No more excuses: Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum have to come up big in big games - Dan Shaughnessy/Boston Globe

No more excuses: Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum have to come up big in big games
By Dan Shaughnessy Globe Staff,Updated January 24, 2024, 5:00 a.m.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/01/24/sports/celtics-jaylen-brown-jayson-tatum/


“So you’re scared, and you’re thinking that maybe we ain’t that young anymore.”

— Bruce Springsteen, “Thunder Road”

It’s time.

No more “they are so young.”

No more “they are both All-Stars and max contract guys and top 20 guys.”

Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown need to be NBA champions. In June. It’s time for them to win banner No. 18 for the Boston Celtics.

Brown is 27, playing in his eighth NBA season. Tatum turns 26 in a few weeks and is playing in his seventh NBA season. Brown has been to the conference finals in five of seven seasons, Tatum in four of six. Both made it to the NBA Finals two years ago but came up short after taking a 2-1 series lead against the Warriors.

They are not NBA “young” anymore. This is their time. They play for the most talented team in the league and there should be no excuses if they don’t get it done this spring.

I’m thinking of this today because the Celtics have the best record in the NBA and last Friday at the Garden engaged in a primo joust with the defending champion Nuggets, losing, 102-100.

That game looked and felt like a preview of the 2024 NBA Finals.

We certainly understand that the Celtics are not going to win every game, and there’s no need to apologize for losing to the reigning champs by 2 points. The Celtics were a perfect 20-0 at the Garden going into that game and we promise not to read too much into a single January loss. Overall, the Celtics are a smokin’ 34-10, and JT and JB combined for 73 points in an easy win in Dallas Monday.

(Here comes the “but.”)

But there were telltale signs of “same old same old” at the end of the epic game vs. Denver.

Tatum and Brown came up small.

And this will … not … do … when the serious ball is played in May and June.

You know what I’m talking about, Green Teamers. And you know that it’s time for Scal Nation and the rest of the JT/JB apologists to stop making excuses for Boston’s bookend All-Star slashers.

Tatum and Brown want all the goodies, adulation, and respect that come with NBA stardom, but they have yet to win a championship and they too often come up small when the moment is big. This spring, they need to show us that they are not front-runners. We need more Magic Johnson, less James Harden. More Larry Bird, less Elvin Hayes.

Friday against the Nuggets — while Denver superstars Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray were playing like champs — Tatum and Brown played like superstar wannabes. Brown, the highest-paid player in the NBA, made 6 of 19 shots, went 0 for 2 from the line, and had two rebounds and one assist in 36 minutes. He made one of his nine threes and missed his free throws at the most critical moment of the game.

Are you kidding me? Brown is a good player who’s having a good year, but our lasting memory of him was his Game 7 stink bomb in last May’s season-ending loss to the Heat when he made only 8 of 23 shots, hit 1 of 9 from three, and committed a whopping eight turnovers.

Tatum?

He made only 9 of 24 shots Friday, missed seven of his eight threes, and couldn’t draw iron on an isolation, hero-ball, step-back jumper from 17 feet that could have sent the game into overtime. He missed two shots over the final 18 seconds of the 2-point loss. The Celtics missed eight of their last nine shots and scored 2 points in the final 4:51.

Sorry, but as great as he is, Tatum turtles in the big moments. Last spring, when the Celtics lost the first three games of their season-ending series to Miami, Tatum got zero baskets in the fourth quarters of all three losses. In the Game 7 dud at home, he made only 4 of 13 shots and scored 14 points.

According to the Globe’s Gary Washburn, in clutch situations (a 5-point game in the final five minutes), Tatum is shooting 33 percent this season. He’s 1 for 7 when the game is within 3 points in the final 30 seconds. In games in which they trail by 3 points or fewer in the final 10 seconds, the Celtics are 1 for 11 from the floor.

Sigh.

Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

Few are better when it’s easy.

Few are worse when it’s hard.

And sorry, but they’re not that young anymore. Kevin McHale won an NBA crown in his rookie season. Bird won a title in his second year and had two rings in his first five seasons. Brown and Tatum are already older than Bill Walton (24), Dennis Johnson (24), and Cedric Maxwell (25) were when they were named Finals MVP.

Tatum and Brown are in their NBA primes. This is it. It’s time for the Jays to step up in the final moments of the big games.

Dan Shaughnessy is a troll.

