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With 2:18 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Boston Celtics’ collapse was complete. A Klay Thompson three brought the Golden State Warriors level after being down by as many as 18 points.
Failed defensive stops and an inability to make open shots led to the Celtics’ downfall, but they still had a chance to pull out a win.
Tied at 121-121, Chris Paul missed a three with 18 seconds left in the game, and Boston grabbed the rebound with a chance to win the game. No timeout was called, as the Warriors were scrambling to get back on defense, and the possession started (and ended) with Jayson Tatum attacking Jonathan Kuminga.
Tatum didn’t start driving until there were less than five seconds on the shot clock. And just when it looked like he could drive past Kuminga and into Stephen Curry on the right wing, he pulled back. Tatum pump-faked, got Kuminga to jump, and took a contested long-range two when the Warriors youngster got back up in the air.
Front rim.
It was the final shot in what was a barrage of terrible shots by Tatum on a night when the Celtics couldn’t get out of their own way at the worst possible times—a barrage that led to an overtime victory for the Warriors.
Early in the first quarter, Tatum went back to the locker room with an ankle injury, and he seemed to be laboring throughout the game. “Not to make any excuses, but when you sprain your ankle, it kind of swells up and is just stiff,” Tatum explained. “It just makes it a little tougher to move. I still was out there. So, I feel like if you go out there and play, you can’t make any excuses.”
Unfortunately, while Tatum’s ankle issue was a rough start to the game, it was no excuse for his offensive choices against the Warriors, as he referenced.
On the bright side, Tatum shot 3-of-6 in the paint. That said, his success going downhill was mitigated by his decision to shoot 11 shots outside the paint, of which he made only two.
All but one of Tatum’s non-paint shots were either contested, a pull-up three, or, in most cases, both. The only one that didn’t fall into those categories came off a Derrick White offense rebound that saw the ball kicked out to Al Horford, who swung it to Tatum for an open three at the top of the key.
Golden State absolutely smothered Tatum all night, and while he did finish the game with seven assists, his shot selection held the Celtics back at crucial points in the game. Most notably, the final play of regulation.
Jaylen Brown had been the Celtics’ best isolation scorer most of the game. White was red-hot from all over the place. And Horford, who, albeit had a rough shooting night, was wide open on the other side of the court.
But instead, Tatum, who was injured and having one of his worst shooting performances of the season, still took an ill-advised final shot.
Tatum is one of the best players in the NBA. He’s going to take some contested shots throughout the course of a game because he’s capable of making them. But in that spot, he needed to be better.
This Celtics team is too good for him to throw up a contested three at the end of a tied game after shooting 2-of-10 from outside the paint in the build-up.
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