Oshae Brissett’s homecoming breathes life into Celtics as Jayson Tatum takes over

Oshae Brissett’s homecoming breathes life into Celtics as Jayson Tatum takes over




INDIANAPOLIS — There’s a paradox to luxury. When you surround yourself with the finest things in life, the novelty of its quality eventually wears off.

That Louis bag is just your bag after a while. A Rolex is a watch at the end of the day, even if it can keep time forever until the sun burns out and looks pretty good doing it.


Jayson Tatum is just your run-of-the-mill MVP candidate these days, a player who’s been so good for so long that as you marvel at Derrick White’s ascension, Jrue Holiday’s defense or Kristaps Porziņģis’ offensive dynamism, you just get used to Tatum being top-five with a fresh cut.

Being the best player on the floor happens so often that, as far as Tatum’s expectations are concerned, it’s simply now his floor. Sometimes he has to do something really outlandish — like dispatch a cavalcade of 3s in the fourth quarter — to wake everyone up to how special he is every night.

“That’s what happens when you have a guy like him is you take him for granted sometimes,” Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla interjected during Saturday’s postgame news conference before laughing as the question continued. “I’m not laughing at you. I’m just laughing because I think it’s so interesting that when you have a guy for so long — it’s not that we take him for granted. It’s just easy when you get new toys and you have different things that we want to talk about. It’s actually the ultimate compliment.”

As Tatum rose in the league, he latched on to the rapidly growing validation. Becoming an All-Star, an All-NBA guy and eventually an MVP candidate was a wild ride full of tremendous ups and downs. But for someone who hasn’t even hit his prime yet, he has already completed the upswing of the career arc. The NBA Finals loss, the series winners, the game reshaping. Being told he is great doesn’t do anything for him at this point. Being great isn’t the point now.

“I don’t really look for that praise, I guess, anymore. I’ve accomplished a lot in this league, and I’m truly at the point where I want to get over that hump,” Tatum said. “I want to get back to the finals. I want to help us win a championship. And what I’m doing, I may not win MVP, but just trying to help us continue to be the best team in the league and do my part. If people recognize that, they see it, then I appreciate it. But if they don’t, that’s OK.”

Many people around Tatum, and even Tatum himself, have essentially said that awards are an afterthought. They’re great, but it’s championship-or-bust for JT. So if he falls down the MVP ladder because his mainstream stats take a step back so his team can thrive, so be it.

Anyone watching Tatum closely can see that his good decisions per 100 possessions are several standard deviations greater than they were a year or two ago. His optimized reads per nanosecond have improved by the square root of pi, give or take.

His coach likes to quantify some of this growth with real stats like potential assists, screens set and more. But the numbers aren’t going to capture what he’s doing. The nuance to his game has crossed that threshold to where he is a player you have to watch to understand.

Watching his game is to understand how the Celtics kept turning it over and just needed someone to control the ball and deliver it to the hoop in any way possible. He delivered, over and over, to no surprise. And at the end of the day, that’s the award. It’s the implicit knowledge that when he’s great, he’s just being Jayson Tatum.

“I was telling him, when you get to the point where, like, you’re so good from a basketball standpoint and you want to get better, and you’re such high character, people can take it for granted,” Mazzulla said. “That’s the ultimate compliment because they start to just see it as like, ‘Oh, you’re supposed to do that.’ His growth as a player in the last month has exponentially just jumped.”

Here are the numbers: 38 points, 13 rebounds and six assists on 8-for-13 shooting in a 118-101 win over the Indiana Pacers. It’s the first time Tatum has hit eight 3-pointers since the Celtics blew out the Milwaukee Bucks in March.


Tatum was a big part of holding the Pacers to just 20 points in the fourth quarter and keeping them to a season-low 101 points. This was the totality of Tatum.


“Jayson is as good as I’ve seen anyone be able to handle so many different responsibilities,” Al Horford said. “I feel like we just continue to ask and demand things of him, and he finds a way to get it done.”

