BOSTON — Jayson Tatum has always aspired to greatness, and he’s certainly trending with the legends in one recent sense, though it’s undoubtedly not something he ever desired.
The forward’s four-turnover performance in the Celtics’ Game 5 loss to Golden State gave him 95 for the entire 2022 playoffs, the most by a single player in a single postseason in NBA history.
He edged one flub ahead of LeBron James (94, 2018) to set the record, and make no mistake about the greatness on this list. The rest of the top 10 includes Dwyane Wade (90, 2006), Larry Bird (87, 1984), Shaquille O’Neal (85, a 2006 Miami team had butter fingers on a legendary scale), Isiah Thomas (85, 1988), LeBron again (84, 2020), Kevin Johnson (84, 1993), and five players tied with 83.
Players with not just high but legendary basketball IQs, one and all. Tatum has this kind of hoops brainpower. But he’s also been setting the lead for mistakes on a team that’s now one game away from elimination because of it.
Tatum, Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown combined for 13 of the Celtics’ 18 turnovers, which Golden State parlayed into 22 points. Smart’s fourth turnover was an offensive foul in the fourth quarter, which he followed up with a technical foul for protesting the call — all of this near the end of a 10-0 Golden State run that essentially put the game away. Smart has earned his share of techs over the years, but the importance of the game considered, this was his most damaging.
Heading into Game 6 Thursday night in Boston, the Celtics are not only facing their own mortality, but the simple fact that they have not been a smart team.
From the mind of Dick Lipe
Stat master Dick Lipe, per usual, had some revealing numbers in the wake of the Celtics Game 5 loss, starting with the importance of Robert Williams.
Williams was a team-high plus-11 in 30 minutes (the other six rotational Celtics to play 16 minutes or more were minus-9 or lower).
The Celtics desperately need more out of Al Horford, who has been a minus-45 while averaging 6.3 points in three Finals losses. Brown, Horford, Smart and Derrick White are a combined 48 for 138 (.348) in those same three losses.
The Celtics (21 for 31) missed 10 free throws for the first time in 105 games this season. And for those who think Tatum and Brown were worn down from each playing 44 minutes Monday night, Bill Russell played every minute over the first five games of the 1968 and 1969 Finals. John Havlicek played all but one minute over the same stretch.
A solution?
The task seems fairly simple to Tatum, heading into Game 6.
“We got to be better. We’re hard to beat when we don’t turn the ball over,” he said. “Clearly, we’re easy to beat when we do turn the ball over.
“Just being a little more precise, more detailed about what we trying to do. Not just run through the motions. Set screens, hit guys, kind of own your space with things like that, especially on the offensive end.”
The problem, though, is familiar enough.
“Playing in the crowd too much has caused a lot of these turnovers,” Celtics coach Ime Udoka said. “Obviously, Jayson, Marcus having four, Jaylen having five, our primary ball handlers that get caught in some tough spots at times. When we’re at our best, it’s simple ball movement.
“I think the third quarter showed that. The drive and kick was beautiful, was working, getting guys wide-open shots,” Udoka said. “Like I said, I don’t know if it was fatigue affects the decision making a little bit there, or just physically don’t have the burst to finish it off. That has been a problem for us obviously at times in this series, quarters specifically where we’ve gotten a little stagnant. When we do it well it works, it looks good, we get shots we want. We slow it down, play in the crowd those turnovers pop up in the bad offense.”
