"When is he going to arrive?" - Kendrick Perkins calls out Jayson Tatum for slacking on Celtics
When Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics dropped Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals at home earlier this week, many fans were stunned. The team continued to impress throughout the regular season leading the NBA with a 64-18 record that saw them lose just four games at home all season. Despite that, the Cleveland Cavaliers were able to pick up a big Game 2 win.
The Celtics struggled to find their rhythm from downtown throughout the game, shooting just 22.9% from beyond the arc on 35 attempts. At the same time, the team was outrebounded throughout the game on the defensive end of the floor.
After coming out of the half tied, the Celtics were outscored by 12 in the third quarter. With pressure mounting, time began to slip away, and their hopes for a late-game comeback began to dwindle. After being outscored by 12 in the fourth and dropping Game 2, the Celtics now have to win on the road.
Ahead of Game 3 on Saturday night in Cleveland, Ohio, NBA vet-turned-analyst Kendrick Perkins weighed in on the Celtics' Game 2 performance on ESPN. The way he sees things, Jayson Tatum needs to step up to the plate.
“I’m so over Jayson Tatum. When is he going to arrive? ... He couldn’t wait to get to the postseason. Well, it’s here. What are you going to do about it? ... It’s in your hands.”
Looking at Jayson Tatum's performance in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals
In Game 2, the Boston Celtics notably struggled from deep, with Jaylen Brown shooting 0-6 and Derrick White shooting 1-8 from beyond the arc. While Jayson Tatum finished the game 2-5 from downtown, he shot just 7-17 from the floor, scoring 25 points for a +/- of -22.
While his numbers weren't great, they looked notably better than his Game 1 stats against the Cavaliers, where he went 0-5 from downtown and scored just 18 points in 35 minutes. Rather than just looking at his two most recent games as a whole, though, we can see in Tatum's postseason stats that he's been struggling.
This year he's shooting a career-low 40.7% from the floor in the playoffs, along with a career-low of just 26.8% from 3. These numbers pale in comparison to Jayson Tatum's regular season numbers, where he shot 47.1% from the field and 37.6% from downtown.
The figures seem to mark a notable shift in Tatum's play after the 26-year-old was on the fringes of MVP talks during the regular season. With the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers tied at one game each, the stakes couldn't be higher heading into Game 3 in Cleveland.
Given that, Jayson Tatum will need to find his rhythm if the team has hopes of making a run to the NBA Finals.