friday night at 8:30 p.m. at TD Garden.
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