Heroes and executioners. The good and the bad. Winners and losers. Sports are governed by binaries that give meaning to what happens and establish a simple formula for understanding what happens on the field. And the line that marks success from failure is so thin that it is defined by tiny details. From Jason Tatum Landing in the NBA was aimed at achieving ultimate glory, as if it were his inevitable destiny. An unparalleled talent to score, in any way, like someone more typical of another era than this one. The green hope, the one chosen to lead the Boston Celtics to an 18th championship, has had his ups and downs, but for some time now he has been steadily on his way to the top. There are no shortcuts on this particular climb and the game winner Tatum’s upset of the Philadelphia 76ers 110-107 is a reflection of that.
With almost 6 seconds to play and the score tied Joe Mazzula he designed a last move that bore his name Tatum. Running from the backfield the forward picked up, shed De’Anthony Melton and hit a terrific three off the dribble to seal the win.
🏀 Unacceptable final match at #NBA
🏹 Tatum put the Celtics ahead
😨 Embiid nearly tied the game from the 3-point line in the half, but shot late
🍀 Boston’s win over Philadelphia with 110-107.pic.twitter.com/M3TKCax7a0
— Sportingnewses Spain 🇪🇸 (@sportingnewses) February 26, 2023
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“I told Grant Williams coming out of the timeout: it’s time to play”joked the winning star in a press conference about his game-winning shot in an action revealing how much he has improved over the past two seasons.
Where before there were errors and inaccuracies, now accuracy permeates. And that’s Jason Tatum has long ceased to be a diamond in the rough that suffered in the clutchGood now he’s one of the most dangerous players in the entire NBA in closeouts.
This season, the Boston star has 6 of 11 goals to tie or take advantage in the fourth quarter and overtime, which ties him for the second most. Tied with Herro (6 of 13), Fox (6 of 14) and Young (6 of 14) and second only to DeRozan (7 of 18); Tatum is the most accurate with a 54.5% success rate in high stress situations. how did he do it last year in these same situations? accumulated a 3 out of 12, i.e. 25% accuracy.
The loss to the Celtics in the last Finals, in which Tatum suffered to show his game, partly because of the Warriors’ defense, partly because of fatigue and sore shoulders, helped a lot to see a version of the forward in this course. more mature. This setback and subsequent criticism led to a change in how he acted and performed at the end of the game. So that the 24-year-old is reaching the peak of his performance this season when it is more difficult to execute because of the complexity involved in clutch.
This was possible thanks to all the previous baggage, many disappointing nights for the green fans, but this time ended up being vindicated. Something that helped tremendously was the step forward of Jaylen Brown, relieving Tatum of so much responsibility in that sense. All this means that, where last year he scored a 37.2%, now producing 41.7%.
ONE game winner that it came on a difficult night for the star, who until then had scored 6 of his 16 attempts for 15 total points. And it’s that the 76ers are one of the opponents who have given Tatum the most trouble since his arrival in the league: against them he scores his second-worst, averaging 19.4 points. The Celtics forward put those records behind him, came out of the timeout and delivered.
“I wasn’t playing well, I wasn’t shooting well” Tatum said. “You always have to shoot with confidence and believe that the next shot will go in no matter what. You have to take the right shot. If you miss five in a row and the next one you putt, you have to shoot. This is what is best for the team.”he pondered.
With the Boston Celtics steadily inching towards the leaders in the East, this win confirms their status as ring favorites on this side of the court, but also that they can trust a Jason Tatum that, After all, he is what they expected from him.
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