For a while, it didn’t look promising. The Celtics held the Pacers to their season-worst quarter to open the game, but Porziņģis’ first-quarter eye injury eventually led to the offense falling flat.

But just like how T.J. McConnell entered the first half and flipped the game with his deflections and shot-making, Oshae Brissett shifted the energy back in Boston’s direction in the second half. Making his return to the place he called home his whole career, this was the moment Brissett had been clamoring for.

When Brissett first signed with the Celtics, he was the immediate favorite to be the big coming off the bench since he had started for much of his time with the Pacers. Then Luke Kornet seized the job early on and Brissett was relegated deep to the bench. He has barely played over 200 minutes, but he’s still playing like himself when he sees the floor.

“It’s basketball, man. I mean, I’m always excited to play, no matter when, where,” Brissett said. “I’m always going to have that same energy because, you know, I’m here in the NBA and blessed to play the game that I love. So any chance I do have to get out there, I just go out there and be myself.”

So Brissett went out in the second half and seized control of the glass, hit a big and-1 layup attacking a closeout and even buried a crucial corner 3 as the Celtics pulled away in the fourth quarter.

“That was fantastic, man. It’s tough to do, to not know if you’re gonna play or not or whatever, but to come in and just affect the game and dominate the game and control what you can,” Jaylen Brown said. “Oshae, I feel like anytime he’s stepped into the role and played, he’s contributed, being dynamite on the glass, being athletic, making plays, keeping plays alive. That goes a long way with a team like us.”

Though Brissett hasn’t had a chance to do this often in Boston, it was nothing the Pacers haven’t seen before.

When Indiana coach Rick Carlisle reflected on his time with Brissett, he landed on one night in the former Pacers player’s hometown of Toronto. It wasn’t just special for him, but for Andrew Nembhard and Bennedict Mathurin as well. Three Canadians in one starting lineup. Carlisle talked to Aaron Nesmith before the game and made sure he was cool ceding his starting spot to Brissett so they could pull off this northern trifecta for the first time.

“I told Carlisle then that I appreciate him starting me,” Brissett said. “Going back home is always fun, especially with something like that.”

Carlisle just appreciated the way Brissett moved — his innate sense of timing on his cuts, his ability to float through the air to snag offensive rebounds. He just navigated the floor the way you need to when you’re a role player trying to find a place in the league.

“That doesn’t come naturally to a lot of players,” Carlisle said before the game. “I know whatever the situation is with Boston, he’ll be ready. And he’s one of the favorite people that I’ve had on my teams over the years, just with the kind of guy he is.”

When the moment came, he was certainly ready. It was only fitting that when Porziņģis went down with an eye injury, Mazzulla didn’t send Kornet or Neemias Queta in, a center to replace a center against another center.

“I love the mindset that he brings, the multiple efforts, the winning plays, that toughness, the physicality,” Mazzulla said. “Every time he’s in the game, you feel his presence. And he’s been playing great for us.”

Mazzulla trusted that Brissett, given another big opportunity in front of a crowd that meant something to him, would have fun. He would just find a way.


“I think there’s a maturity from our group. But also, Joe keeps preaching to us just finding a way,” Horford said. “Different guys are going to step up at different times. Like we said earlier, Oshae, I feel like, was that guy that stepped up tonight and gave us a spark there.”

Brissett lit the torch, and Tatum ran with it.

He didn’t have to do it because he wanted to but just because, on this night, he needed to. It’s what helped secure the kind of win the Celtics, in all their various iterations over the years, would have let slip. Just like their coach asks, they just keep finding a way.


Bob


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Very telling article about what are the true Celtic team concept and mindset. It is the cornerstone to all the championship teams that have come before them.  This team is going places. And it's going to piss off the rest of the league for years to come and there won't be anything they can do about it except say, "Dang!!"  

db

Yes, This year's iteration of the Celtics is first and foremost a team. Team. Team. Team.