First of all, congratulations to the Celtics for successfully advancing to the second round.
In the first round of G4, the Celtics defeated the Nets 116-112, eliminating the opponent by a large score of 4-0, the Celtics were not behind the whole time, although they were almost caught up several times, but several times they opened the point difference again, and finally won the victory without any danger, sweeping the opponent to advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals.
In this game, Tatum once again delivered a good performance, he scored 12 points in the third quarter, played 36 minutes, shot 9 of 16, 4 of 6 from three points, 7 of 8 from the free throw line, had 29 points, 3 rebounds and 5 assists, and had a plus-minus of +10 on the field, the highest in the team.
It is worth mentioning that Tatum only played a total of 4 minutes after being plagued by fouls in the fourth quarter, and left the field with six fouls before the remaining 3 minutes of the game, but his last two fouls were controversial:
— For the fifth foul, Tatum broke through with the ball, knocked down Griffin, the referee blew off an offensive foul, and then Uduka applied for a challenge, but the challenge failed.
If the fifth offender is excusable, after all, Tatum did hit Griffin's elbow, then the sixth offender is really inexplicable:
- Smart's serve from the sideline, Tatum fell to the ground at the same time as Dragic when he received the ball, the referee blew Tatum's offensive foul again, and he also received his sixth foul and had to go off.
We're generally reluctant to talk about whistles, but half of Tatum's six fouls today were offensive fouls, which is pretty abnormal — it's well known that when a referee wants to take control, the best thing to do is blow an offensive foul, and today's lineup of referees is Foster, who is also the league's more well-known "possession-specific" referee.
Penalties aside, Tatum's performance in this series was really outstanding:
- G1, 31 points, 4 rebounds and 8 assists, and finally the whistle was killed
- G2, 19 points, 6 rebounds and 10 assists, and hit the key goal in the last quarter
G3, 39 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 6 steals, 27 points in the second half
- G4, 29 points, 3 rebounds and 5 assists, 12 points in the third quarter
In four games, he averaged 29.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game, ranking sixth in the league in scoring and fifth in the league in assists, shooting 45.6%/41.9%/86.8% of the three shots and 61.6% of the true shooting rate.
In addition to the steady output on the offensive end, Tatum on the defensive end also performed well, especially in direct conversations with Durant - according to ESPN statistics, Durant shot only 4 of 17 against Tatum's defense in this series, scoring a total of 15 points, including 1 of 6 three-pointers and 9 turnovers.
After the third game, Pierce once said on social media: "I think Tatum is about to overtake Durant in front of us. ”
Obviously, Durant's career achievements are higher and more honors, but as far as this series is concerned, comprehensive attack and defense, Tatum is indeed the better of the two, not only that, for the 16 teams in this year's playoffs, Tatum is the first small forward, and even the first person in the first round.
Of course, it is a little too early to "kill", after all, this is the first round, but this year's Celtics really can't underestimate it - since February, the Celtics' offensive and defensive efficiency is 117.9 and 105.2, and the net victory over opponents in 100 rounds is 12.7 points, and the above three figures are ranked second, first and first in the league.
Interestingly, the Celtics could have avoided the Nets before the playoffs began, when they could fall to third place in the East to play the Bulls if they deliberately lost to the Grizzlies in the final game of the regular season, but the Celtics did not choose to do this - no opponents, who did it, and the final result proved that the Celtics were indeed a better team.
Finally, back to Tatum, it may be too early to talk about "taking the torch", after all, James and Durant are still at the top, but, look at this year's playoffs, young people are really starting to rise, Tatum, as one of the brightest stars, is really expected to become the next façade-level figure, this year, will be Tatum year?