Jayson Tatum is in a rut, and he certainly needs to address his shooting woes if the Boston Celtics want any shot (no pun intended) at making the playoffs this 2021-22.
The Celtics lost their second straight game and fifth in the last 10 games on Friday against the Damian Lillard-less Portland Trail Blazers. They were ahead by 11 points with seven minutes left to play in the fourth quarter, but they were unable to score after that and allowed the Blazers to come back and pull of a huge 109-105 win.
The Celtics were leading by 11 points with 7 minutes left.
They didn’t score a basket the rest of the way…
Against a team with the 3rd worst defense in the league. pic.twitter.com/grO5KFnyUy
— StatMuse (@statmuse) January 22, 2022
While it is definitely a collective responsibility, it is hard not to notice Jayson Tatum's rather poor showing. While he did score 27 points and recorded 10 rebounds and seven assists, his 3-point shooting is rather concerning. Against the Blazers, he failed to make any of his six attempts from beyond the arc.
Tatum had a chance to put the Celtics up by two late in the game, but he missed his triple–which was his 20th straight 3-point miss. Adding more to the issue, the 23-year-old forward has now failed to make a triple for the third straight game.
Jayson Tatum’s 3-point shot had defied him all year. The Celtics say they aren’t worried about it. But helping him find it would go a long way towards curing some of what ails this team.
✳️ https://t.co/Ienc8SVJco pic.twitter.com/T83PWAhbPN
— Chris Forsberg (@ChrisForsberg_) January 21, 2022
Head coach Ime Udoka and the rest of Boston have expressed their confidence about Tatum and his ability to get out of his recent slump. Nonetheless, with the team at 23-24 and barely hanging on the 10th seed for the play-in, Tatum clearly needs to find a solution sooner rather than later–when it is all but too late to even stage a comeback.
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