The Boston Celtics 125-119 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday night was likely a closer contest than the team would have liked given that the Sixers were without Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey, but a win is a win, and the Celtics pushed their record to an NBA-best 15-4. Of course, Jayson Tatum getting ejected at the end of the third quarter didn't help Boston, but even before then, he was having a difficult game thanks to his desire to continually turn the ball over.
On the surface, Tatum was having a strong game (21 PTS, 7 REB, 4 AST, 6/9 FGM) prior to his ejection, but a closer look shows that he had turned the ball over a whooping seven times through just three quarters of action. This continues a concerning trend of high-turnover games for Tatum, but his head coach Joe Mazzulla isn't concerned with his recent struggles in.
Via Bobby Manning:
“Joe Mazzulla on Tatum's turnovers: ‘(Playmaking is) something he works on all the time, so I'm not concerned about it.'”
Celtics continuing to lean on Jayson Tatum for playmaking despite turnovers
Tatum has had a really strong start to the season for the Celtics, but he's averaging the most turnovers per game of his career (3.4) and has now recorded at least four turnovers in each of his last three games. Tatum is continuing to try to take on a bigger playmaking role as the leader of this offense, but team's are having success when it comes to putting pressure on him and forcing him to make quick decisions.
Boston has been good enough to overcome these free possessions that Tatum is handing their opponents, but it's definitely an issue that needs to be remedied moving forward. Mazzulla is of the belief that it's just a blip on the radar, and Tatum will try to get back on track when the C's face off against the Indiana Pacers in the In-Season Tournament quarterfinals.
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