BOSTON — Whether it was the sportsmanship of Dallas head coach or pure honesty, Jason Kidd declaring Jaylen Brown to be Boston’s best player certainly brought back attention to a feud that has raged for seven seasons with Brown and Jayson Tatum. Resisting the temptations of outside opposition has been a battle for these Celtics, to the point that Jrue Holiday felt the need to clarify his statement on the matter from Saturday’s practice before Holiday took questions from the media following his team-high 26 points in the Celtics’ 105-98 Game 2 NBA Finals win over the Mavericks on Sunday night.
“I don’t like one or the other. I like both,” said Holiday. “They’re both superstars, and it’s being showcased on the biggest stage in the world.”
The fact that neither Tatum nor Brown, and especially not a first-team All-NBA selection, are offensive engines in their own right, a pound-the-ball playmaker like Luka Doncic in this Finals field, has left margins for scrutiny for both Celtics All-Stars when their best performers are absent from the biggest moments.
Several of Tatum’s powerful drives resulted in the ball sliding so long on the rim that it spun and went into the hands of a Mavericks rebounder Sunday night for his latest trial. His step-backs have been poor from both 3-point land and midrange this postseason. When Tatum nailed his only triple of Game 2 on a swing-swing-swing sequence late in the third, he shook his head with more relief than pride. He was just 6-for-22 from the floor and 1-for-7 from deep. “Obviously I need to shoot better,” Tatum said. “Gah-lee …”
However, Tatum served as more of a facilitator than Doncic this evening, as was also the case in Game 1 — when Tatum posted five helpers to Doncic’s single setup. Tatum had eight assists by intermission Sunday evening and finished with 18 points, nine rebounds and 12 dimes. “It wasn’t like I had to do anything special,” Tatum said. “It was just about finding the open man.” Dallas has forced him to pass through the crowd whenever he has probed the paint — often thanks to Doncic’s matador defense that clears the runway for Tatum or Brown to drive. “Every time I take a couple of dribbles, there’s three guys there,” Tatum said. And that’s where he has responded by firing to open teammates when too many Mavericks have chased him down.
“Getting into the game, it’s like a puzzle, and they did a great job of solving the puzzle and learning how to do different things,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said. “Tonight, the way they were moving around, and the way they were defending, the most important thing was making the right play at the rim.”
It was at the end of Game 3 against Indiana, where Tatum unleashed a beautiful shot from behind Al Horford without looking after him after drawing three defenders to the basket. It was the same all night Sunday, when Tatum turned the corner and turned Dallas’ rotations into easy looks for shooters along the perimeter or Holiday lurking along the baseline.
“Sometimes when I’m driving and I’m stuck, I need somebody to be with me or kind of space me out and be in my line of sight,” Holiday said. “So I think most of the time I just try to stay ahead of him, give him a good outlet and he’s been making great reads.”
Tatum was the first player to message Holiday when Boston traded for its former postseason adversary, when Milwaukee moved the veteran guard to Portland for Damian Lillard. Tatum has also found a special rapport with Boston’s other All-Star newcomer, 7-foot-3 center Kristaps Porzingis, where the pair have perfected a pick-and-pop action that draws most opponents in until they snap.
The reality is that Boston is set to face a poor shooting performance from any of its top six key cogs. Tatum wasn’t the only Celtic to struggle with his shot this evening. Boston was just 10-of-39 from beyond the arc. Porzingis sank all three of his attempts from downtown. Sam Hauser botched all five. Brown himself was just 1-of-4.
But this lineup is so complete and so deep, Tatum has so many players around him that he’s always in the spotlight, dancing with Derrick Jones Jr. on consecutive possessions and then dishing out assists one after another. “I get so much attention that I don’t always make shots,” Tatum said. While if Dallas doesn’t get efficient buckets from both Doncic and Kyrie Irving, the Mavericks might lack the playmaking to actually escape either of these contests unscathed. Instead, Tatum focuses on squirming the ball around Boston’s perimeter attack.
“I’m really tired of hearing about one guy or this guy or that guy and everybody trying to make it something other than Celtics basketball,” Mazzulla said. “Everyone that stepped on that court made winning plays on both ends of the floor. That’s the most important thing.”
Holiday’s cutting opened up several scoring opportunities that would not have otherwise materialized. Porzingis made up for his shakiness in the second half with another blistering first quarter. Payton Pritchard entered the third quarter with 3 seconds left and hit a powerful shot as the buzzer sounded that turned all the excitement back on the side of the noisy home crowd. Brown said Boston’s reserve point guard also inserted himself into the play to launch the same prayer off the backboard and through Cotton. Not many players would throw that Hail Mary to save their precious percentage. “The play of the game that cannot be overlooked, the humility of our team, is Payton’s shot at the end of the quarter,” Mazzulla said.
“Our team has a lot of weapons,” Brown said.
The Celtics are now two wins away from finishing the job this franchise lost two years ago, after blowing a 2-1 lead over Golden State in the 2022 NBA Finals. It was that season when then-Celtics head coach Ime Udoka first challenged Tatum to grow as a passer. His and this team’s overall growth has been due to the shortcomings of that series. “A lot of it has to do with the fact that I’ve been here before and we didn’t win,” Tatum said of his desire to move the ball.
Don’t expect anything to change in his approach as this contest moves to Dallas, even if his scoring never looks good or his step-backs never seem steady. He’s Boston’s leading rebounder in both contests, pulling down 11 boards in both. He’s consistently switched to Doncic’s play, with the Celtics smartly sticking Tatum over Daniel Gafford or Derek Lively II in preparation for Dallas’ endless pick-and-rolls. He’s leaned into his stance. He’s moved his feet.
“We always talk about, do whatever it takes, no matter how long it takes,” Tatum said.
