Tatum Edges Jackson - Again - As C's Down Suns in Phoenix

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Tatum Edges Jackson - Again - As C's Down Suns in Phoenix



By Marc D'Amico |  @Marc_DAmico
Celtics.com


March 27, 2018



PHOENIX – If Draft night was Round 1, and Monday night was Round 2, Jayson Tatum is well on his way to a TKO of Josh Jackson.

Tatum, who was drafted one slot ahead of Jackson at No. 3 in June’s Draft, edged his rookie counterpart yet again Monday night by leading the Celtics to their fourth straight victory, 102-94 over Jackson’s Suns in Phoenix. Tatum led Boston with 23 points, a mark that tied Jackson for the game’s top total.

“He’s playing with a lot of confidence,” Al Horford said of Boston’s rookie forward, “but just making the game simple.”

Both players made it look simple on this night as they went back and forth throughout the contest.

Round 2 began from the opening tip, as the rookies combined to score 21 points during the first quarter. Jackson tallied 12 of Phoenix’s 15 points, while Tatum scored nine of Boston’s 31. They continued to throw jabs through the final quarter, before both players finished the game with 23 points., six rebounds and two steals.

Although Tatum and Jackson finished with identical numbers in three major categories, Tatum was the more efficient and more impactful player.

Tatum shot 55.6 percent from the field, 66.7 percent from 3-point range and made his only free throw. He also recorded his totals in only 32 minutes of action.

Jackson, meanwhile, needed more than 39 minutes of playing time to rack up his numbers while he shot 60.0 percent from the field, 33.3 percent from long distance and 44.4 percent from the free-throw line.

"I had fun watching it tonight," Horford said of the battle between the young and talented forwards.

Monday night was just the latest installment of what may be Tatum’s best offensive stretch as a rookie. He has now scored 23 points during three of his last five outings while averaging 18.8 points per game during that stretch. Boston went 4-1 during those five games, despite missing leading scorer Kyrie Irving, who missed his sixth straight game Monday night due to a left knee injury.

Without Irving, the Celtics are asking Tatum to take on more of a scoring load, and he is excelling in that role. However, as Brad Stevens said after Monday’s win, Tatum isn’t forcing the issue or playing outside of his strengths.

“It’s the same stuff,” Stevens said of Tatum’s recent play. “It’s just more of it, because he’s a guy that can score it efficiently for us.”

To Jackson’s credit, he has been scoring pretty efficiently for the Suns of late as well, and he did so again Monday night. However, Tatum edged Jackson by a hair in the true-shooting category – 62.4 percent to 60.7 percent.

As the numbers showcase, Tatum’s edging out of Jackson is becoming a trend within a friendship that dates back years. Tatum said Monday night that Jackson is “like family,” and that the two became close while playing together in the USA Basketball program.

“I’ve spent a lot of time with Josh,” Tatum said. “We played USA together, and we were away for like five and a half weeks, so we did that for like three summers in a row. So me and Josh are real close.”

In more ways than one.

They’re tight friends off the court, and competitive athletes on it who reveal little separation.

However, during the early goings of their tight battles as pros, it is Tatum who has narrowly taken the opening rounds.



bob
MY NOTE:  The talk was that Jackson's agent, former NBA player BJ Armstrong, didn't want him going to the Celtics because we had Jae Crowder and Jaylen Brown, who was thought to be a 3, in front of him and threw monkey-wrenches into every attempt by Danny to bring Jackson in for a workout.  VERY short-sighted of Armstrong, to say the least.  How many years has he known Danny, going back to their playing days, and he doesn't know you never use ink when writing up his roster?

Tatum isn't the athlete Jackson is, but his shooting from almost everywhere on the court (including the frito line) is much better.  Tatum is also learning how to win on a winning team that has multiple all-stars.  What value can you place upon having a mentor like Kyrie Irving?  Who is Jackson's mentor on that team?  


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Nothing wrong with each of these guys thinking that they are better than each other. Could be a nice personal rivalry over the years.

Both are very talented kids, and I bet that they would play well if together some day kind of like Tatum and Brown play well together now for the Cs.

Horford was the glue last night. Timely scoring by Morris and Tatum. Semi is a mystery to me. Will he ever make an attempt to join the offense? Larkin was sloppy and didn`t have his best defensive night. I think Brad`s  emphasis on 3s , which many don`t seem to like, has been a godsend to this size challenged team. On another note sad situation for IT. I guess he may never be the same.

jrleftfoot wrote:Horford was the glue last night. Timely scoring by Morris and Tatum. Semi is a mystery to me. Will he ever make an attempt to join the offense? Larkin was sloppy and didn`t have his best defensive night. I think Brad`s  emphasis on 3s , which many don`t seem to like, has been a godsend to this size challenged team. On another note sad situation for IT. I guess he may never be the same.

JR,

I've been wondering the same thing. I'm thinking that he is erring on the side of caution and sticking to what he knows he does well, that the coaches like and will get him on the floor, defense, and not do things that might get him pulled off like causing empty possessions because he's missing wide open shots.

