Celtics civil war
But guess what? You also cannot be considered an all-time great if your team doesn’t win a championship.
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
– Abraham Lincoln
Win or lose this series - and right now it does not look like win - the core of this Celtics’ team has been exposed for what they are. Winning can hide a lot of flaws. Losing shines a spotlight on them.
At the beginning of the season, when the Celtics’ offense was on record pace, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown were touted for their individual accomplishments. Tatum was averaging over 30 points per game in the first half of the year. He was telling anyone that would listen that winning the NBA MVP has always been a goal of his. In his mind, you cannot be considered an all-time great if you don’t win an MVP. In his mind, winning the MVP means you are the best player in the NBA, and on the planet, and in the universe.
Tatum had a shoe line launch earlier this year. If you shell out $120, you too can own a pair of Jordan Tatum 1 sneakers. You can’t be an all-time great unless you have a sneaker named after you.
But guess what? You also cannot be considered an all-time great if your team doesn’t win a championship. Until he learns to co-exist with fellow superstar, Jaylen Brown, he will not win with the Celtics. Yes, Jayson, Jaylen is a superstar as well. In my opinion, Brown may even be a better player than Tatum, but don’t tell Jayson that or he will go pout in the corner. And the time will come real soon, maybe as soon as next week, when the debate around these parts will be: who do you continue on with - Tatum or Brown? Trust me, I, as well as many others, will be writing about that if the Celtics lose this series.
What really brought this dysfunction to the fore for me was the post-game press conference following the Celtics’ Game 2 victory to even up the series. Ordinarily, you would have the team’s best player or players address the media, especially after such a must-have victory like Game 2. Instead, it was Brown and … Malcolm Brogdon … who took to the podium. Now it is anybody’s guess why Tatum didn’t join Brown, who led the Celtics that game with 25 points. Could it have anything to do with Tatum only having 7 points in the game? Was Tatum sulking because the spotlight was going to be on Brown leading Tatum's Celtics’ to a must-win?
So I started paying a little more attention to how they played together. I began to notice how few times Brown passed to Tatum in half court sets and vice-versa. Tatum and Marcus Smart would pass the ball to each other frequently. Even Smart would shut off Brown several times.
I don’t need to remind you how Game 4 ended. Both, at the end of regulation and overtime, Tatum penetrated the lane and kicked the ball out to … Marcus Smart. Brown never even touched the ball on those important possessions despite being their best weapon attacking the basket.
After Brown only took three shots after a great start in the Celtics’ Game 1 loss to Philadelphia, he told the media that maybe he should demand the ball more often at the end of games. Why would he have to demand the ball? Are they refusing to give him the ball?
More and more, I found myself playing back things in my mind from this series and seeing them in a different light. Much was made of Marcus Smart’s sound bite on the sidelines during Game 1 when he ran right past his head coach to insert himself into the game. Who did he want to sub in for? “Put me in for JB,” he told his coach before Mazzulla told him to sub for Grant Williams instead. Why would Smart single out Brown to sit down?
Suspiciously, Brogdon’s numbers have declined following that Game 2 postgame press conference with Brown. Could it be that Smart and Tatum are freezing out the veteran because of his kinship with Brown? Brogdon scored 20 and 23 points, respectively, in the first two games of the series. He has gone for 15, 19, and 7 in the three games following those while taking fewer shots per game.
Maybe I am making too much out of these things. Now I am recalling another instance where the cameras caught the bench applauding and cheering Tatum on the free throw line, with the notable exception of Brown who stared blankly at the floor. Little things.
The onus falls on Tatum. He likes to consider himself the star of the team. After Game 2, he told a reporter that the team takes its inspiration from the example of their leader (meaning himself). He was saying that he set the tone defensively (remember, he only scored 7 points so he couldn’t use that as his example) after the team was widely criticized for their poor defensive effort in Game 1.
Tatum needs to put his ego aside. All he has to do is watch his favorite team, the Lakers, and the way co-superstars Lebron James and Anthony Davis are playing together in these playoffs. It is a thing of beauty. Neither one is trying to steal the spotlight from the other. Instead, they are setting each other up for success. Lebron will lob the ball to the rim for Davis to dunk. Davis will rebound and quickly outlet to James to start a fast break.
Too often, Tatum and Brown are dribbling down the time clock, and then, either pulling up for a contested three, or driving to the basket and crying for a foul. There is no ball movement between the two. There is little communication between the two. There is no celebrating each other’s success.
There is no veteran coach on their bench who can rein them both in and emphasize to them the importance of playing together. Instead, they have a coach who encourages the team to bomb away - shoot as many threes as you can.
If the Celtics do get past the 76ers, take note of the way Brown and Brogdon play together, and the way Smart and Tatum play together. I think it will be eye-opening and you will find yourself wondering why you never saw it sooner.