When Tatum stood in front of the Detroit Pistons' bench and made a three-threatening move in the bottom corner, Jerome Allen realized that the big one was coming.
Allen, 49, is now an assistant to Devin Casey and spent six years in Boston before coming to Motor City. At the time he was Brad Stevens' assistant, and his main job was to observe and train Tatum every day. He wrote on the scouting report that the moment Tatum catches the ball, you have to cling to him and don't give him a chance to show his dry jumper. But in that moment, Allen knew it wasn't enough, and he could tell from Tatum's body language that Tatum was going to do the ball himself. Although the 211-centimeter-tall Jaylen Durham was half a step in front of Tatum, Allen did not feel safe, so he began to wave wildly to every Pistons player in his field of vision.
"Wrap him up! Wrap him up! ”
Bojan Bogdanovic rushed over, but before the clip could form, Tatum had already thrown the ball with Duren's 227cm long arm. The basketball hit the net, and the gap widened to 9 points with 5:43 left in the fourth quarter. Tatum turned to look at Arun as he backed off. Aren saw strangeness in that look. He had only been away from Boston for two years, but Tatum's progress in two years had become so great that he couldn't understand it.
"My skills are constantly growing. This year, last year, the year before last, every year I am improving. Tatum told NBC Sports' "White Mamba" Scannabryan, "I put a lot of time and struggle into pushing myself forward every year. I'm constantly learning from it, and every game I play, I learn something from it. ”
He scored 77 points in two recent back-to-back nights, and was as unstoppable as any other game this season, from shooting to defense to grabbing rebounds to organizing offense, he did everything you could or couldn't do. So the lack of three important rotation players for the Celtics doesn't seem that important in this game against the Pistons.
It doesn't matter without Jaylen Brown to share the scoring load, without Brogdon to launch the offense, without Al Horford to cover and respond. Tatum will strike. He shot 14-of-28 from the field and had 43 points and 10 rebounds. The Celtics defeated the Detroit Pistons 117-108 under his leadership, snapping a six-game winning streak.
The Celtics changed a rookie head coach in the offseason, and Robert Williams, the core of the system, will miss at least 8 to 12 weeks due to injury, and most predict some setbacks at the start of the new season. But now the Celtics are tied for first place in the league with 10 wins like the Bucks and Jazz.
This is an achievement that many people can hardly imagine. What's even more unimaginable is how they got it: This season, the Celtics ranked only 23rd in the league in defensive efficiency and No. 1 in offensive efficiency in the league (the Celtics' 119.4 per 100 rounds and the second-place Jazz 115.6).
Celtic's new coach Mazura says he's a coach who "loves math." I think he should be talking about Yue Yunpeng mathematics, focusing on a "three points, you are one point more than two". The Celtics are averaging 40.5 three-pointers per game this season, shooting 39.1 percent from the field second-highest in the league. This is not a traditional team that wins on three-point production, because their three-point efficiency is equally amazing. In the last game, they scored 131 points against the Nuggets, who shot first in the league from three-point range, shooting 55.6% and 43.2% three-pointers, proving that they are currently the most terrifying offensive team in the NBA. In the game against the Knicks before that, they shot the most 27 three-pointers in team history. When Sam Hauser, Pritchard and Vonley were all firing arrows from the outside, the Celtics looked invincible.
Veteran Horford believes that the team's offensive improvement comes mainly from the maturity and good space of the stars: "I think Jason (Tatum), Jaylen (Brown) and Marcus (Smart) have improved their understanding of basketball. The three of them drive the offense and give us a chance to hit the basket, while at the same time we equip them with enough shooters on the court to have an open three-pointer as long as the opponent contracts. ”
Of course, the biggest improvement is mainly Tatum. During the Stevens era, the Celtics were trying to develop Tatum into the league's most fashionable ball forward, and it seemed to be working moderately at the time. But those teachings also seem to have subtly changed Tatum. The Celtics' star striker knows better than anyone that his role on the team now means he can't think about scoring every time he touches the ball. Now he's learning to control the game better than ever, starting with every pass, every decision.
Horford has seen this progress. He saw Tatum being drafted at a time when the Celtics already had Irving and Hayward, and Tatum was seen as a complementary role player. He watched Tatum struggle in the league as a rookie, gradually building his way of playing during his short playing time and unclear role at the beginning. Then last year, he returned to Boston and found that his teammate had become a striker, a potential MVP candidate.
"I feel like he's getting to know himself better." Horford said. "He knows when he's going to score and when he's going to pass. His ability to read games is getting stronger and stronger, and things will always happen on the basketball court that you can't predict, but he has enough ability to make the right adjustments in any situation. ”
That adjustment came not only from Tatum's passing, but also from his free throws. Earlier in his career, whenever Tatum couldn't find his touch, he would always play an ugly game. But it's different now. In the game against the Bulls, although he shot 8 of 23 from the field, he made 20 free throws and scored 36 points to secure the team's victory. In the Grizzlies' subsequent games, he shot just 5 of his first 17, but he hit the basket more after that, making 16 free throws and shooting 7-of-8 from the basket to score 39 points to lead the team to victory.
In the past, Tatum would be like a ship sailing in the dark, scurrying headlong into defensive traps until he heard a whistle. But more often than not, he encountered a defensive rebound or a steal. But over the course of the season, he's improved significantly in that regard. He plays smarter more often than not, making free throws through his excellent shooting threat and strong upper limbs — rather than waiting for free throws to come to him.
"I think Jason is very good at creating space for himself. And once he gets the space, he has the opportunity to find the angle of the shot, and once he finds the angle of the shot, he can make contact more easily," Mazura said. "He's doing a great job in that."
Over the past few years, Tatum has embraced this pragmatic basketball. You can occasionally see the shadow of the dry artist in him, but he is learning to become a sharper weapon. So far this season, Tatum is averaging 32.3 points per game, second only to Doncic and Curry in the league, shooting 68.8 percent from the basket and making 8.9 free throws per game. The 24-year-old is now more than ever able to seize easy scoring opportunities and find ways to break up opposing defenses.
An athlete who averages 32.3 points, 7.2 rebounds, 4.1 assists and more than 175 three-way shooting percentage will be a strong contender for MVP in most seasons, but in this era of dominance, Tatum's performance is still a little short to knock on the door of MVP based on current performance. Doncic has more outrageous statistics, Alphabet has more terrifying dominance, Curry has more amazing individual performances, and Tatum must show his best self every night and keep improving to have a chance to compete with them and even get ahead.
The task seems nearly impossible, but Celtics fans have something to be optimistic about: Tatum has already given a perfect answer in the first sixth of the schedule before people focus on him. The Celestial Champion, who led the team to the finals last year, is playing the best season of his career.
But do good things, don't ask about the future.