Jayson Tatum: Brady Stevens' bad lineup change to send message?

Jayson Tatum didn't score a single point in the first half of Game 4 for the Celtics, and it may be in part because of something Brad Stevens purposely did.

After winning Game 3 in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Boston Celtics looked terrible to start Game 4. It's hard to tell if they're fatigued or shrinking in the big moment, but the Celtics are not stepping up in with the same intensity as the Miami Heat. The second quarter of Game 4 was particularly bad; Jayson Tatum didn't score a single point in the first half.

On the daily Locked On Celtics Podcast, host John Karalis questioned why Brad Stevens started the second quarter with such a terrible lineup, suggesting that Stevens may have been sending a message to Tatum.

John Karalis: At the start of the second quarter, Brad Stevens threw out a lineup of Brad Wanamaker, Gordon Hayward, Jayson Tatum, Robert Williams, and Semi Ojeleye, and I thought, ‘What the hell is this lineup doing out there? It sucks.' The whole second quarter sucked. That was one of the worst stretches of basketball I've seen in my life.

I can only think of two reasons that Brad Stevens did that. One, he really wants to get some of his guys some rest and try to keep them fresh for a fourth-quarter run. I think Brad Stevens realizes that these guys are really getting fatigued quickly and they're running out of gas.

My other thought was that this lineup was designed to get Jason Tatum going, where Tatum knew that he had to be the primary scorer. They threw a lineup like this, Tatum and a bunch of bench guys, out there against the Sixers and it worked because everyone was doing their job. Jayson Tatum realized, ‘Okay, I'm the scorer now.' I think it might have been Brad Stevens saying, ‘We need something to get him going.' If we don't give him anybody to pass to and he has to be the guy to go out there and do all the scoring, then maybe he can be aggressive and get to the rim.

That's my only thought on that lineup. Why else would he throw that lineup out there other than to preserve some minutes? I think you could have done it with a better lineup than that. I have to believe that Brad Stevens was trying to get something out of Jayson Tatum there, it didn't work. It didn't work in the first half, but Tatum woke up in the second half. It still wasn't enough. It just wasn't enough by that time.