It is apparent that Jayson Tatum's shoulder is bothering him. The Celtics All-Star grabbed his right shoulder early and often Wednesday, including after getting bumped by Kyle Lowry and whistled for an offensive foul.
He struggled mightily in the first half as well, going just 1-for-9 from the field.
Is everybody satisfied?
There was ample speculation that Tatum was exaggerating his injury when he went down Saturday night after getting tied up with Victor Oladipo. He was withering in pain and grabbing his right shoulder before being escorted to the locker room — only to reappear minutes later.
Tatum went out with 5:32 remaining in regulation, and reappeared when there was 4:01 left on the clock.
Jeff Van Gundy started the conspiracy theory with a snide remark on the telecast. "They must have good water in the back," he quipped.
Later, Van Gundy laid into Tatum when he plowed into Bam Adebayo while trying to circumvent the big man's screen. "Man, his shoulder must be feeling so much better," Van Gundy said. "He just drove through a screen with his right shoulder, the one that he crumpled to the floor with."
Accusing NBA stars of overdramatizing injuries is a playoff tradition. Whenever a player heads into the tunnel only to return shortly thereafter, images of Paul Pierce getting taken off the court in a wheelchair and then coming back to help the Celtics beat the Lakers in Game 1 of the 2008 NBA Finals always come to mind. It doesn't help that Pierce has changed his story about the incident several times.
Back in 2019, he said he was wheeled off the court because he pooped his pants, only to retract that statement in a podcast interview.
Tatum, meanwhile, has kept his story straight the whole time: his right shoulder hurts.
"It was bothering me," Tatum told reporters Wednesday. "I got Nick, my trainer, taking care of me, and we just figure it out."
If Tatum was pretending in Game 5 — four days after suffering the stinger — he should be nominated for an Academy Award. Late in the second quarter, he clutched his right shoulder all the way to the bench and got it rolled out.
Still, some suggested Tatum was using his shoulder to cover for his poor performance. "Sometimes it's hard to tell whether it's a real issue or convenient timing, because the most obvious examples of him reacting to his shoulder took place after bad plays," wrote the Globe's Adam Himmelsbach in his Game 5 recap.
Dan Shaughnessy called Tatum a "Drama King" in a column over the weekend.
Skeptics will point to Tatum's resurgent second half performance — he finished with 22 points off 7-for-20 shooting and nearly recorded a triple double with 12 rebounds and nine assists — as further reason for questioning the validity of his pain. But Tatum is an elite athlete in the prime of his physical life.
Isn't it possible he was able to mentally overcome the nagging pain when his team needed him most?
It's true that NBA players flop and exaggerate contact for the sake of getting calls. Athletes in all sports sometimes use injuries as a cover for their poor play.
But sometimes, they're actually hurt. Tatum didn't shoot much from the outside in Game 4— most of his points came from driving inside and getting to the charity stripe — and played like he was inhibited in Game 5.
There's been a host on injuries throughout the playoffs: Jimmy Butler has a bad knee, Robert Williams has been in and out of the lineup, Marcus Smart is dealing with a sore ankle, Luka Doncic looks gassed. Tatum isn't an outlier here.
The best player on the Celtics can't possibly care more about garnering sympathy than winning, right?
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JVG for MVP: We spend a lot of time in this space railing against bad sports analysts, so it's only appropriate to praise one of the good ones. Jeff Van Gundy continues to be awesome on ESPN's NBA coverage, mixing in cutting insight and hilarious quips, such as reminiscing about when he grabbed onto Alonzo Mourning's leg during an epic 90s brawl.
"By the way, every time I see him, I'm just glad he doesn't come up and smack me," Van Gundy said in Game 1. "He doesn't like me; he tolerates me."
For years, Van Gundy has been a bright spot in the booth due to his candor and willingness to criticize. He isn't a sycophant for the players or officials, unlike too many other NBA broadcasters.
It always feels like a big game when he's on the call.
Is Brady actually worth $375 million to Fox?: New York Post media writer Andrew Marchand floated an interesting theory on his podcast this week about why Brady might be worth $375 million. Marchand pointed to Peyton Manning, who he called ESPN's most valuable employee. "You kind of look at where media is going with streaming and linear, so you want a Peyton Manning," he said. "If you're Fox, it might end up being a great deal for them to be in business with Tom Brady, who's considered the greatest football of all-time, and he might be good at this job. … You can go to the NFL and say, 'We have Tom Brady, and nobody else does.'"
While there's certainly value in having Brady, it's hard to imagine how that tangibly improves Fox' hand with the NFL. NFL games accounted for 75 of the 100 most-watched shows on TV last year. Brady is a great addition to the coverage, but he's far from a necessity.
Paul O'Neill gets "canceled:" WFAN host Brandon Tierney told listeners Monday they canceled an interview with Yankees legend Paul O'Neill, because he didn't want to discuss the Josh Donaldson story. "I can't have Paul O'Neill on the show after we spent an hour and 35 minutes talking about Tim Anderson and Josh Donaldson and not ask him about what transpired. That sucks," Tierney said. "We have a responsibility to the show."
Good for Tierney. Far too many hosts would've had O'Neill on anyway — and looked foolish — or lied about the reason for their cancellation. Transparency is almost always the most compelling way to go.
