Throughout the NBA Bubble, Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics have retained their 3rd seed in the Eastern Conference, with Tatum averaging 22.4ppg through 31.5mpg, less time than he had averaged prior to the NBA hiatus.
Prior to the hiatus:
The Celtics Forward was on absolute tear during the NBA Season prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. Tatum increased all his averages across the board with points, assists, rebounds, steals, and blocks. Celtics fans and NBA fans league wide couldn’t help but acknowledge the level of basketball Tatum was playing coming into the New Year. And with that in mind, everyone was anticipating similar play from the young All-Star once the NBA Restart was announced, but unfortunately this path wasn’t a particularly smooth one for Tatum.
During the Restart:
Tatum’s stat averages per game can be shown above (see highlighted and below). If you didn’t see the game live, you’d be surprised to see Tatum score a mere 5 points on 2 of 18 shooting and 0 for 4 from three. Genuinely this is an unfortunate surprise to NBA fans to see such a off-night from Tatum. Although quite the rough start, it didn’t take long to bounce back, scoring a bubble-high 34 points the very next game. With quite the comeback game past, Tatum hit the ground running for the remainder of the bubble schedule.
Looking towards the Playoffs:
If Tatum and the Celtics can get back into pre-hiatus form, they’re set to make a deep Playoff run kicking off on August 17th. Going into the first round of the NBA Playoffs, the Celtics will be facing the 6th seeded Philadelphia 76ers. Without star G/F in Ben Simmons, the 76ers are going to have an even more so difficult time defending the position-less basketball 2-4 for the Celtics in Smart, Brown, Tatum, and Hayward. This will however be a test for Tatum specifically, being one of the young unspoken leaders of this Celtics squad. We kick off game one, Celtics vs. 76ers on Monday, August 17th at 3:30p.m. on ESPN.
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