He has been most effective, offensively, when he moves without the ball. When he stands in the corner and waits he has not, but when he makes cuts he is SO strong it's hard to stop him without fouling him. He just needs to do them more often. FORCE the defense to rotate, even a little bit, to pick him up and create opportunities for his teammates.


bob



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Tatum and Jackson are two talented young forwards.

Either would have been great in green. I think Boston got the better all-around talent.

One of the trends of the modern NBA is that players are a lot more friendly now than in previous generations of the Association. Can't remember the specifics but last night a Celtic went down and a Sun helped him up. I am seeing more and more of this and to say the least, it is a quite different way to approach the game. But the Suns announcer was clearly taking the old school approach in bemoaning this trend.

This is a different NBA. Players like Tatum and Jackson have developed friendships playing over the years in summer programs like AAU and USA Basketball. It can be a concern for those of us who learned the game in an era when this was taboo.

One of the things that I do like is that this friendship off the court has no bearing on what happens on the court. If anything, friendships could bring on a higher level of competition as they are doing with Jason and Josh.

As most of you know I'm one of those guys who only follows my team. But I like a lot of the pieces that the Suns are accumulating. Players like Jackson, Chriss and Ulis are difference makers and Bender is starting to learn the necessities of a higher level game. The dream of course is a Suns Celtics final where I get to all 3 games in The Valley Next To Hell, as the Celtics close it out. Yaneverknow

bobheckler wrote:

jrleftfoot wrote:Horford was the glue last night. Timely scoring by Morris and Tatum. Semi is a mystery to me. Will he ever make an attempt to join the offense? Larkin was sloppy and didn`t have his best defensive night. I think Brad`s  emphasis on 3s , which many don`t seem to like, has been a godsend to this size challenged team. On another note sad situation for IT. I guess he may never be the same.

JR,

I've been wondering the same thing.  I'm thinking that he is erring on the side of caution and sticking to what he knows he does well, that the coaches like and will get him on the floor, defense, and not do things that might get him pulled off like causing empty possessions because he's missing wide open shots.

He has been most effective, offensively, when he moves without the ball.  When he stands in the corner and waits he has not, but when he makes cuts he is SO strong it's hard to stop him without fouling him.  He just needs to do them more often.  FORCE the defense to rotate, even a little bit, to pick him up and create opportunities for his teammates.


bob



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You`re right, Bob. Semi scored some in college , so he must have a modicum of offensive game. I don`t know if he can handle the ball well enough to drive consistently, but there are guys who have made a living in the league cutting to the basket and playing D. Tony Allen comes to mind.

Being called an "athlete" is overrated in NBA circles IMO. Unless you are talking about someone elite like Russell Westbrook or something awkward like Mozgov, they are ALL great athletes. What they usually means is the player is a terrible shooter and isnt very cerebral / but hey, he is a good athlete.

To taking any player off the dribble with behind the back, between the legs, cross over and drill the three pointer - takes world class athletic ability. Tatum does that every night.

Jackson is not nearly as talented, not nearly as good a passer, not nearly as good a defender, not nearly as good a rebounder - and Tatum is doing it in games that matter every night.

I like the both, but lets not get it twisted.

mrkleen09 wrote:Being called an "athlete" is overrated in NBA circles IMO.  Unless you are talking about someone elite like Russell Westbrook or something awkward like Mozgov, they are ALL great athletes. What they usually means is the player is a terrible shooter and isnt very cerebral / but hey, he is a good athlete.

To taking any player off the dribble with behind the back, between the legs, cross over and drill the three pointer - takes world class athletic ability.  Tatum does that every night.

Jackson is not nearly as talented, not nearly as good a passer, not nearly as good a defender, not nearly as good a rebounder - and Tatum is doing it in games that matter every night.  

I like the both, but lets not get it twisted.

It seems to me that the "athletic" label means the player can jump, is explosive (can accelerate), is fast (high maximum velocity) and is strong. The thing that bothers me is that it seems to ignore what I call "body control", which is maybe just a fancy description of coordination. For example, nobody ever called Pierce 'athletic', but he had tremendous body control. His ability to hit tough off-balance shots resulted from that awareness of body position and the ability to react. Michael Jordan was obviously 'athletic' in the conventional sense of the word, but I would argue that it was his body control and awareness that made him truly great. Similar, Hakeem demonstrated tremendous body control to execute all his slippery post moves. Isn't coordination the ultimate athletocism? Similarly, isn't the ability to shoot well a type of athletiscism? It requires hand eye coordination and quickness. I also believe that players with great body control tend to get hurt less. somehow they instinctively figure out how to land and/or absorn contact in a stable way.

Also,I agree that the term somtetimes carries a negative connotation in regard to b-ball IQ and skill development....

NYCelt wrote:Tatum and Jackson are two talented young forwards.

Either would have been great in green. I think Boston got the better all-around talent.

I agree.  Both players are talented.  Tatum is longer and given those wide shoulders he will be able to add more strength.  Jackson is an unreliable shooter from deep.  Tatum will be a three position player.  Tatum was the better pick.