Tatum and Brown were terrible against the Nuggets, no question

How we were even in that game is amazing?

The '80s comparison is an example of him using "facts" to support his argument.

Back then, all players went to college for four years (or more), so they were better prepared (and older) for their rookie seasons. Now, it's one and done for the best players, who are often rookies at 19 years old.

Any comparisons of the players age and years in the league now cannot be compared with that of 60 years ago with any seriousness.

Tatum and Brown are not equal to Bird and Magic? Weak.

The whole thing is emotional tripe. IMO, there's not much truth here, mostly spin.

The word that better describes this article is Truthiness.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/truthiness-meaning-word-origin

Not the strongest argument I've seen lately.

I'll go with gyso's take on players entering the league at a younger age and add a look at the surrounding team. I would debate that the Bird era Celtics had a stronger starting lineup in their era and a deeper bench than Tatum and Brown have experienced.

I'll also go with Brown being nowhere near a Bird or McHale type impact player. All-Star? Yes. Highly valuable Celtic? Yes. But let's not heap more of a load on him than he can carry. It's not like this team has the equivalent of two Larry Birds in Tatum and Brown.

This is a team with a very strong starting five and two fair but limited bench players behind them. Can the team win a title as presently constructed? Very possible, if they all stay injury free. Just let's not toss this all at Tatum and Brown as if they can take on the league in a 2 on 5 matchup.

It will be fair to question the wisdom of having both on the roster down the road, in the future, if this group can't get a banner. The new CBA, health and the age of some current Celtic players all conspire to make that a given in my opinion. Perhaps we can see what Tatum, Brown and company can do this year before we go through the mental exercise of scrapping it and starting over.

I not saying that Tatum and Brown don't need to keep evolving into better and more complete players.  Gary Washburn's clutch numbers for this season are scary bad.

"Green Teamers?"  "Scal Nation and the rest of the JT/JB apologists"?  Every time I re-read the crap above, I find another special tidbit.

Kareem was the 4th youngest at 23 when he was Finals MVP in 1971 and the oldest when he won it in 1985 at 38. Usually a star player wins it but not always - maybe it will be Derrick White in 2024.

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Shaughnessy is a journalist whose job is to speak truth to power- that is not trolling. He grew up in MA has written three well-reviewed books on the Celtics (history of the dynasty ; the 80s Celtics during which time he was the Globe’s beat reporter; a biography of Red). He’s actually helping, not hurting by accurately (as others journalists have similarly noted -see Washburn and Bontemps) reporting that the two Js have been outcompeted in crunch time. Personally I was encouraged that Tatum walked off the court without his usual post game mingling and hugging after clanking the losing shot against Denver.

BingBang! wrote:Shaughnessy is a journalist whose job is to speak truth to power- that is not trolling. He grew up in MA has written three well-reviewed books on the Celtics (history of the dynasty ; the 80s Celtics during which time he was the Globe’s beat reporter; a biography of Red). He’s actually helping, not hurting by accurately (as others journalists have similarly noted -see Washburn and Bontemps) reporting that the two Js have been outcompeted in crunch time. Personally I was encouraged that Tatum walked off the court without his usual post game mingling and hugging after clanking the losing shot against Denver.

A fair take, BingBang.

Always good, and healthy, to look at competing opinions and both sides of the story.

I hate all the hugging

Here's something I've been thinking of... Next year we start paying Jaylen, what could we get for Jason, so we don't have to max both of them? I'm thinking a center type like Banchero, or other young big men. Maybe we'd get draft picks back as well.

Three reactions: 1 Dan wrote that this is the year to win - as noted above by others, that’s hard to dispute, 2 he took some gratuitous shots at apologists (copy filler-no value), 3 he criticized Tatum and Brown for wanting accolades they haven’t yet really earned, particularly when they get outcompeted “come up small” on the biggest stage, such as the Conference and Championship Finals. Point 3 is the truth to power aspect that I appreciated.

Dboss great points, I too continually have been saying to my son, he’s nothing in the clutch like Pierce or Bird, but there are so many other things Tatum and Brown do too for that matter, do so well both ends night in and night out to carry the team for years. The tandem might have the most success of any twosome presently today that has knocked at the door over and over, but just hasn’t broken thru yet. To be there every year starting at such a young age and to keep on improving and carrying the franchise thru thick and thin should be applauded. Actions speak louder than words and management knows as they rewarded him with the maximum rate that he could earn.