The Boston Celtics are fresh off an 88-87 win over the Philadelphia 76ers. Boston shutdown Joel Embiid with great interior defense and ball denial as he shot 3-17 from the field. The Celtics improved to 12-10 on the season and are currently 8th in the eastern conference.
Boston’s defense has been solid throughout the short season so far, however their offense has been inconsistent with poor three-point shooting, careless turnovers, and bad shot selection. I’m looking at Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, the all-stars of the team, to be more consistent offensively as a duo.
Jayson Tatum has been inefficient shooting the ball this season. In 22 contests, Tatum is averaging a career-high in field-goal attempts (21.7 per game) and three-point attempts (8.4 per game). Unfortunately, the Celtics’ star is shooting career-lows with a field-goal percentage of 39.7% and a three-point percentage of 31.9%. Tatum’s shot selection looks the same from last season with a combination of step-back threes and post fades. However, he could improve his field-goal percentage by minimizing the isolation plays and attacking the rim with aggression and force.
Also, Tatum needs to find a way to be more efficient shooting the ball in the first half of games. Celtics’ head coach Ime Udoka tends to pull Tatum out of the game around the 6 minute mark of the first quarter. This could be one of the reasons Tatum has been cold in the first half this season because he’s sitting on the bench prematurely. I understand that Udoka wants to have Tatum or Brown on the court at all times but maybe he should consider swapping their rotations.
Jaylen Brown on the other hand, takes better shots than Tatum. Brown is hitting 46.3% of his shots and nailing 36.5% of his shots from deep. Brown has been dealing with a hamstring injury that is continuing to bother him as Boston heads on a west coast road trip to face the Utah Jazz. Brown has only appeared in 13 games this season.
When both Tatum and Brown are healthy, it’s rare that they both have great nights shooting the ball since they’ve been the faces of the franchise. In the season opener against the New York Knicks, Brown went off for 46 points (FG 16-30) while Tatum struggled with 20 points (FG 7-30, 3PT 2-15). In the next game against the Toronto Raptors, Tatum finished 8-14 from the field while Brown went 3-13 from the floor.
Looking at some of the other wing tandems in the league, Paul George and Kawhi Leonard looked well together in the last two seasons and are usually efficient together. Even Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan have looked great together in their first season in Chicago. LaVine is averaging 25.3 points per game on 48.7% shooting and DeRozan is scoring 25.9 points a night on 48.9% shooting. LaVine and DeRozan have each suited up in 22 games and they have been extremely efficient from the field. The Bulls are 3rd in the eastern conference with a record of 14-8 looking to make some noise in the postseason.
Talent-wise there isn’t much of a difference between the Celtics’ duo and the Bulls’ duo. Brown and Tatum can each go for 25 points a night but it hasn’t happened consistently as a duo, and that’s one of the reasons why the Celtics haven’t taken that next step.
Tatum and Brown are great individual talents who can score and defend at a high level. This year, Boston has talented players around them with Dennis Schröder handling the duties at point guard, great defenders in Marcus Smart and Josh Richardson, and Robert Williams III who is great shot-blocker. I believe that the other players are doing their part, but Tatum and Brown won’t unlock their potential until they truly start playing like a duo.
It would be nice to see Brown and Tatum running some pick n’ rolls, pick n’ pops or even the give n’ go for each other. It’s a different look that we haven’t seen from them in their careers so far. If they can start to feed off each other, they’ll develop as the best wing duo in the league.